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The Big Lebowski

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The Big Lebowski
File:The.Big.Lebowski.1998.Cover.jpg
Directed byJoel Coen
Written byEthan Coen
Joel Coen
Produced byEthan Coen
StarringJeff Bridges
John Goodman
Steve Buscemi
Julianne Moore
David Huddleston
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Peter Stormare
John Turturro
Tara Reid
Sam Elliott
CinematographyRoger Deakins
Edited byTricia Cooke
Roderick Jaynes
Music byCarter Burwell
Distributed byGramercy Pictures
Release dates
United States March 8, 1998
Running time
117 min.
CountryUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15,000,000

The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The movie chronicles a few days in the life of an unemployed California slacker and recreational bowler after he is mistaken for a millionaire with the same name. The film, known for its characters, surreal dream sequences, dialogue and classic rock soundtrack, is a cult classic.

Set in 1991 in Southern California, the film stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (a character the filmmakers based on their associate Jeff Dowd), John Goodman as Walter Sobchak, Steve Buscemi as Donny Kerobatsos, Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski, David Huddleston as Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt, Tara Reid as Bunny Lebowski, and Sam Elliott as "The Stranger", a mysterious narrator who begins and ends the movie.

Coen brothers regulars John Turturro, Jon Polito, Peter Stormare and Warren Keith are also featured.

While not directly based on Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep, Joel Coen has said that "[we] wanted to do a Chandler kind of story - how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery. As well as having a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant."[1]. The world of Raymond Chandler has been modernized considerably, in the style of Robert Altman's 1973 film The Long Goodbye.

As of October 11th, 2006, The Big Lebowski was ranked #196 on IMDb's list of the Top 250 Movies of All Time, with a user rating of 7.9 out of 10.

Story

Template:Spoiler

Opening

Upon his return home after buying a quart of milk with a check for 69 cents, two thugs surprise Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Bridges) in his home in Venice, California. They rough him up in an attempt to collect a debt supposedly incurred by Lebowski's wife. One of the thugs urinates on a living room rug, which, in the Dude's mind, "really tied the room together". The Dude points to his raised toilet seat, modest apartment and ringless finger as proof he is not the married multi-millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski they seek.

At the insistence of his bowling teammate, an unstable Vietnam War veteran and security-store owner named Walter Sobchak (Goodman), the Dude seeks compensation from the other Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire who gruffly refuses. When the discussion gets heated, the Dude echoes George H. W. Bush's pre-Gulf War statement, seen on a television in the film's first scene: "This aggression will not stand, man". Under false pretenses, the Dude then obtains a replacement rug from the mansion. On his way out, he meets Bunny Lebowski, the Big Lebowski's trophy wife, who asks him to blow on her drying toenails, identifies the man floating in an inflatable chair in the Big Lebowski's pool as a nihilist, and makes the Dude an offer of prostitution.

The kidnapping

After being disqualified from their bowling league's tournament because Walter pulled out a firearm in the bowling alley, the Dude's home is invaded again, this time by Maude Lebowski and an associate goon, who knocks the Dude unconscious and reclaims the new rug out from under him. The Dude experiences a surreal dream sequence involving the rug as a magic carpet.

The millionaire Lebowski calls upon the Dude days later with an odd request: He says Bunny has been kidnapped — ostensibly by the same people who soiled the Dude's beloved rug — and asks him to act as a paid courier for the ransom. Lebowski's assistant, Brandt, repeats an ominous warning: "Her life is in your hands, Dude."

Believing the task to be easy money, the Dude agrees to the drop. Walter, having formulated a plan for keeping the entire ransom, invites himself along and insists on driving. His plan consists of handing the kidnappers a "ringer", a suitcase filled with his dirty underwear ("Laundry, dude, the whites"), grabbing one of them, and beating Bunny's location out of him. His chatter proves to be a distraction when the Dude is speaking with the "kidnappers" via a mobile phone. The kidnappers instruct the Dude to throw the briefcase of money from his moving car off a bridge, which negates Walter's plan. He improvises and executes a new one, which consists of throwing out the "ringer" and jumping out of the car with his Uzi, which fires and damages The Dude's car. The kidnappers pick up the fake suitcase and drive off on motorcycles, foiling Walter's plan. Walter attempts to confort the distraught Dude with "Fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling."

The Dude's luck worsens when his Ford Torino[2] is stolen from the bowling alley parking lot, along with the silver briefcase.

