Review: The Big Lebowski

Philip Marlowe via Cheech and Chong. Or one man’s search for monetary compensation for his soiled rug. Jeff Bridges plays Jeffrey Lebowski, better known as The Dude, a life-long slacker, unemployed (supported by an inheritance), who lives to smoke weed, drink White Russians, and go bowling with his buddies, Walter and Donny. Walter (Goodman) is a hostile, gun-totin’, fiercely protective Polish Catholic Jew Vietnam veteran (!) who has post-traumatic stress and absolutely will not leave the house on a holy day, unless it’s a life and death situation. Meanwhile, Donny is the polar opposite; meek, possibly not very bright, and always having someone butt in (usually Walter telling him to ‘Shut the fuck up!’) before he’s even finished talking. One day some German thugs (including Peter Stormare and Chili Peppers bassist Flea) burst into his apartment, rough him up, and piss on his rug. Damn shame, it really tied the room together! They have unfortunately confused The Dude for another Jeffrey Lebowski, an elderly Howard Hughes-type millionaire (a particularly crotchety David Huddleston). When The Dude fronts up at the other Lebowski’s place in the hopes of getting compensation for his pee-stained rug, he finds that Mr. Lebowski’s bimbo porn star mistress (Tara Reid) has been kidnapped. The Dude ends up being hired as the bag man for the ransom money drop in exchange for Reid’s return. Walter’s suggestion? Keep the money for himself, but before The Dude can even contemplate that idea, some idiot ends up stealing The Dude’s car, with the ransom money still in it! There were precious CCR tapes inside too, and The Dude won’t stand for that kind of thievery. Sam Elliott plays the enigmatic, slow-talking, frequently forgetful cowboy narrator of The Dude’s tale, Philip Hoffman is Huddleston’s obsequious assistant, Julianne Moore is Huddleston’s icy avant-garde artist daughter who wants the money returned to her family immediately, and Jon Polito is a shady (but stupid) figure stalking The Dude. John Turturro has a small role as Jesus the Bowler, an oddball child sex offender with a tremendous flair for bowling.

Laidback, quirky, lewd, and engaging 1998 slacker comedy-noir is in my view the best movie from the Coen Brothers (“Blood Simple”, “Raising Arizona”, “Miller’s Crossing”) to date. It’s also one of the few stoner movies to work for an anti-drug and alcohol guy like me, with an hilarious drug-induced dream sequence that incorporates porno, Busby-Berkeley, and bowling (It does go on a bit long, though). It’s a good-looking and showy film at times, without being pretentious or off-putting.

The cast is excellent, especially the foul-tempered Goodman (whose Walt is just as dumb as Donny, really) and pitch-perfect Sam Elliott as the film’s borderline narcoleptic narrator, pretty much sending up the entire film noir/detective genre in the process. I’m always happy to see Grandpa Arnold from “The Wonder Years” David Huddleston on screen. Here he plays a cranky rich guy who seems inspired by both Howard Hughes and actor Lionel Barrymore. However, ultimately it’s Bridges as The Dude who anchors the film, a wonderful characterisation. I mean, what could be funnier than a detective story where the detective is really an unemployed, largely unmotivated, long-haired pothead who wears a bathrobe and thongs (You can practically smell the funky robe). It’s a really clever idea. Turturro’s ludicrously funny cameo as pervert Jesus the Bowler is, aside from “The Night Of”, the best thing he’s ever done. Listen out for a Mariachi version of a certain Eagles song during his scene. The Dude’s love of CCR and hatred of The Eagles is one of the film’s chief selling points for me.

Some of the characters are perhaps more interesting than others; Moore’s character and performance were kinda irritatingly affected, and the trio comprised of Torsten Voges, Flea, and Peter Stormare are pretty wasted and deserve better. However, this is pretty damn funny and highly entertaining stuff. Best of all, unlike “Fargo” and “Raising Arizona” it’s weird and quirky without being inaccessible, off-putting or unpleasant. It’s a trip, man. Highly profane screenplay by The Coens, with Joel doing directorial duties, as per usual. They earn my respect alone for managing to make a ‘scattering of the ashes’ scene hilarious, despite being a hoary old comedy cliché. The script is full of lines that have become part of the cultural lexicon, from ‘You’re out of your element’, ‘Nobody fucks with de Jesus’, and ‘Well, that’s just like your opinion, man’ (We’ve all used that one, right?), to the repeated ‘It really tied the room together’, with ‘El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing’ is one of my favourite lines of dialogue in any movie ever. In its own way, I’d argue that the dialogue here is just as superlative as in legit noir films like “Double Indemnity” and “Sweet Smell of Success”.

If you’ve not taken this trip, I strongly advise you see it at least once in your life. Oh, and ‘Logjammin’ is one of the funniest names for a fake porno I’ve ever heard.

Rating: B