Well, its time for another post as I have been rooting through my archives for a post to update and found a perfect candidate, which is the Cohen brothers cult classic comedy, The Big Lebowski. So, the previous post was a revisit but it is pretty outdated in its format, so I will do a revamp for it just now.
So, with the film now 26 years old, let's take a look at The Big Lebowski and see if it is still a modern classic comedy...
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!
STORY
So, the story begins with the main character, Jeffrey Lebowski or "The Dude" (Jeff Bridges) being assaulted by two thugs who are looking for some money. However the thugs have got the wrong man, as it soon turns out that they were looking for another Lebowski, who is a millionaire, who's wife Bunny owes money to a man called Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara). On realising their mistake, they leave, but not before one of them takes a pee on the Dude's rug.
After this the dude decides to go
and approach Lebowski (David Huddleston), the millionaire who is
wheelchair bound, to get some compensation for his rug, but Lebowski
turns him down, however on his way out, the dude tells Lebowski's
associate, Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman) that he was to take any rug
he wanted. Soon after however, the dude is visited by some people, one
of who knocks him out, and after he comes round, he sees that his rug
has been taken. Further complications arise when Lebowski contacts the
Dude, who tells him that his young trophy wife, Bunny (Tara Reid), has
been kidnapped, and he wants the Dude to help get her back, as the
kidnappers have sent a letter demanding money.
So the
Dude along with his bowling buddie, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) a hot
headed Vietnam veteran, go along to make a pay off, with a case full of
money to the kidnappers, however Walter decides to get involved and
changes the case of money with a "ringer", which is filled with his old
undies! After this, the kidnappers, who are three German nihilists
(lead by Peter Stormare) get angry and pay the Dude a visit, while he is
at home in his bath, they let a marmot off the leish and throw him into
his bath, and they demand their money or they will "cut off his
johnson!".
Meanwhile the Dude also gets a call from a woman, Maude (Julianne Moore) who turns out to be the daughter of Lebowski, and that she was the one who took the Dude's rug, which which actually belonged to her and was of sentimental value, and asks that the Dude recover the ransom. Maude also reveals that Bunny was in actual fact a porn film star and plays a low rent porn film for him showing this, and that the three nihilists were her friends, the leader being Tortsen Voges (Stormare), who also appeared in the film.
The Dude is soon taken to
meet Jackie Treehorn, a pornographer and loan shark, who wants to know
where Bunny is and his money. The Dude then tells Jackie that the kid,
Larry Sellers, who allegedly stole the Dude's car, has his money, but
Jackie doesn't believe him and drugs the Dude's drink, who soon passes
out, and comes to in a police car, where he is taken to the police chief
of Malibu, who warns him to not come back. After the Dude get's back
home, he finds his home ransacked, and Maude stands over him, naked, and
after a bit of coital action, the Dude soon works out what has been
going with Bunny as he suspects that Bunny actually faked her kidnapping
and basically
she was looking to extort money from her husband, the Big Lebowski, by
using nihilist friends. After that the Dude decides to go with Walter
to pay the Big Lebowski a visit and confront him about the whole damn thing...
THOUGHTS
The Big Lebowski is without a doubt one of my favourite comedies, and it remains the funniest of the Cohen brother's films. The Cohen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have been no stranger to comedy, and very strange, quirky comedy at that, but with The Big Lebowski, it seems like they finally got the perfect combination of all those quirky traits together. The film itself however was not well received on its release and had mixed reviews and its only in the interim years that this film has started to gain acclaim and has become something of a cult favourite.
In terms of the main character the Cohen
brothers actually came up with the idea for the Dude based on a man
they met, Jeff Dowd, they met while they were trying to promote their
debut film, Blood Simple. Dowd himself was a man who liked to drink
White Russain cocktails just like the Dude does in the film and he was
also even based on a friend of the Cohen brothers, Peter Exline, who was
a former Vietnam veteran who own a squalid apartment and at the time
had a small rug which it to quote the Dude, "tied the room together".
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!).
Getting on to the performances the film is also great all round.
Starting with Jeff Bridges playing one of his best roles, as the Dude, who is basically just normal average guy, who is a lazy down and out, who hangs around and likes to smoke grass, drink White Russian cocktails and go bowling. And Bridges plays him in quite a cool laidback way and succeeds in actually making him likeable, and while he is no hero, or that much of a detective, you get that he is bright enough to work things out as they go along.
