Re-review: The Big Lebowski

With tomorrow’s much anticipated release of Hail Caesar, let’s look back on arguably the most popular and certainly the most quotable of their previous works…

It’s tough to boil down the colourful narrative of the Co-bros’ 1998 cult comedy; with pornography, kidnapping (a regular for the Coens), bowling, and rug urination all thrown in.

The cast is rife with golden nuggets; Goodman’s gun-toting Vietnam veteran, willing to threaten any man who disgraces his adored craft of bowling; Jeffrey Lebowski, the wheelchair-bound over-achieving multimillionaire, with a nymphomaniac trophy wife and brownnoser of a PA – an hilarious turn from the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Julianne Moore is the avant-garde feminist, flashing the flesh as per usual…and there’s Donny. Who could forget Steve Buscemi’s pitiable tag along? I often substitute my friends’ names into Goodman’s simple but effective exclamation, ‘Shut the fuck up, Donny!’. Works every time.

Push aside the embellishments of character and narrative and you have a simple man with one simple goal; Jeff Bridges’ ‘The Dude’ just wants compensation for his darn rug! Spending his time ‘bowling, driving around and having the occasional acid flashback’, El Duderino is one laid back stoner whose dysfunctional bowling team you inexplicably want to be part of. The man’s got his priorities right, which is illustrated in sincere quotes such as ‘Careful, man, there’s a beverage here!’. Even his life motto; ‘The Dude abides’, is brimming with nobility.  

Where much of the comedy lies in The Big Lebowski is the cavalier attitude of The Dude, contrasted with the explosive nature of Walter as increasingly serious happenings unfurl around them. The Dude manages to remain unruffled, Walter considers himself a match for any potential danger, and Donny, well, he can shut the fuck up. The most quotable lines in the film reflect these essential traits of the characters; when his house is broken into, The Dude complements the perpetrators: ‘Nice marmot’. And anyone who has seen the film can safely say we know what happens when you ‘fuck a stranger in the ass’, thanks to Walter’s demonstration.

As is common for the Coens, the film drifts towards surreal, with the characters being larger-than-life, similarly to the situations they find themselves in. However The Big Lebowksi has a beating heart, which we find in the endearing and simple nature of The Dude. His Dudeness gets entwined in endless kerfuffle, but maintains his true rug-retrieving intentions throughout. After all, it really did tie the room together.

MS