The Big Lebowski (Special Edition) (DVD)

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) isn’t married. He doesn’t have a ring on his finger, enjoys leaving the toilet seat-up and pays for milk via cheque because he’s your average irregular bum. From the looks of his ramshackle home, he’s not a millionaire either. All of which is quite bemusing for the two clueless goons that have just flushed the Dude’s head down the toilet and urinated on his rug in order to extract money to pay ...
...case of mistaken identity leads the Dude to his namesake, Jeffrey Lebowski (the Dude’s real name, not that he cares for it much) in order to protract a replacement rug, as the one mitigated upon in his lounge really tied the room together. What the Dude didn’t expect from his meeting with the Big Lebowski was to be dragged into a protracted kidnap plot involving missing toes, high-class pornographers, pseudo-European artists and a bath invading ferret. ... more

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) isn’t married. He doesn’t have a ring on his finger, enjoys leaving the toilet seat-up and pays for milk via cheque because he’s your average irregular bum. From the looks of his ramshackle home, he’s not a millionaire either. All of which is quite bemusing for the two clueless goons that have just flushed the Dude’s head down the toilet and urinated on his rug in order to extract money to pay off his wife’s gambling debts. Except the Dude doesn’t have a wife. Or money! Such a case of mistaken identity leads the Dude to his namesake, Jeffrey Lebowski (the Dude’s real name, not that he cares for it much) in order to protract a replacement rug, as the one mitigated upon in his lounge really tied the room together. What the Dude didn’t expect from his meeting with the Big Lebowski was to be dragged into a protracted kidnap plot involving missing toes, high-class pornographers, pseudo-European artists and a bath invading ferret. All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back…

Empire magazine once stated, “In a perfect world all movies would be made by the Coen Brothers.” High praise indeed and whilst Joel and Ethan’s more recent remake of The Ladykillers and the rather innocuous Intolerable Cruelty may have dented that assessment slightly, the body of work that preceded certainly justifies the tag. All feature wonderfully plotted scripts, delightful dialogue, brilliantly bizarre characters invested in differing film genres and a whole slew of hidden depths that it's often difficult to discern a particular favourite. Sure, Fargo won The Coen’s a deserved Oscar statuette for the mantelpiece, but in all honesty the meandering and bumbling of The Dude and his best mate Walter Sobchak (the superb John Goodman) from one fiasco to the next, makes The Big Lebowski their real masterpiece.

More importantly though, as the Dude would say, it’s also the funniest fucking film ever made. Whilst the story reads more like a Raymond Chandler-esque detective tale – with a soiled rug and not quite what it seems kidnap plot holding the string of events together – it’s not until you delve much deeper that the full blown comedy acknowledges itself, causing your spleen to rupture. How this is possible is debatable. Some would say a story which goes nowhere and full of wild goose chases (read as genius) allows for the host of zany characters met on the Dude’s mission to simply replace the more restrained caricatures of Philip Marlowe and company, breathing fresh life into the otherwise generic proceedings. Having a cast that deliver said characters in such a uniformly superb way obviously helps.

Bridges is perfect as the acid smoking, white Russian drinking, eternal bowling slacker. Bumbling from the ignominy of one disaster to the next in his own personal rug replacing odyssey - witness the hilariously slow destruction of his car throughout the film - he is one of life’s happily unconcerned underachievers. It’s testament to the Coen’s that they wrote the part specifically with Bridges in mind (the dressing gown worn by The Dude is actually Bridges’) that his droll, permanently stoned delivery is so fool-proof. Perhaps he only missed out on an Oscar nomination due to playing himself so marvellously. Even then, Goodman’s slightly unhinged and bowling obsessed Vietnam veteran is the perfect foil for The Dude. Forthright, loud-mouthed and always trying to associate the ills of the world with Vietnam, he has no issues pulling a gun out on conscientious objectors who refuse to mark their scorecard zero when their foot crosses the line. Goodman is utterly sublime in the fiasco’s he creates throughout.