Bridges also get's some great scenes such
as in the one where the Dude is attacked by
the two thugs who mistake him for the other Lebowski and one of them
says "You're Jeffrey Lebowski, you're wife's Bonny" and The Dude says
"My wife?! Do you see a ring on my finger?! Does this place look like
I'm fuckin married?! The toilet seat is up, man!". One of the thugs asks the other "What do you think?" and the other one says "He looks like a fuckin loser!" and the Dude says "At least I'm house broken!".
There is also the
scene where the Dude is taken on a tour around The Big Lebowski's
mansion by his assistant, Brandt and they meet, Lebowski's young trophy
wife, Bonny, who tells the Dude "I'll suck your cock for a thousand
dollars!" and The Dude is then lead away by a nervous laughing Brandt, and the
Dude says "I'm just gonna go and find a cash machine!".
scene when he is grabbed roughly by the big Lebowski's limo driver, while he still holds his White Russian drink in his hands and he yells out "Careful, man, there's a beveridge here!".
And in this scene the Dude proceeds to be questioned by an
angry Lebowski about the ransom money for his young wife, Bonny, and the
Dude explains "I've got information. New shit has come to light. And
shit, man... she kidnapped herself. Look at it, a young trophy wife,
she owes money all over town, including to known pornographers. I'm
saying she needs the money, man! And of course they will say they
didn't get it because she wants more. She's got to feed the monkey!".
There is also the scene where the Dude
having just gotten his car back after it was stolen, happily listens to
some Creedence on his tapedeck, whilst he smokes a joint and drinks a
beer and he goes to flick it out the window but neglects to notice that
the window is still shut and it lands in his lap and he ends up pouring
his beer on his crotch and crashes his car! Only then for the Dude to spot what appears to be a piece of paper containing a school kid's homework.
Then there is the scene where the Dude in an effort to stop anyone from opening his door, he nails down a block of wood and jams a chair up against the door. And while the Dude does this he is on the phone to Walter, not long after they have unsuccessfully confronted a young teenager about the missing ransom money and the Dude says to Walter "No, Walter I don't think Larry was about to crack! Yes well you're right, Walter, there is an unspoken message here. Its "FUCK YOU!!! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!" and then he calmly says after a beat "Yeah I'll be at practise". The Dude then hangs up and the front door is opened from the outside by Jackie Treehorn's thugs and the chair wedged up against the block simply falls down!
Then there is funny scene is where The Dude after having had some sex with Maude watches her curl herself into a foetel position and he asks her what she is doing and Maude says "It helps increase the chances of conception" and the Dude proceeds to violently spit out his drink!". And shortly after, the Dude confronts a private eye who appears to be following Maude and he warns him "Stay the fuck away from my lady friend, I'm trying to help your conceive, man!".And last of all is the Dude's final scene with the narrator, where they chat briefly at the bar in the bowling alley. So, in the scene the narrator tells the Dude "Take it easy, Dude" and the Dude smiles and says "Well, the dude abides!" and he walks off leaving the narrator to his reverie.
John Goodman is also hilarious as Walter, the
half crazed, hot headed, Vietnam veteran, who is so confident in his
opinions, but half the time he is wrong, especially when he thinks that
the big Lebowski can actually walk at the end (which we soon find out he
can't when Walter drops him out of his wheelchair!).
Goodman has plenty of scenes worth mentioning starting with the scene with Walter is when he is at the bowling alley with The Dude and Donny and one of the rival team members apparently plays a foul shot as Walter yells out "OVER THE LINE!". And as the man argues with Walter, Walter takes out a gun and says "Smokey, you mark that eight and you're entering a world of pain! A world of pain!" and as Smokey protests, Walter points the gun at him and says "Have I gone crazy?! AM I THE ONLY WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THE RULES?!! MARK IT ZERO!!" and he continues "MARK IT ZERO! You think I'm fuckin around?! MARK IT ZERO!!". Smokey reluctantly does so and says "You happy now you crazy fuck?!" and Walter puts his gun away and says "This is a league game, Smokey".
Another funny scene from Goodman is when Walter goes along
with The Dude on the drop to give the kidnappers the ransom money and
Walter has "a ringer" which is a briefcase full of his old undies. And
Walter says to The Dude as he also produces an uzi submachine gun, "At
fifteen mph, I'll roll out, double back and beat it out one of them!"
and in regards to the uzi "You didn't think I was gonna roll out here
naked, did you?!". And as Walter rolls out the car so does his uzi
which sprays bullets all over the road, which also hit the back of the
Dude's car and after they failed to make the drop off, Walter stands
idly on the road and says "fuck it, Dude! Let's go bowling!".
