May 1, 2010: The Big Lebowski
Why, when I first saw The Big Lebowski (1998) several years ago, didn’t I like it?? The Dude and his crew swear like sailors, revel in the minutiae of their day-to-day lives, and strike a puzzling mix of laissez-faire and unrepentant rage when an identity mix-up drags The Dude into a complex intertwined mess of thugs and hit men. Two guys break into The Dude’s apartment, beat him up, piss on his rug, and don’t even really tell him why they are there. He could take all of that in stride, but the rug really held the room together.
If the supporting cast (John Goodman, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi) didn’t give it away, The Big Leboswki is a Coen Brothers film. Offbeat from the beginning with Blood Simple (1984), Joel and Ethan ventured further into incomprehensibility with quirky stories such as Raising Arizona (1987) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), returned to more straightforward fare such as Fargo (1996) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), and finally achieved mainstream acceptance as brilliant artists in their medium with the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men (2007) as well as A Serious Man (2009).
The plot of The Big Leboswki is a convenient fiction upon which to hang the chilled-out presence of Jeff Bridges as The Dude and the unhitched Goodman as his Vietnam veteran friend. Quick supporting turns by Turturro as an egotistical bowling champion, Sam Elliott as a mystical cowboy, and Julianne Moore as a posh wannabe mother don’t even cross my mind as being out of place in this meandering story. The entire movie is completely off the wall, and I have to fully admit that I didn’t get it the first time I saw it. This time, I’ve come to appreciate the players and the story considerably more. Bridges was born to play this role, and revisiting this film is particularly poignant in light of his recent Oscar win for Crazy Heart. Goodman is stellar, with his manic energy driving along everyone around him despite the fact that they all know he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The story is resolved well enough, but that isn’t really the point.
I won’t quote heavily from the movie and act like I’m a longtime worshipper of this cult favourite, but I’m happy to now count myself as a fan.
And now for The Hudsucker Proxy.
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