This is a great point that Also is a stark contrast with the first season of the TV show, which does have an almost supernatural villain.
Spoilers please!
I just recorded Fargo again to watch it for the umpteenth time. As a Minnesotan it ranks right up there almost as a documentary. I’m going to watch it again right after I watch Juno, another great Minnesota documentary. The accents are a bit extreme, but as I travel across the state (goin’ up-nort’ to the lake this weekend) there are places where parts of the accent show up. It just feels real, except no one in Minnesota would ever be so mean as to commit murder or kidnap someone. Beyond the story, there are real houses, real streets, real drive-through to the Arby’s, which makes watching it so relatable to me.
Here are the ratings on the standard online databases for the three films you mention in the OP:
Fargo (8.1 on the IMDb, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 85% on Metacritic)
The Big Lebowski (8.2 on the IMDb, 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, 69 on Metacritic)
No Country for Old Men (8.1 on the IMDb, 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 91 on Metacritic)
In case you don’t know, the IMDb is based on the votes of hundreds of thousands of dedicated movie fans, Rotten Tomatoes is based on the reviews of a few hundred film critics, and Metacritic is based on the reviews of dozens of top critics. You can see that film fans tend to prefer The Big Lebowski slightly over Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Fargo and No Country for Old Men are liked better by critics, and top critics particularly like No Country for Old Men. So I think you’re basing your claim in the OP that “many people say” that Fargo is “one of the greatest movies ever made, or it’s the best Coen Brothers movie” as opposed to The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men on just a limited amount of personal evidence about what you’ve heard. No Country for Old Men is certainly better rated by critics. The Big Lebowski has a huge amount of hardcore cult fans, so much so that there has been conventions dedicated to it.
I would say the score by Carter Burwell is also great.
Years ago I had the thought that, although lots of movies have a higher body count than Fargo–sometimes way higher–every single death in Fargo tends to really hit you, precisely because it isn’t just “the good guys mowing down countless faceless enemy mooks” (and then tossing off another one-liner) or “yet another horny teenager gets it in the neck”. All the characters (and their at times pretty gruesome deaths) are all ordinary and pretty believable.
(And yet, it’s also often a really, really funny movie. In a very, very dark way.)
Last winter, my wife and I re-watched every Cohen Brothers movie and ranked them. We ranked Fargo second after the Big Lebowski. I think what makes the movie great is a) the acting, which is amazing, there are these quite moments between characters that wouldn’t even register with lesser actors; b) the writing is crisp and funny in places without lessening the impact of the real horror of the crimes committed; and c) from the minute you start watching it, you are completely in, they have created an entirely believable world that never once breaks down.
I guess you could say “a limited amount of personal evidence,” but OP was also based on some other movie based message boards, and also THIS THREAD
In that poll, Fargo took No Country For Old Men and stuffed it in the wood chipper. 
But in all seriousness, some excellent analysis and comments so far - I never really noticed the contrasts before, and reading about how Marge’s meeting with Liar Boy is what prompted her second interview with Jerry really made the light bulb go off.
Good stuff people, keep it coming please.
While the TV show alleges that it is based on the movie, it incorporates elements from other Coen Brothers movies as well. Malvo has much more in common with the villain from No Country for Old Men, Anton Chigurh, than any character from the movie Fargo. (Malvo is Mephistopheles, while Chigurh is Death.) Likewise other characters resonate with those from other movies.
As others have said it is the juxtaposition, first between the happy and competent Marge Gunderson and the hapless and miserable criminals. It is also the juxtaposition in tone between the awful events of murder and mayhem and the sunny attitude of Marge. The comic accents and ways of all locals are contrasted by the brutality of the violence. In juxtaposing all of these things each is heightened, it is a funny movie with no jokes, and a violent movie without a huge amount of gore. It is also a very realistic story about how a small crime leads to the murder of five people and the ruination of several more. There is no point in the movie where a character acts in a way that is unrealistic given their characters and motivations. Plus all of the performances are great.
I mean, just look at Steve Buscemi; you totally believe that the hooker genuinely can’t come up with a better description of the little guy than “kinda funny-lookin’.”
(“Ya know, just in a general kind of way.”)
No Country for Old Men is an excellent movie, but it’s too dark for me to want to watch very often. In contrast, I’ll watch Fargo and especially The Big Lebowski anytime they’re on.
This is a great point. Jerry is a miserable failure who can’t measure up to his father in law. So he pulls some scam, but it doesn’t work, and now he needs a bigger scam to cover his little scam. It’s easy to imagine another Jerry in the exact same position who just accepts his pretty decent life. But Jerry can’t handle that, because he’s constantly being reminded of how second-rate he is.
And so given the small scam everything else plays out in logical steps that leads to disaster and more disaster.
I grew up in Minnesota, but hadn’t spent much time there in about 15 years when Fargo came out. People knew that I was from Minnesota, so they asked about the accent. I said that it was a big exaggeration of the Minnesota accent. A while later, I went back to Minnesota to see family, and holy hell was I surprised. It was not much of an exaggeration, as everyone that I heard sounded really similar to Fargo.