Goodman also
get's pretty much the best lines of the film, and my favourite scene in
the whole movie is where he interrogates a kid, Larry Sellers, who they
think stole the money and the Dude's car. So, Walter opens his briefcase and takes out the homework paper and he says to him "Is this your homework, Larry?" and Larry says nothing, so Walter repeats "Is this your homework, Larry?". The Dude however becomes impatient and asks "Where's the fuckin money, you little brat?!" but Larry doesn't flinch and Walter then says "Have you
ever heard of Vietnam, Larry??? You're enterting a world of pain, son!
You're killing your father, Larry!". Larry however stays silent and Walter says to him "Alright this is pointless, time for plan B" and he locks up the briefcase, gets up and he says to Larry "You might wanna look outside that window, Larry. This is what it looks like when you FUCK a stranger in the ass!".
After this, Walter proceeds to go out
and smash up a fancy sports car with a crowbar, which he assumes belongs to Larry,
which actually belongs to a next door neighbour, ranting at Larry "This
is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!!". Walter then continues to smash up the car, yelling at Larry "YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS, LARRY?! YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK A STRANGER IN THE ASS??!!". However, the enraged neighbours storms out and yells at Walter telling "THIS IS MY CAR! I ONLY HAD IT FIXED LAST WEEK!!" and "I'll fucking kill your car!!" and he proceeds hysterically to smash the Dude's car with the crowbar yelling "I'LL KILL YOUR FUCKEEN CAR!!".
Another good scene is when the Dude meets with Walter at a coffee shop and he shows Walter a severed toe sent a message from the kidnappers, which Walter mocks saying "I can't get you a toe! Believe me there are ways. You don't wanna know". And as the Dude continues worrying about the toe, Walter yells "FORGET ABOUT THE FUCKING TOE!" and the owner complains about his outburst and Walter says to the woman "Excuse me, dear? The supreme court has roundly rejected prior restraint!" and then "Lady I've got buddies who died face down in the muck so that you and I can enjoy this family restaurant!".
Then we have the scene where Walter and the Dude go to confront Lebowski at his mansion, as the Dude unravels his ploy to get rid of his trophy wife, however Walter firmly believes that Lebowski isn't even disabled despite being in a wheelchair. So, in the scene Walter says to the Dude "I've seen alot of spinals and this guy is a fake!" and he walks towards Lebowski and he says "This guy fucking walks! I've never been more certain of anything in my life!". So, Walter grabs Lebowski out of his wheelchair and the Dude pleads "Put him down, Walter!" and Walter says "Sure, I'll put him down, Dude! Here we go!" and he drops Lebowski, who falls flat on his face, humiliated, the Dude and Walter akwardly help him back up.
And last of all is the scene where (SPOILER!!!) go to the top of the cliff somewhere to scatter Donny's ashes and Walter gives an eulogy in his name. So, in the scene, Walter holds the tin and says "Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and bowling, and as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo and... up to... Pismo. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince". So, Walter proceeds to open the tin and scatter the ashes but they blow back in his face and the Dude's instead!
Julianne Moore is also excellent as Maude, the cool tempered feminist, who asks the Dude to help get the ransom money back, and later on has sex with him, in order to help her conceive a baby (purely for her own reasons, but not to ask the Dude to be a father to the baby).
Moore also has some good scenes such as her
first one where after performing some bizzare overhead painting, whilst
hanging from a wire, naked, she then get's and dresses and goes over to
the Dude and says "My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal
which bothers some men. The world itself makes some men uncomfortable.
Vagina!". So, in the scene Maude gives the Dude the number of a doctor to examine him as he was punched by Maude's men and she says of the Doctor "He's a good man, and thorough".
And later on when the Dude finds Maude at his apartment,
Maude stands over him wearing the Dude's robe, she simply says
"Jeffrey. Love me!" and strips off with the Dude only managing a feeble
"that's my robe!". So, post sex, Dude get's up and has a White Russian while Maude sits up in bed with her knees pulled back over her head and Dude asks her "What is that some sort of yoga thing?" and Maude says "It increases the chances of conception" and Dude spits out his drink. Maude then says "Look, Jeffrey, I want a child but I don't want the father to be really involved".
Steve Buscemi is also priceless, as the Dude and Walter's less than bright bowling buddie, Donny, who keeps wandering in on the middle of the Dude's conversations, and is often the butt of Walter's cruel put downs, and the often used line "Shut the fuck up, Donny!".
