What struck me most in reading this script was the violence. The Coen brothers were ahead of their time with the easy, what-the-heck killings, yet the violence isn't the centerpiece as it is now with critically acclaimed TV. Crumbling, bumbling people end lives without a moment's thought, then go on about their way. Marge captures the killers without dramatic heroics, taking time to check out a buffet meal and noticing the reasonable cost with the same acceptance as she handles the investigation. It was frightening and comforting at the same time, and that's not easy to pull off. I remember seeing the movie when it was first released and the Coens weren't yet household names. Within the first five minutes I thought this could only have been directed by the writers. It was quirky yet it was working, and I didn't think that could have happened if too many visions had been colliding for dominance. Could the script stand alone in the current market? It's easy to see how brilliant it is after it's been produced successfully and made such a mark in the history of filmmaking, but what about now? What if the Coen brothers were two little guys hammering out screenplays in their basement and sending them off to market? Do we have the time and patience to dig for subtle black comedy, or has it become spectacle or nothing? Identifying the nemesis and protagonist as you have shakes things up quite a bit, as does the theme/symbol/motif of snow. I'd thought of those elements as defining the sub-culture of the events and how bizarre they can be (Scandinavians can be an odd lot), but this opens a whole new vista of possibilities.