Meetings with the police, Maude

The Dude reports his car (and rug, in separate incidents) stolen to the LAPD, and receives a message from the millionaire Lebowski's daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore), who says she took his rug and would like to arrange a meeting with the Dude. A skeptical officer informs the Dude the likelihood of recovering his belongings from the stolen car, including the briefcase, tape deck, "or the Creedence", is minimal.

At Maude's studio, where she identifies her art as "strongly vaginal", she explains that she took the rug because it was given to her by her late mother, and had "sentimental value" to her. She confirms what the Dude had already suspected, that Bunny had probably kidnapped herself, and asks him to recover the $1,000,000 from the kidnappers for a percentage of the cash. He agrees.

Maude's chauffeur delivers him back to his apartment, where he is strong-armed into another limousine where the Big Lebowski and Brandt confront him about the botched ransom delivery. The Dude raises the possibility of a kidnapping hoax but accidentally mentions that "We dropped the bag" during a mission he was told to perform alone. The Dude quickly covers by saying he was referring to "the royal 'we', the editorial..." The Big Lebowski erases the notion of a fake kidnapping from the Dude's mind when the former shows the protagonist a severed pinky toe with a toenail painted in Bunny's color.

"This is a private residence, man."

The Dude seeks respite from his troubles in the bathtub with candles, a tape of "Ocean Sounds", and a joint, when he receives a message from the police that his car has been located. The "far out" news is short-lived, as three men who speak with a German accent invade the Dude's apartment, vandalise it with a cricket bat, scare him with a weasel, and threaten to cut off his "johnson" if he does not hand over the money. The kidnappers also repeatedly trumpet their nihilism ("We believe in nothing, Lebowski!"), confirming for the Dude that the main kidnapper is Bunny's boyfriend he saw passed out in the Big Lebowski's pool.

The Dude goes to pick up his car, and finds the briefcase missing, though his tape deck and Creedence tapes are intact. On his way home, the Dude notices a Volkswagen Beetle tailing him. He tries to flick his roach out the window, but drops it in his lap and crashes his car while trying to shake it off. He finally puts it out with a beer, and, relieved, notices a sheet of binder paper with a homework assignment for one Larry Sellers wedged into the car seat.

This is what happens

The Dude, Walter, and Donny attend the Dude's landlord's dance cycle, where they decide to visit Larry Sellers at his residence on Radford Avenue ("near the In-N-Out Burger") and attempt to recover the money. They confront the teenager, but Larry is mute for their entire visit. Walter, in an attempt to teach Larry a lesson in "what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass", uses a crowbar to smash a new Corvette parked outside, which he believes Larry bought with the money from the briefcase. However, the car actually belongs to a neighbor, who takes his revenge on the Dude's car, destroying its windshield.

The trio return home in silence after visiting the In-n-Out, listening to Carlos Santana's Oye Como Va with the wind in their faces.

Trip to Malibu

Upon returning home, the Dude attempts to prevent further intrusions by propping a chair against the front door and securing it in place with a two-by-four nailed to the floor. His efforts are fruitless, however, as the door opens outwards and the thugs from the opening scene invade once again, this time to retrieve the Dude by request of Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara), a pornographic movie director, who cast Bunny Lebowski and Karl Hungus in "Log Jammin'".

At Treehorn's post-modern Malibu, California home, the host spikes the Dude's White Russian and attempts to extract information about the whereabouts of Bunny and the money, but fails, as the Dude has no such information. The Dude passes out, leading to an elaborate dream sequence involving a fantastical bowling choreography featuring Maude, in a Viking outfit and Saddam Hussein as the bowling alley desk clerk. The Dude wakes up running down a street, being followed by a police car.

At the police station, the Dude finds the chief of police to be an angry friend of Treehorn's. The chief inspects the Dude's wallet and finds that a Ralph's supermarket discount card is his only form of identification. Pegging the Dude as a lowlife, the chief throws a coffee mug at the Dude's head and tells him to keep his "ugly fucking goldbricking ass out of my beach community!"

During a cab ride home, the Dude asks the driver to change the radio station because he "hate[s] the fucking Eagles," which offends the driver, who pulls over and unceremoniously ejects the Dude from the taxi. The viewer catches sight of Bunny — toes intact — driving past singing "Viva Las Vegas".

At home, the Dude is greeted by Maude Lebowski, dressed only in his bathrobe, who offers herself to him quite frankly: "Jeffrey. Love me."