It is however hard to pick scenes for Buscemi as his character is pretty bitty and doesn't have a great deal of dialogue in them, so I will mention some snippets of some scenes he is in.
One suchs cene is the one where Walter and The Dude mentions something that the Russian revolutionary Lenin once said. So, the Dude says "Its like Lenin once said, the person who will benefit most..." and Donny mistakes it to be John Lennon and he says "I am the Walrus?". The Dude ignores Donny and says to Walter "Well you know what I'm saying" and Donny again says "I am the Walrus". Walter finally snaps at Donny and shouts "Shut the FUCK up, Donny! Lenin! Vladmir Illiych Ulyanov!".
Then there is scene where the Dude having been threatened by the nihilists in his home by telling him they will cut off his "johnson" unless he gives them the money and again Donny doesn't get what the Dude is on about. So, the Dudes says to Walter "Fuck sympathy, man! I don't need your fuckin sympathy, I need my johnson, man!" and Donny asks "Why do you need that for, Dude?".
David
Huddleston is great also as the title character, the Big Lebowski, the
tetchy millionaire, who is wheelbound and insists that the Dude go and
get his wife back, although as the film progresses it appears that he
doesn't really want his wife back, and he just used the Dude in his own
ploy.
Huddleston also has some good scenes such as his first scene where Lebowski meets with the Dude and is less than impressed by him and he says to the Dude "Did I urinate on your rug?! I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?!". And at the end of the scene as the Dude starts to walk out "You're revolution is over, Mr Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did: get a job, sir! The bums will always lose! Do you hear, Mr Lebowski?! THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS LOSE!".
Then there is the scene where Lebowski has the Dude dragged into a limo by the driver and he is confronted by Lebowski, who is with his assistant, Brandt about the ransom money he gave him. So, Lebowski angrily asks "Where is my money, you bum?!". The Dude then tries to explain and says "Its OK, nothing is fucked here, man" and Lebowski furiosuly shouts "Nothing is FUCKED??!! THE PLANE HAS CRASHED INTO THE GODDAMN MOUNTAIN!". So, as the Dude finishes trying to explain that Lebowski's wife "kindapped herself", Lebowski says "Since you have repeatedly betrayed my trust, I have told these men to do whatever it takes to get the money back from yourself!".
Peter Stormare is also pretty good and funny as the nihilist, Voges, who threatens
to cut off the Dude's johnson (or chonson as the script says!), and its
a far cry from his chilling portrayal of Grimsrud from Fargo, and in
the end Voges is actually just a coward, which Walter later proves by
kicking his ass. Stormare has amusing scenes as well such as the scene
where Voges barges into the Dude's apartment whilst he has a bath and
drops a ferret into his bathtub and says "We vant the money Lebowski!
We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing! And tomorrow we come back
and cut off your Johnson!" and the Dude, who is agitated after the nihilists have thrown a marmot into his bath, asks "What?" and Voges repeats "We cut off your JOHNSON!!!".
Stormare also has a hilarious moment where
Voges turns out to be a porno actor and Maude shows the Dude a cheesy
porn film called "Log jammin" which has Voges turn up dressed as a TV
repair man at a flat with two mostly naked girls.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is also very good in his role as Brandt, Lebowski's mild mannered assistant, who aides the Dude temporarily in his task to give the ransom money to the nihilists who allegedly kidnapped Lebowksi's wife Bunny.
So, I will mention two of his scenes starting with the one where Brandt shows the Dude around the grounds of Lebowski's luxurious mansion's grounds and he stops as we see Bunny, who is in a bikini and sits in a reclining chair. So, she tells the Dude "I'll suck your cock for a thousand dollars" and Brandt laughs nervously and says "Ha ha ha ha! Wonderful woman, we are all very fond of her! Very free spirited!". Bunny then says to the Dude candidly "Brandt can't watch though, or he has to pay an extra hundred" and again Brandt nervously laughs and says "Ha ha! That's marvelous!".
Then the second scene is where Brandt gives the Dude the briefcase and instructions on how to pay the nihilists. So, Brandt then tells the Dude "Her life is in your hands, Dude" and the Dude says "Man, don't say that, man!" but Brandt tells him "Mr Lebowski asked me to repeat that, her life is in your hands" and the Dude groans and says "Ah shit!" and Brandt again says "Her life is in your hands, Dude!".
