Why is this film great?
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crgilbert7 — 10 years ago(October 20, 2015 03:49 PM)
Exactly. Whether a movie is amazing is dependent on the opinion of the viewer. Every person in this world has a different upbringing, a different perspective on life. Films/art, are for the most part subjective. Personally, I love Fargo. I've seen well over 1000 movies. Probably close to 1,500. Fargo is in my top 25. It's epic.
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NewbridgeNJ — 10 years ago(October 23, 2015 09:05 AM)
In my opinion, the film is magnificent. It is an original piece of art that has everything. It is funny, violent, beautifully shot, and very original while maintaining a film noir style. I have seen it multiple times and always find something new.
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Timberwolf0530 — 10 years ago(October 23, 2015 09:34 AM)
"great" is a term that implies subjectivity. In films, what is great to me may be terrible to you, and vice versa. I think a film is considered great if large portion of the population think it is. Example, I feel The Godfather, and Godfather II are the greatest films ever made. Some feel Citizen Cane is, some feel The Shawshank Redemption is, some feel The Dark Knight is, and some even feel Dumb and Dumber is. It's just A LOT more people think The Godfather movies are great than do Dumb and Dumber. I personally like Shawshank, but I don't love it, and I couldn't even sit through The Dark Knight. Not to say it's bad, for what ever reason, I just didn't like it. I love Fargo, and think it is one of the best films ever. What makes it great to me? It's well written and directed, the cinematography conveys a sense of real bleakness that fits the story perfectly, it's suspenseful, has good drama, it's well acted, the humor is brilliant, and the Cohen brothers tricked the entire country into thinking it was a true story. In fact, bits and pieces were taken from real events, but the story itself was a work of fiction. It may be great to someone else for entirely different reasons. For whatever reason, this film just struck a cord with me, and has become one of my all time favorites. It's fine if it's not great to you, but it is also fine if IS great to me. Too many people, and I am not saying you fall into this category, think just because they don't like something, that everyone who does is wrong. You just cannot judge film greatness in absolute terms.
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cyninbend-149-610489 — 9 years ago(April 19, 2016 11:26 PM)
Fargo is in my top 5 movies as well. For the same reasons people mention here: characters, story, humor, cinematography, mood, and humor. No other movie is anything like Fargo. And the action was completely surpring! As for those who need to tell everyone they hate it and try to lower the rating by giving it a ridiculous score like a 2, I think they desperately want to be different, disagreeablemake people angry or frustrated. An immaturity thing. They never cite reasons that show any particular knowledge of movies, and they don't have detailed reasons for disliking particular movies. They just don't like itwhich is fine, but the venom is bizarre. Who looks for things to hate?
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Elder_Yautija — 10 years ago(November 25, 2015 01:27 AM)
It's a top movie on imdb. That don't make it universal, so don't sweat it.
I personally like it a lot and would probably be in my own top 100 (if I cared to have one), but I don't expect everyone else to love it. Just like the vast majority of imdb users who love The Empire Strikes Back shouldn't expect me to like that movie. Which I don't. Is it still a great film? Probably so. Just not for me. -
quantupulo — 10 years ago(December 17, 2015 01:45 AM)
Unfortunately, this is one of those films where the greatness depends largely on how much the viewer resonates with the themes, and their personal traits and tastes in film, etc. I've seen many thrillers, but none that made me laugh like this one (I'm a fan of dark and wacky comedies). It basically combines my favorite genres into one film, and successfully too. The resonant overall message ("there's more to life than a bit of money") and production design only adds to it. I am an artist, and the wintery atmosphere was a large part of what attracted me to the film in the first place. There were numerous shots that I found aesthetically appealing. I guess people who found it boring couldn't see past the superficial aspects, or didn't find anything funny.
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KocaMetallec — 10 years ago(January 12, 2016 06:27 PM)
This thread show how people is different and have different taste.
Fargo is by far one of the junkiest movies I ever watched. Along with the Boyhood.
And yea, I watched near 600 movies.
I didn't like the actors, characters, plot, ending, acting, mood, reactions
Only good thing i find in this movie is nothing. -
marousha_n — 10 years ago(January 25, 2016 06:23 PM)
The number of movies that you have watched is not a barometer for your good taste. You seem to have a special hatred for every movie that is close to a black comedy or is different. You rated all of them with 2. I would say you have a problem understanding good humour. And that will not change even if you watch 1000 more movies. Too bad, you're the one losing all the fun.
"Relics of ancient times. Lonely cenotaphs. Standing along that melancholy tideland." -
marousha_n — 10 years ago(January 25, 2016 06:17 PM)
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.
"Relics of ancient times. Lonely cenotaphs. Standing along that melancholy tideland." -
Robbmonster — 10 years ago(March 15, 2016 08:53 AM)
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.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds -
curlymst3000 — 9 years ago(April 26, 2016 11:41 AM)
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.
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koffeenkreame41-1 — 9 years ago(October 05, 2016 06:59 PM)
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.
"I'm the ultimate badass,you do NOT wanna f-ck wit me!"Hudson,Aliens -
PrimeMinisterOfTheSinister — 9 years ago(May 21, 2016 09:48 PM)
"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. -
stevenackerman69 — 9 years ago(July 03, 2016 08:24 AM)
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.
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benaven — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 10:43 PM)
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!