Lot of ins, lot of outs

During post-coital conversation with Maude, whose motive for the rendezvous is procreation, The Dude finds out that the Big Lebowski does not actually have any money of his own, as Maude's late mother was the rich one. Calling Walter to take him to The Big Lebowski's house, the Dude unravels the whole scheme: The "kidnappers" were actually friends of Bunny's, who faked the kidnapping to get a million dollars. The Big Lebowski, himself wanting to keep the money (which he embezzled from the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers organization) and no longer "digging" Bunny, was content to let the kidnappers kill her. The Dude, whom the Big Lebowski had just met, seemed a perfect fall guy, so the Big Lebowski gave him a briefcase filled with phonebooks, hoping the kidnappers would kill the Dude too, letting him keep the cash without anyone knowing.

The Dude and Walter arrive at the Big Lebowski residence, finding Bunny's car crashed into a fountain, and Bunny herself intact and skinnydipping. They confront the Big Lebowski with their version of the events, which he denies, but does not dispute. Walter, believing that the Big Lebowki is not really paralyzed, picks him up and drops him on the floor, causing him to cry.

Though the whole affair finally appears to be over, the two friends (along with Donny), after bowling, are once again confronted by the "nihilists", who have set The Dude's car on fire. They are still demanding the million dollars, despite the fact that the Dude does not have the money, which never even existed, and there never was a kidnapping, which means they have no grounds on which to demand the money. The "nihilists" complain that "this isn't fair" and attack the three. Walter fights them off with minimal effort, but the aftermath of the clash reveals that Donny has suffered a fatal heart attack.

"Good night, sweet prince."

At the mortuary where Donny's remains have been cremated, Walter reviews the bill and takes exception to the cost of the urn, despite it being the "most modestly priced receptacle", and asks if there is "a Ralphs around here".

The Dude and Walter go to a beach to scatter Donny's ashes (which they have put into a Folgers coffee can) "in accordance with what we think [his] dying wishes might well have been." Walter offers a lengthy eulogy, in which he cites Donny's love of surfing, compares his untimely death to the untimely deaths of those who died in the Vietnam War, and concludes with "Good night, sweet prince." He scatters Donny's ashes, but a wind blows much of the ashes into The Dude's face. Upset, The Dude lashes out at Walter for, among other things, making pointless allusions to the Vietnam War during the eulogy. Walter apologizes and tries to comfort the Dude, finally inviting him to "fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling."

Characters

Main characters

File:The.Big.Lebowski.1998.Screenshot.1.jpg
The Dude, Jeff Lebowski, talking to the "Big Lebowski" (Huddleston) about compensation for the rug, which "really tied the room together." Refused, the Dude retorts, "No, this will not stand. This aggression will not stand, man." (echoing the famous President Bush comment before the Gulf War.)
  • Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is a single, unemployed Venice, California, slacker who enjoys cannabis and spends his days "bowling, driving around, [and having] the occasional acid flashback." A devoted Creedence Clearwater Revival fan, he actively hates the 1970s soft-rock band, Eagles. He freely uses profanity and is not above postdating a check for $0.69 to buy a carton of half and half for his favorite drink, White Russian cocktails. He claims to be one of the members of the "Seattle Seven" and a former roadie for Metallica, though he is not fond of the bandmembers (he refers to them as a "bunch of assholes"). The Dude is a laid-back pacifist who gets caught up in a scheme of kidnapping and embezzlement after seeking reparations for his beloved rug — which "really tied the room together" — after it was peed on.
  • Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) is a Vietnam War veteran who "lives in the past"; he is the Dude's best friend and bowling teammate. Born a Polish Catholic, he converted to Judaism when he married his wife Cynthia and is accused of having a "sick Cynthia fetish" by The Dude ever since the two were divorced five years prior to the events in the film. Walter is a paranoid, mentally unstable man who often relates situations to his experiences in the Vietnam War. He often deals with situations aggressively and stubbornly, providing the main impetus for much of the story. He is boisterously confident in his actions, though his plans usually backfire, often ending disastrously for himself and the Dude. Walter runs his own security firm, Sobchak Security, and places bowling second to only his reverence to his religion, as evidenced by the memorable line "I'm as Jewish as the fucking Tevye" and his strict rule against bowling on Shabbos. He is based loosely on real life filmmaker John Milius.
  • Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi) is a member of Walter and The Dude's bowling team. Charmingly naïve, he interrupts conversations between The Dude and Walter to inquire about the parts of the story he missed, evoking responses such as "you're out of your element" and "you're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie." He is an avid bowler, and surfer in his younger days. Following his death and cremation, Walter and The Dude scatter his ashes over the ocean, in accordance with what his final wishes "might well have been."
  • Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore) is the Big Lebowski's daughter. She is a feminist as well as an avant-garde artist whose work "has been commended as strongly vaginal." She is good friends with video artist Knox Harrington (David Thewlis), and she is also the person who introduced Bunny to Uli Kunkle, the nihilist and would-be kidnapper. Maude strongly disapproves of her father's marriage to Bunny.
  • Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), "The Big Lebowski" to which the movie's title refers, is a multi-millionare who lost his legs to "some Chinaman [...] in Korea." He is married to Bunny and is the father of Maude by his late wife. He is a very vain man who prides himself on the fact that he has "accomplished more than most men, and without the use of [his] legs."
  • Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a sycophant and loyal assistant to Mr. Lebowski, tries to please everyone. Brandt, who is one of the few people outside the Dude's circle who calls him by his preferred title, has a habit of echoing his boss as well as forcing out nervous laughter during awkward moments.
  • Bunny Lebowski (Tara Reid), born Fawn Knutsen, is the Big Lebowski's "trophy wife." She ran away from her family in Moorhead, Minnesota and soon found herself making pornographic videos under the name Bunny LaJoya. She is a careless, irresponsible person who is an annoyance to her husband because "she owes money all over town, including to known pornographers."