John Turturro, occassional regular in Cohen brother
films, is also really good as Jesus, the egomaniac bowler, and
paedophile, who delivers one of the best lines which he says to Walter
about pulling his gun at the bowling alley "If you do that to me, I will
take that gun from you and shove it up your ass and pull the trigger to
it goes click!" and also that "No one fucks with the Jesus!".
And finally Sam Elliott as the Stranger, the film's narrator does a fine job, with his deep Southern voice, providing the perfect voice over for the movie, and appears briefly in the middle and at the end of the film.
So, I will mention part of Elliott's opening narration as we see the Dude wander around a store to get some milk. So, the Stranger narrates "I only mention it because sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Dude here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough".
Then there is the scene where the Stranger appears at the bar in the bowling alley and he speaks to the Dude and tells him "I like your style, Dude" and then says "There's just one thing: do you have to use so many cuss words?" and the Dude stares at him and says "What the fuck are you talkin about, man??" and the narrator smiles and says "Alright Dude, have it your way".
Last of all is the final scene of the film where the Stranger talks again with the Dude at the bowling alley. So, the Stranger says "Take it easy, Dude" and the Dude "Oh yeah!" and the Stranger says "I know that you will" and the Dude says "Yeah well, the Dude abides" and he walks off leaving the Stranger with a smile. So, the Strangers says to the camera "The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners".
DIRECTOR(S)
Getting onto the directors and writers, the Cohen brothers, Ethan and Joel Cohen themselves who couldn't really have done a better job here as they pace out the film nicely and it doesn't feel overly long and their script is hilarious and as usual they know how to coax fine performances from their cast (but I've already just mentioned all that of course!). The Cohen Brothers also during the shoot used the Hollywood Stars Lanes bowling alley in Santa Monica for all the bowling scenes, which they shot there for 3 weeks out of the 11 week shoot. It was also said that the Cohens' barely gave any direction to Jeff Bridges with the exception of when Bridges asked if the Dude would have smoked a joint on the way over (presumably in each scene he enters). That aside of course, this is definitely one of the Cohens most entertaining films.
MUSIC
The film also has a good soundtrack composed by Carter Burwell, the Cohens regular composer but it also makes use of tracks by other artists as well. So, the most notable tracks in the film include the Bob Dylan song "The Man in Me" (even though I'm not a fan of Bob Dylan!) over the title
sequence, which works pretty wel. And other songs are well used, particularly Creedence's
"Looking out my back door" and "Running through the Jungle". And one of
my favourite tracks used in the film is Kenny Rogers "Just dropped in",
which is again well used in the Dude's dream sequence, as he plays the
lead part in a film "Gutterballs!". Great name!
FLAWS
As for flaws..... The Big Lebowski has some small niggles...
To start with it has to be said it is a film that is probably guilty of being in the love or loathe category, so it may not be a comedy to everyone's taste given the goofball nature of the comedy. In fact you could say, its a film that warrants repeated viewing to try and appreciate as there certainly things you might overlook or miss on a first view.
Another issue, albeit not a serious one is the large amount of profanity in the film, as it starts to feel like the Cohen's were trying to push in as many f words as they possibly could (in fact on a sad nerdy note there are over 280 uses of the word fuck in all in the film!) just to try and get some laughs out of it, but in the end it does feel a bit forced and a whole load of swearing doesn't really make a great film. And one prime example of this is how Walter continually uses the line "Shut the fuck up, Donny" practically every time Donny says something, which soon becomes tiresome and is only funny when he stops saying it at one point when Donny mentions a change in the bowling schedule (and when poor Donny has his heart attack).
Then there is the silly aspect are the dream sequences, which are pretty daft, with the Dude dreaming of being a star in the film Gutterballs, and also flying on his magic rug through the skies at night as well as the image of the nihilists coming with large shears to cut off his "johnson". Another scene worth mentioning that is also a bit annoying is the one where we meet Maude's campy friend (played by David Thewlis) and the two of them take a phone call and start laugh hysterically, which just feels pointless and unecessary to the film. That aside though, the rest of the film is great.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, The Big Lebowski remains a very enjoyable comedy, which is well worth watching and features priceless performances by Jeff Bridges and John Goodman and they ably supported by a fine cast of actors such as David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi. The film's dialogue is also priceless with so many quotable lines and it features a pretty good sountrack from both Carter Burwell and its choice of other tracks and to this day, its still one of my favourite Cohen brothers films.
So, I will rate The Big Lebowski:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post, till then take it easy dudes!
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