Around the time that Fargo came out, I saw Lea Thompson on a talk show. She is originally from Minnesota, and she related a story about the movie. She said that she was talking on the phone with family still living in Minnesota, and they were talking about the movie. Then she gave her best Minnesota accent, quoting the family member saying “ooh, but we don’t really talk like that up here.”
I visited Minnesota several years ago, and was extremely disappointed to hear everyone talking with a standard accent. On the last day, I went to the movies, and the young woman working the ticket booth had a perfect Fargo accent. She really made my trip worthwhile.
Very well put. Especially the line I bolded.
Good point. Jerry has to qualify as one of the world’s worst crooks, while loveable, slightly goofy, uber-pregnant Marge is in fact a very good cop. The most competent person in the film. She’s even a helluva good shot. But both characters still entirely believable.
Watched it on IFC tonight.
That accent was just fucking TEDIOUS!
The movie sucks because it is a bad caricature. And that distracts and undermines the whole weak-ass plot.
I shouldn’t have watched it.
Include me among those who consider Fargo the best Coen Brothers film of all, and one of the very greatest films ever. Dialog is the most important aspect of a film for me. Can anyone name a film with better dialog? (Please do: I’ll watch it!) Beyond that, I’ll just quote a few of the several excellent responses:
As puddleglum and others mention, it’s the juxtaposition. But it’s also the little illuminating touches.
Jerry has just come out of the meeting with his father-in-law, and found out that his deal is not going to make him rich. And his increasing frustration with the windshield scraper builds and builds. And we all remember times in our lives when nothing is going right.
Or the times where the characters reveal either their love, or their contempt, for each other. Marge’s genuine pride when her husband’s painting gets put on the fifteen-cent stamp - she is not humoring him, she really loves him and is looking forward to bearing his child. Versus the cutting cruelty of Wade the father-in-law towards the son-in-law he regards with contempt -
This is really true. And Marge sums that up -
Regards,
Shodan
PS - Go Bears!
I live in Minnesota.
Do you remember that Asian guy who lies to Marge about the death of his wife? He sounds exactly like my son. Who is Asian.
Geez!
Regards,
Shodan
Here are some of the things I love about Fargo (warning: spoilers ahead):
Cinematography. I once heard someone say that Fargo isn’t a color movie - it’s not even a black-and-white movie. It’s a white movie. Some memorable scenes include the opening shot (in which we gradually see an oncoming car emerge from a totally white screen), the overhead shot of Jerry going back to his car after his failed meeting with Wade and Stan, the witnesses fleeing from Gaear across the snow (mirrored later by the shot of Gaear fleeing from Marge).
Music. The score by Carter Burwell fits the mood of the movie perfectly, and makes good listening by itself (unlike a lot of movie music).
Characters. Marge is not a typical movie hero, and Jerry isn’t a typical villain. Marge is that, despite initial appearances, is the smartest character in the movie. Rather than being some sort of supervillain, Jerry is a schmuck whose main personality characteristic is doggedness: he keeps plodding forward no matter what, even when it would make sense to change direction. Carl is another schmuck who’s his own worst enemy (he gets himself killed over a few thousand dollars when he has a million in cash stowed away).
Themes. As others have noted, much of the movie is about domesticity versus greed. Marge and Norm have happy, normal life, while Jerry, Carl and Gaear are selfish, greedy bastards. This certainly isn’t unique in the history of storytelling (The Thin Man covers some of the same ground), but Fargo does a very good job with it.
Humor. A lot of the movie is very funny. Marge’s interview of the two prostitutes still makes me laugh.
One common misanthropic thread in all Coen Brothers movies is that the characters are driven by some internal motivation, and they are unable to have the self awareness to stop and ask themselves what they are doing and why.
So you have guys like Jerry, who try to pull off a small con, and get into more and more trouble. Or guys like Wade, the hard-charging businessman who can’t stop himself from insulting his son in law and who’s insistence on being in charge leads to his death. Or Mike Yanagita, obviously. Or Carl the small time crook. These characters are trapped by their own nature and inability to change or grow or learn, and so they come to disaster.
The exception in Fargo is Marge. It’s easy to imagine a slightly different version of Fargo, where Marge’s faults lead her to disaster. One where with her “You Betcha” small town experiences make her unable to handle the murderous criminals that she faces, and she ends up dead because of it, and it would be her own fault for not understanding what is right in front of her face.
And there are plenty of Coen Brothers movies where this happens, that are pure tragedies because the characters can’t stop themselves from marching to their own doom, and bringing misery–intentionally or unintentionally–to those around them.
But in Fargo, Marge succeeds. And not because she’s brilliant or introspective. She just plugs away at her job and manages it. And she never does anything cruel. Sure, she’s small town, provincial, not that bright, not that interesting. The other characters in the movie are so wrapped up in their own scripts that they don’t care what happens to other people. But Marge is a decent human being, and that’s what redeems her.