Minor characters

  • Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) is a bigtime pornographic film producer who lives in Malibu, California. His credits include Thrust, Balls-zac, and Logjammin' starring Bunny and "Karl Hungus". He employs the two thugs who ambush The Dude in his home at the beginning of the movie. In spite of this apparent disrespect, he does call Lebowski "The Dude".
  • The Nihilists are a group of ethnic Germans who claim to be nihilists, although they do not seem to completely grasp the tenets of nihilism, vis-a-vis their desire for the money and complaints about unfairness. The group, composed of leader Uli Kunkle, stage name Karl Hungus (Peter Stormare), Franz (Torsten Voges), and Dieter (Flea) is a Kraftwerkian techno-pop band called "Autobahn" from the mid-'70s. The group, along with Kunkle's ex-girlfriend, Lu Ahkrugns (played by Aimee Mann), are the supposed kidnappers of Bunny Lebowski.
File:The.Big.Lebowski.1998.Screenshot.2.jpg
The Dude, Donny and Walter listen to Jesus' bowling-related braggadocio.
  • "Smokey" (Jimmie Dale Gilmore) is on a bowling team that the Dude and Walter play in order to qualify for the semifinals. When Walter claims that Smokey goes over the line, constituting a foul, Smokey opposes him and goes to mark the frame an eight. At this point, Walter takes a pistol out of his bowling bag and threatens Smokey with the famous line "mark that frame an eight and you're entering a world of pain." As the Dude explains to Walter, Smokey is a "fragile" person who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and remains a pacifist to this day.
  • The Stranger (Sam Elliott) is the mysterious narrator who sees this story unfold from an unbiased perspective. He does not see the Dude as a low-life, but rather as an ironic tragic figure. The Stranger enjoys a good sarsaparilla, dresses as a cowboy, and is always accompanied with the song "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" in the background.
  • Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) is one of The Dude and Walter's opponents in the bowling league semifinals match. This eccentric, Latino trash-talking West Hollywood resident served "6 months in Chino for exposing himself to an 8-year-old". He speaks with a thick Hispanic accent, wears a uniform which matches his purple bowling ball, and refers to himself as "The Jesus". Although he only appears in two scenes, his line "You said it man! Nobody fucks with The Jesus!", is one of the most oft-quoted lines in the film.
  • Larry Sellers (Jesse Flanagan) is the son of Arthur Digby Sellers (Harry Bugin), a former television writer who wrote the bulk of the series Branded, a show loved by The Dude and Walter. His homework assignment is found in the Dude's recovered car.
  • Marty Pfeiffer (Jack Kehler) is The Dude's landlord. Marty is an aspiring interpretive dancer and values the Dude's opinion, inviting him to his performance upon finally getting his desired venue, Crane Jackson's Fountain Street Theatre. Marty reminds the Dude about his late rent by simply mentioning that "tomorrow is already the 10th", to which the Dude obliviously replies, "Far out."
  • Da Fino (Jon Polito) is a private investigator hired by Bunny's parents, the Knutsens, to entice their daughter back to their Midwestern farm. He drives a battered blue Volkswagen Beetle, mistakes the Dude for a "brother Shamus" (a fellow P.I.), and offends the Dude by referring to Maude as his "special lady" and not the Dude's preferred term, "lady friend".

