Day 55: The Big Lebowski

The Dude: "Fuckin' Quintana...that creep can roll, man."


Walter Sobchak: "Yeah, but he's a pervert, Dude."


The Dude: "Yeah."


Walter Sobchak: "No, he's a sex offender. With a record. He served 6 months in Chino for exposing himself to an 8 year old."


The Dude: "Oh!"


Walter Sobchak: "When he moved to Hollywood, he had to go door to door to tell everyone he was a pederast."


Donny: "What's a ... pederast?"


Walter Sobchak: "Shut the fuck up, Donny."

Fuck. Such a powerful word yet it can easily be relied on too much to make something feel convincing, especially in the world of Comedy. The Big Lebowski uses the word more than any movie I have ever seen. In this case, it makes every line in the film that much more enjoyable. I mean really? Do you actually think this film would be as hilarious without Walter repeatedly telling Donnie to shut the fuck up? I didn’t think so either. The Big Lebowski is so much more than a dark comedy; it’s a reminder that the Coens are masters at making the most idiotic characters seem like the triumphant heroes. Who else can make a film that revolves around a deadbeat middle-aged man fighting nihilists and Pornography executives, in order to get back his rug? The list is short and so are the reasons why you can watch this movie and not die laughing after every scene. Okay, I should probably control my inner fan boy and actually attempt to review this film.




The Big Lebowski follows the journey of none other than….The Dude. The anti-hero played by Jeff Bridges is caught in the middle of an alleged ransom that includes the abduction of a powerful mans wife, who is also named Lebowski. This coincidence is what gets The Dude into all of this trouble in the first place. After having two goons show up to his house and demand the money that the real Lebowski owes them, having his rug, which really tied the room together, pissed on and advised by his Vietnam veteran pal Walter (John Goodman) to act, The Dude begins his quest to get a new fucking rug. That’s what the film is ALL about; a bunch of little missions that can be easily accomplished but instead are turn upside down due to the poor decisions made by The Dude and Walter. Hired by Lebowski, The Dude is asked to deliver one million dollars to the kidnappers in return for Lebowski’s rather young wife. What seems like a simple task ends up turning into a journey that ends with a heart-attack, a lost ear, a lost toe and a beard full of ashes.

What makes this film superior to most comedies back in the 90’s, and some today, is the fact that the supporting characters are just as clueless, greedy, manipulating, creepy and entertaining as the next one. All of them have their own goals and none of them can accomplish them without the help of The Dude. A great movie constantly puts obstacles for the main character to overcome in order to have some kind of growth or accomplish something. If you can incorporate that into the goals of the supporting characters and make it humorous, you’ll probably end up making a film as good as The Big Lebowski but don‘t hold your fucking breath. Lessons are learned here in this film. One is to never doubt the ability a complete deadbeat has to actually make a change in this world, even if that means just surviving the numerous attempts on his life in one week. Yet, the one lesson that I’ll always take from this masterpiece of a comedy is to never try to fuck a stranger in the ass and that most comedic directors today in 2010 are fucking amateurs.