NEW ULM — Ya sure, ya betcha, the New Ulm Film Society will be screening “Fargo” as the next installment in its Coen Brother’s Film series.

The screening starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13 at the New Ulm Public Library.

“Fargo” is a 1996 crime drama and it is a heck of an influential film, widely considered to be one of the best films made by Joel and Ethan brothers, and one of the most difficult films to classify in terms of genre. Is “Fargo” a comedy, drama, noir or horror film?

The film is about a car salesman who hires two men to kidnap his wife in hopes his father-in-law will pay the ransom. However, one crime leads to another and soon local law enforcement is on their trail. In an inspired twist, the Sheriff investigating these crimes is Sheriff Marge Gunderson, a very pregnant police officer played by Frances McDormand.

Fargo was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning Best Screenplay and Best Actress for McDormand, but in terms of the impact the film might be most famous for popularizing the Northern City’s vowel shift accent, sometimes called the “Minnesota nice” accent. Almost immediately after the film was released, “Fargo” became intertwined with the regional accent.

Despite the film being named after a North Dakota city, most of the film is set in Minnesota and was filmed around the Twin Cities metro area. The Minnesota setting is more than a backdrop to the movie, it is almost another character. The Coen’s made the unheard of decision to write the characters speaking in a Minnesota dialect.

As a Minnesota native, the Coen’s wanted the script to have a strong regional sound. For this reason, nearly every line spoken in the film was scripted with no ad-libbing. Even scenes where characters stutter or appear or mispronounce a word were part of the script. Filler words that are usually edited out of spoken dialogue were added. The word “yeah” appeared in the shooting script 179 times.

The effect of emphasizing — and in some cases exaggerating — the Minnesota accent is to make it one of the funniest sounding films. This creates something of conflict, because “Fargo” is not technically a comedy. In terms of plot, the movie should be classified as a noir crime drama, but because of the absurdity of the language, the audience is laughing in some extremely bleak scenarios.

“Fargo” might sound like a comedy, but it looks like a horror story. The film’s cinematographer, Roger Deakins, said one of the goals was to shoot the film to look as bleak as possible. Nearly every exterior scene was filmed during overcast. Deakins wanted to avoid a sunny appearance whenever possible.

“Fargo” also does not shy away from showing the darker side of human nature. Several acts of extreme violence are committed throughout the film, including a bloody wood chipper sequence.

“Fargo” does not fit neatly into any single category. Audiences watching the movie will be hit with a wide range of emotions, making it one of the most memorable films of the last 30 years, and has been imitated by other directors.

The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13, in the New Ulm Public Library meeting room. The film screening is free to the public. Members of the New Ulm Film Society will be on hand to discuss the film and cultural impact, doncha know.