Still, there’s much to be said for Goodman’s sparring partner, the delightfully sappy Donnie. With Steve Buscemi playing way against type, (every time Walter tells him ‘to shut the fuck up’ is a delight) his subtlety is harvested to meet the potential of jokes that would fail elsewhere – the hilarious ‘I Am the Walrus’ gag during a three way conversation with Walter and the Dude is unlikely to have worked with a lesser actor. And still there’s more. Peter Storemare’s faux German speaking pornstar nihilist (aptly named Karl Hungus) is highly memorable, as is Julianne Moore’s feminist pseudo-European artist Maude Lebowski, who serve to distract and hinder The Dude’s progress in locating the kidnappers and replacement carpet. Yet all bow down to bowling messiah-cum-paedophile Jesus Quintana. Fuelled by some exquisite mania from John Turturro, the two scenes he features in are possibly the most memorable of the whole film. Indeed, Jesus’ introduction to the sound of a Spanish version of the Eagles’ Hotel California is inspired, resulting in possibly one of the finest character introductions ever filmed.

However, what really makes The Big Lebowski work is the impressive number of different style of gags on show, which elevates the film above most of its contemporaries. It has a wonderful dry wit (‘obviously you're not a golfer’; ‘he fixes the cable’), some fantastic slap-stick (Walter smashing up the wrong car with a crow-bar), great dialogue (‘Fuck me! Say what you want about the tenants of national socialism at least its an ethos’), excellent recurring jokes, far too many laugh out loud moments to mention (the reactionary chief of police's mug throwing, a closing scenario involving an ice-cream tub that will have you in a fit of hysterics) and a sequence of visual genius involving a curious Dude, a pencil and a tracing etch that is just as memorable, if not better, than Airplane's drinking problem gag.

Whilst the hilarity takes precedence, the remainder of the film is the antithesis to lazy filmmaking – everything is perfectly pitched and in its place to create a flawless movie. When you add some marvellous visuals to the mix, you begin to wonder if there’s little The Coen’s can’t do. From sticking a camera inside a bowling ball to the excellent song and dance routine featuring Saddam Hussein and Valkyrie clad females, transforming The Dudes leisurely pursuit of bowling into a wondrously realised dream sequence, it simply fits like a comfortably snug dressing gown. Indeed, even through the abstract drug-induced hallucinogenic nature of The Dude’s misadventures and the scattered violence (a particular ear biting segment is particularly grim, albeit in a humourous way), the simplistic message to the goodness of humanity, here encompassed by The Dude’s easy-riding hippy approach, enriches the film further. We may not approve of his lifestyle, but in his illuminated catchphrase of ‘fuck it man, let’s go bowling’ he speaks words we all understand.

The Big Lebowski is quite simply the best way to immerse yourself into the brilliance of The Coens. Unconventional, brilliantly subversive, but with its hand firmly placed on its heart, you’re unlikely to find any other film that derives such meaning from meaningless misadventures or as rip-roaringly hilarious. Not only one of the best Coen Brothers films your likely to see, but one of the best films ever, period.

Overall - Trust me, The Big Lebowski is the funniest film you’re ever likely to see. Nihilists, carpet pissers, peado-bowling messiahs, quasi-Europeon artists and an enigmatic unusual hero (well, the man for his time and place) in The Dude. It's got everything you want in a comedy and much, much more. Pure unbreakable nirvana!

Where to buy - Currently on Amazon.co.uk for the spangly price of £4.98.

Director: Joel & Ethan Coen

Screenplay: Joel & Ethan Coen

Cast:

Jeff Bridges ... Jeffrey Lebowski - The Dude
John Goodman ... Walter Sobchak
Julianne Moore ... Maude Lebowski
Steve Buscemi ... Theodore Donald 'Donny' Kerabatsos
David Huddleston ... Jeffrey Lebowski - The Big Lebowski
Philip Seymour Hoffman ... Brandt
Tara Reid ... Bunny Lebowski
Philip Moon ... Woo, Treehorn Thug
Mark Pellegrino ... Blond Treehorn Thug
Peter Stormare ... Nihilist #1, Uli Kunkel/'Karl Hungus'
Flea ... Nihilist #2, Kieffer
Torsten Voges ... Nihilist #3, Franz
Jimmie Dale Gilmore ... Smokey
Jack Kehler ... Marty
John Turturro ... Jesus Quintana

Rating: 18 (lots of swearing, some nudity, and a dollop of violence)

Running Time: 117 minutes

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Mystery

© clownfoot, August 2007. 

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