MovieChat Forums > Fargo (1996) Discussion > Why is this film great?

Why is this film great?

posted 9 years ago by cartesianthought
21 replies | jump to latest

It's a good film, no doubt. It certainly captivated my interest from the beginning, but it never amazed me. But what elements about it do you think qualifies it for being in the top 100 or so films of all time.

I asked several fans of it. Is it the plot? The dialogue? Is it the fact that the detective is often incompetent and unprofessional? The heavy Midwestern accents? And I usually get the same response: "Oh, it's a Coen Bros film" or "Oh, it's a comedy" without much other elaboration.

[–] marousha_n 8 years ago

It's the best black comedy I have ever seen. Insanely funny and very well acted, with equally awesome characters and a really crazy and very inspired story.

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[–] janet-conant 8 years ago

I have had my 10 top movies of all time for a long time and then I saw Fargo. It had to be added to my list and was close to #1. Fabulous film.

[–] Robbmonster 8 years ago

Out of interest, why do you think the 'detective' (I assume you mean Marge Gunderson) is incompetent? Seemed to me she was a very bright, effective cop.

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[–] curlymst3000 8 years ago

Marge is the most intelligent character in the film, by far. We listen to how she speaks and might think otherwise, but she is a great detective and remains unfazed by everything that happens to her in the film, especially after watching a man put another into a woodchipper. She really is quite an astounding character, a well-deserved Oscar for Frances McDormand.

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 8 years ago

Marge is the most intelligent character in the film, by far. We listen to how she speaks and might think otherwise, but she is a great detective and remains unfazed by everything that happens to her in the film, especially after watching a man put another into a woodchipper. She really is quite an astounding character, a well-deserved Oscar for Frances McDormand.

This. She was great.

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[–] PrimeMinisterOfTheSinister 8 years ago

"Oh, it's a Coen Bros film"

That's pretty much it. It's not a bad movie by any means, but, really, if anyone else but them or Quentin Tarantino had made it, it wouldn't be considered such a masterpiece. It's OK. To critics and film snobs, the name of the director is more important that the actual movie.

[–] jaseace 8 years ago

Why is the sky blue? Why is grass green?

[–] stevenackerman69 8 years ago

I think because it tries to do so many things at once and not just be one thing. You also have characters that seem real and understand their motivations. I certainly felt bad for Jerry and how his life was terrible, living under the thumb of his *beep* father in law. It also was really about how people talk and think. A lot of films don't do that.

[–] benaven 7 years ago

I first saw this film back in 2008 & when I joined IMDb (Jan 2011) I scored it as a 7, based on my memory of it. i.e. I scored it as a 'good' film, but not a 'great' one. Watched it again last night & was very interested to see how I'd score it, knowing of the high regard in which it's held. I'm going to stick with my score of 7.

I really enjoyed it, but for me it doesn't cross that line between very good & great. My favourite Coen brothers' film would be the brilliant True Grit & I preferred The Big Lebowski to this as well. That film has the same black humour, the same inept criminal element etc, so although they are totally different films, for me that one did a better job of it. TBL got an 8 from me, True Grit, a 9.

Out of interest, as scoring in so difficult, I've noticed that the films at the bottom of the Top 250 list score ~ 8.0, so I give a film an 8 if I think it might be good enough to make it onto my own personal Top 250 list. As drawing up such a list would be fairly close to impossible, I've scored far more than 250 films as an 8 or higher, but I have to start somewhere!