The Big Lebowski (1998)
Hey man, here’s the story. There’s this dude, calls himself The Dude (Jeff Bridges) who has made a living out of doing nothing. A product of the 60’s, this genuine slacker never takes off his robe, lives in a crappy apartment, and exists to go ten pin bowling with his pals. When a case of mistaken identity sends him on a desperate search to retrieve his much-loved rug, Lebowski ends up being a mule for a rich guy with the same name, who gives him the job of exchanging the ransom money for his kidnapped trophy wife.
Hang on dude, because that’s just
the first twenty minutes. Things get wierder from here, as a cavalcade of
colourful characters are introduced, all centreing around Lebowski and his job,
as well as trying to understand and deal with his inept awareness of anything going
on around him.
The Coen
Brothers – Joel and Ethan – broke into the film scene with their first feature
as writers/directors “Blood Simple”, in 1984. Since then, they have kept to
their corner of the sandbox, and created one bonafide original after another
(see Fargo already explored in this series of reviews). Whereas that film was
dark and moody, The Big Lebowski is as zany and off-colour as you can get, and
certainly showed another creative branch from the Coen Brother’s tree of
genius. Your guess is as good as anybody else’s, as to where exactly these
out-the-box movie makers get their ideas from. No one knows. And maybe even the
Coen’s don’t know.
It all
starts with a character I can assume, then working out a situation where the
character feels totally comfortable and untouched by the world. Until their
world crosses paths with another, and what you get is a classic comedy about a
dude finding himself in a whole new place. Once there he has to think about
more than just where his next White Russian or Caucasian drink is coming from,
and step away from his regular debates about life with his bowling buddy Walter
(John Goodman).
You could
say the films of The Coen Brother’s are a genre all of their own. They
certainly don’t aim to make movies for the mainstream, but their creations are
so clever and unique, they attract every A list actor wanting to work with
them. The Big Lebowski continued to build their reputations as Kings of Indie
Cinema in the late 1990’s. and in the process they won over a whole new
audience that went on to make The Big Lebowski the cult film it is today.
Quickly
cementing its place as a modern-day classic, The Big Lebowski will be an
acquired taste for many movie goers, but might just win you over if you give it
a chance. It stars actors you will recognize today, many of whom were just
starting out in the mid to late 90’s, such as Julian Moore, Steve Buscemi, and
the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. They, along with leads Bridges and
Goodman (especially good here) were perfectly cast and embody their kooky
characters so well, you find yourself caring for these slackers by the end of
the film. This paved the way for films that focused on bums, losers and
no-hopers who just float through life doing very little, but win us over
because they are completely genuine in who they are.
Released in
1998, the film is set in 1990, and there are references to this as TV clips of
President Bush (the first one) declares war on Kuwait. This doesn’t seem to
bother The Dude, who just takes long hot baths while smoking joints and courageously
hunts down his beloved rug, stolen (and urinated on) by thugs who mistook him
for the other Lebowski. It’s this kind of naturalistic and circumstantial
storytelling the Coen Brothers have mastered, and they make it look easy. It’s
a film you could watch and feel the lazy energy of The Dude rub off on you. I
can only imagine what watching this movie stoned would be like, especially with
two stand out scenes were Lebowski himself dreams or hallucinates to make sense
of the craziness happening all around him.
The films
unique brand of comedy mixed with the familiar set up of the Mistaken Identify
plot device, creates a movie like nothing you’ve seen before, or are likely see
again. It’s carried in full by the brilliant performance of Jeff Bridges, who
acts so naturally and simplistically, you wonder if The Dude was already in
him. This brand of movie making was a breath of fresh air in the late 90’s,
that proved good story telling, strong acting and well-thought out directing
were still around in movies, and would continue to be the signature style of
The Coen Brothers for the rest of their career.
The title
of Cult Status is not awarded to many films – it has to be earned, and The Big
Lebowksi is in that exclusive group. It seemed to be a trend in the 90’s for
films to reach this level of appreciation and following, and sadly that’s
missing in a lot of modern movies released today, save for a few exceptions.
But when the goal of movies wasn’t just to make big bucks and put bums on seats
(thanks Titanic), there was a time where we rented videos in droves and waited
eagerly for the film to premier on TV a few years after its theatrical run. The
Big Lebowksi was released in the last few years of that era, before DVD’s and
piracy changed everything in the early to mid 2000’s.
And if
you’re looking for something different to watch on your next movie night, I
highly recommend you give this movie a shot. Maybe you’re not a Coen Brothers
fan and if you’re not – what the hell is wrong with you? But seriously man,
spend some time with The Dude, let go of any logic and just watch a story of
crazy characters and odd occurrences play out for a couple of hours, and have
yourself a good chuckle. I know I did.
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