The Big Lebowski

The odd couple strike again

The Coen brothers are renowned for their  rather askew view of the world and love of the absurd. They also seem to be obsessed with kidnappings. Raising Arizona, Fargo, and now The Big Lebowski each revolve around a kidnapping, all of which go disasterously wrong. Whereas Fargo maintained the darker tone of their stunning debut, Blood Simple, and also Barton Fink, this movie is far lighter in tone, with the emphasis on humour. The Coen brothers have had mixed results at comedy :- Raising Arizona was hilarious but The Hudsucker Proxy misfired on all cylinders.

Jeff Bridges plays the eponymous Lebowski, but is known to all as 'the Dude'. The Dude only lives for bowling in the sense that it is the only thing he bothers to do. The Dude's life is very uncomplicated - apart from the bowling league, smoking the odd doobie and drinking endless White Russians, he doesn't concern himself with any other aspect of life (such as working, for instance). His easy-going existence is spoiled somewhat by two hoodlums who ambush him when he arrives back at his apartment one night. They shove his head down the toilet, pee on his livingroom rug and send a message from their loanshark boss that Lebowski's wife better come good on her loan, or else.  The Dude convinces them that they have the wrong guy and they leave.
However, his rug has been violated, so to speak, so he locates the other Jeff Lebowski, a millionaire businessman who is confined to a wheelchair, and asks him to pay for a new rug, figuring that he bears some responsibility. The 'Big' Lebowski tells him to take a hike. The Dude steals a rug anyway and meets Lebowski's wife, who is  beautiful, bored and  much younger than her husband. Life becomes more complicated when the aforementioned wife is apparently kidnapped, and the Dude is asked to deliver the ransom money. The Dude's other concern is staying ahead in the local bowling league. His teammates are Walter Sobchek (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi), and his most bitter rival is Jesus Quintana (John Turturro).

Walter is an expert on everything and has an opinion on everything. In his own mind. Unfortunately, Walter is not exactly of sound mind, due to his time in Vietnam. Walter decides to help the Dude deliver the ransom money but has a plan of his own. Needless to say, Walter bungles his plan and the Dude is forced to search for the missing girl, the ransom and also his rug.

In one sense, The Big Lebowski revisits the plot of  Fargo, but plays  for laughs. A kidnapping which is not what it seems to be. In fact, it may be that the supposed victim is also the perpetrator. But whereas the kidnapping in Fargo was the main focus of the story, the kidnapping merely serves as a sideshow to the Dude's journey of non-enlightenment. And even though Jeff Bridges occupies most of the screen time, and is excellent as the utterly spaced-out Dude, it is Goodman who lights up the screen every time he appears. Pontificating on various topics (without having a clue ), he is absolutely hilarious, such as his thoughts on Nazis;"Say what you like about National Socialism, at least they had an ethos". It's a pity that Goodman doesn't have a more substantial role , because the movie drags without him. One reason could be that the movie lacks any coherent narrative - and there is the suspicion that we, the audience, are being spun a rambling shaggy dog story. This is emphasised by the narration that book-ends the movie. And even though the meandering nature of the story means that we encounter lots of entertaining characters, it also serves as a distraction. And some of the characterizations are not very original - Tom Wolfe was mocking the art-house scene decades ago.

Among the performers, Turturro has a great time as Quintana, the Dude's would-be bowling nemisis, and Julianna Moore has a small role as the loopy artist sister of the 'big' Lebowski. She is in danger of assuming Greta Scachi's reputation of getting her kit off in every movie she appears in. She manages a full frontal nude scene in this movie too, albeit fleetingly. But who's complaining ? Steve Buscemi has a very inconsequential role as Donny, and Peter Stormare clowns about as the leader of a group of nihilist German techno musicians who get invloved in the kidnapping.

Ultimately, this is good fun, but some of the humour is a little laboured. Fargo was always going to be difficult to surpass, but The Big Lebowski is well worth a visit to the cinema.
  

Directed and Produced by Ethan and Joel  Coen.

Top

Back to the Main Page
© 1998 Stockholm Film Review. All Rights Reserved.