Cult classic still hilarious 15 years later
The Coen Brothers’ cult comedy “The Big Lebowski” (1998) is playing at the Nickelodeon Friday night at 11 p.m. Coming off the success of their film “Fargo” (which won them Best Original Screenplay, and Joel’s wife, Frances McDormand, won Best Actress), they made their darkly comic, shaggy-dog-joke of a film influenced by the mysteries of Raymond Chandler, most notably “The Big Sleep,” which the film takes its title from. The film was a flop when it came out and took a couple of years to gain a large cult following.
To dissect the plot would be an act of futility. Basically, Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges, aka The Dude “or His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing”) is a stoner and a slacker stuck in the ’70s who lives in Los Angeles and does not do much besides “bowl, drive around” and have “the occasional acid flashback.” His best friends are Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), a Vietnam vet also stuck in the past who is quick to anger, and Donny (Steve Buscemi), a … ”Shut the f—- up, Donny!” When The Dude comes home late one night after a trip to the grocery store, he is grabbed by two thugs who drag him into the bathroom and dunk his head into the toilet. They want to know where his wife, Bunny (Tara Reid), is. The baffled lifelong bachelor tells them he has no idea who this Bunny is. Realizing their mistake, the two men leave, but not before one of them urinates on his rug, the one “that really tied the room together.” The Dude finds out that there is a rich man also named Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston) in town, and he goes to visit him to get compensated for his soiled rug. The wheelchair-bound Lebowski convinces The Dude to help him find his young wife, Bunny, who has been kidnapped by nihilists. This set off a series of vignettes with colorful supporting characters. He gets some assistance from the real Lebowski’s daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore), but more often than not she just confuses The Dude.
One of the strangest and funniest characters in the film is the Latino bowler, Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), a pederast in a hairnet and a tight purple spandex suit who takes his game very seriously. He seductively places his hand with a purple-fingernailed pinky over the air vent on the bowling ball conveyor belt and licks his bowling ball. With barely five minutes of screen time, Jesus becomes an unforgettable, absurd character. One of the most inventive scenes in the film is a drug-induced, Busby Berkeley-inspired musical number set to the Kenny Rogers song “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” with Maude dressed as a Viking, women with headgear featuring large bowling pins and Saddam Hussein.
The Coens possibly made the best film ever that does not entirely hold together but has no scene that should be cut or changed. There are so many reasons the film is hilarious, but the two aspects that stand out most are the writing and the performances. Bridges and Goodman both deserved Oscar nominations for their performances, but comedies rarely get nominated, especially ones that do not gather much notice at the time. The Dude is such a brilliant comic creation, a wonderful combination of the Coens’ writing and Bridges’ seemingly effortless acting. Goodman, an actor that the Coens frequently use, takes a profane, gun-waving madman and makes him lovable.
The film has gained such a cult status that there are Lebowski Fests around the country. They were created in 2002 in Louisville, Ky., by a group of super fans. People dress up as characters from the film, drink, listen to live music, bowl and of course watch the film. A religion called Dudeism has even been spawned from the film. Anyone can go online to www.dudeism.com and become an ordained priest for the Church of the Latter-Day Dude.
The Coens are gifts from the movie gods, and “The Big Lebowski” is one of their funniest, most original works. The Dude abides.