Origins

After the critical and commercial failure of The Hudsucker Proxy, the Coen brothers wrote The Big Lebowski and decided Jeff Bridges was the perfect actor for the main role. However, Bridges was busy working on Walter Hill's western, Wild Bill, and so they had to wait for his schedule to free up. In the meantime, they wrote, filmed, and released Fargo.

According to The Making of The Big Lebowski, the Dude was based partly on the Coens' friend Peter Exline, a Vietnam veteran and film professor at USC who told the brothers about how the rug in his living room “tied the room together” and how he once had his rug stolen. However, The Dude is mostly based on Jeff "The Dude" Dowd, whom the Coens met on one of their first trips to L.A. in the 1970s. He called himself the Pope of Dope and had been a member of an activist group known as the Seattle Liberation Front during the Vietnam War years. [3]

Walter was based on someone that Peter, the Coen brothers' uncle, knew. He told the Coens a story about a friend of his, another veteran, whose car was stolen by a kid who left his homework in it with his address. Pete and Walter went to the kid’s house and confronted him. Walter was also based on John Milius who directed such films as Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Red Dawn (1984). Ethan commented in Ronald Bergan's book, The Coen Brothers: "We met John Milius when we were in L.A. making Barton Fink. He's a really funny guy, a really good storyteller. He was never actually in the military, although he wears a lot of military paraphernalia. He's a gun enthusiast and survivalist type." The Coens wrote the role of Walter specifically for John Goodman but had to wait until he was done with the Roseanne TV show before making The Big Lebowski.[4]

The bowling motif throughout the movie was based on a softball obsession of the man who inspired the Walter character. Ethan Coen is quoted as saying, in Joel and Ethan Coen: Blood Siblings: "The guy who the Walter character is based on is an avid member of, and consequently obsessed with, an amateur softball league team in L.A. But we changed it to bowling, because it’s more interesting, visually. All of the stuff associated with bowling—y’know, the architecture, the machines, it’s all sort of retro the Fifties and Sixties. Classic bowling design era." [5]

Big Lebowski in pop culture

Main article: The Big Lebowski in popular culture

Soundtrack

Untitled

The original score is composed by Carter Burwell, who has scored all the Coen brothers' films. T-Bone Burnett, who also worked with the Coen brothers on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ladykillers, is credited as music bibliographer.

Soundtrack album

  1. "The Man In Me" — written and performed by Bob Dylan
  2. "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" — written and performed by Captain Beefheart
  3. "My Mood Swings" — written by Elvis Costello and Cait O'Riordan; performed by Elvis Costello
  4. "Ataypura" — written by Moises Vivanco; performed by Yma Sumac
  5. "Traffic Boom" — written and performed by Piero Piccioni
  6. "I Got It Bad & That Ain't Good" — written by Duke Ellington and Paul Francis Webster; performed by Nina Simone
  7. "Stamping Ground" — written by Louis T. Hardin; performed by Moondog with orchestra
  8. "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" — written by Mickey Newbury; performed by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
  9. "Walking Song" — written and performed by Meredith Monk
  10. "Gluck Das Mir Verblieb" from Die tote Stadt — written and conducted by Erich Wolfgang Korngold; performed by Ilona Steingruber, Anton Dermota and the Austrian State Radio Orchestra
  11. "Lujon" — written and performed by Henry Mancini.
  12. "Hotel California" — written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Don Felder; performed by The Gipsy Kings
  13. "Technopop" — written and performed by Carter Burwell
  14. "Dead Flowers" — written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; performed by Townes Van Zandt

Other music in the film

References and footnotes

  1. ^ An Interview with The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan about "The Big Lebowski"
  2. ^ The Big Lebowski, (1998) at Internet Movie Cars Database
  3. ^ Cooke, Tricia and Robertson, William (1998). The Making of "The Big Lebowski". Faber and Faber Ltd. ISBN 0-57-119334-X
  4. ^ Bergan Ronald (2000). The Coen Brothers. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56-025254-5
  5. ^ (2004) Joel & Ethan Coen: Blood Siblings. Edited by Paul A. Woods. United Kingdom: Plexus Publishing. ISBN 0-85-965339-0

Further reading

  • The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film, by William Preston Robertson, Tricia Cooke, John Todd Anderson and Rafael Sanudo (1998, W.W. Norton & Company), ISBN 0-39-331750-1.
  • The Big Lebowski, by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (May 1998, Faber and Faber Ltd.), ISBN 0-57-119335-8.
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