The Big Lebowski (Special Edition) [DVD]

Watch it over and over

In this Chandleresque story about mistaken identity, a missing trophy wife called Bunny, white Russians looking to make a few bucks and an all-important bowling competition, Jeff Lebowski (The Dude) wonders how his simple life suddenly got so complicated.When the Dude gets a night time visit from a couple of goons looking to recover a debt from a wife he doesn't have, it's quite clear the none too bright dimwits have got the wrong man. When they realise their mistake they decide to soil a rug that "really ties his room together". Deciding the real Lebowski, whoever he is, should recompense him, he sets off looking for a new unsoiled rug but soon finds himself drawn into a complicated film noirish comedy of errors.Although the Coen brothers have made some fabulously entertaining films in their career that are usually as witty and sharp as a lemon wedge pocked right into your eye, perhaps none are as sharp and wildly entertaining as The Big Lebowski. Packed with characters to die for, the plot, for the most part, is not nearly as interesting or as funny as the pitch perfect performances and the hilarious script. Lines of dialogue so laugh out loud funny delivered with such conviction by Buscemi, Goodman and Bridges mean that like many of the '40s and '50s detective mystery films starring people like Humphrey Bogart that this film is loosely based on, the often complicated plot takes a back seat. It doesn't really matter if you are not quite sure what is going on because the journey, along with your companions, is such a pleasure to undertake. Although the story does eventually make sense and things are wrapped up with a reasonably neat conclusion, it's the getting there that really matters not the eventual destination.Jeff Bridges's eventual tombstone and definitely his obituary may very well have and make some reference to the "Dude", who has now become an American cultural icon. Lines from the film are now quoted almost as much as those from Withnail and I and The Rocky Horror Picture show. His portrayal of the ageing stoner who finds himself in a new confusing world where people have issues and agendas is beyond brilliant. There is very little to like about him in reality, he doesn't work, is usually very high, spends much of his life bowling and generally slobbing about in loose-fitting clothes, however, Bridges manages to instil the Dude with such warmth, likeability and good humour that it's almost impossible to dislike him. His dysfunctional relationship with his bowling buddies is a bit like a marriage that doesn't quite work but none of the participants can be bothered to do anything about it. The arguing at cross purposes, not really listening etc should be annoying in the extreme, but it's not it's very funny. As you would expect the mystery unfolds at a leisurely pace and not everything is as expected. Just like the best mysteries, there are a couple of red herrings to complicate things and add interest.The supporting cast including Julianne Moore, John Turturro and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman are fabulous and lift the whole production to a new level. The two drug-fuelled dream sequences are a nice touch that, although very different in tone, still manage to fit in perfectly with the flow of the film. These scenes are often badly done and stop the narrative in its tracks. Here they actually compliment it.Pretty much ignored on release, TBL now has such a dedicated following it may very well be the Coens most recognisable film, perhaps excepting Fargo. Superb and extremely funny.

As is often the case with a Coen brothers film there is a lot more going on in "The Big Lebowski" than you may perceive on first viewing. It's a film noir without the noir. It's a thriller with very few actual thrills. It's a comedy with no real jokes. However it is unremittingly funny. Best describe it as a screwball thriller type thing and leave it at that. Or just say it's a Coen brothers film, either will suffice I suppose.Released in 1998 after the international success of the superb "Fargo "it was hard to imagine the Coens could top it, but with this movie they did. It is nuance perfect. Jeff Bridges , in arguably a career high, forgive the weedy pun ( forgive that pun as well while we are at it) plays Jeff Lebowski , otherwise known as "The Dude", a professional stoner, pacifist and lover of White Russians. That's the drink, not the race. His other passion is bowling at the local alley with his team mates , Vietnam veteran Walter( John Goodman playing a character based on the Coens friend screenwriter and director John Milius)a man with a hair trigger temperament both in judgement and attitude and the mild equitable butt of their jokes and irritations Donny( Steve Buscemi)Everything flows smoothly in The Dudes world until one day two German heavies break into his apartment , urinate on his carpet, they might have used the toilet if they weren't busy shoving The Dudes head down it ...and then all hell breaks loose.It transpires that these Teutonic morons had confused The Dude with his namesake, not as easy a mistake to make as it would first seem as his name sake is a wheel chair bound millionaire (David Huddleston) whose young trophy wife (Tara Reid, in the one role she can play convincingly) has been kidnapped because she owes Porn king Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) amongst others, money .The Dude is convinced to act as bagman with extreme reluctance but his nature is to go with the flow. However his reluctance seems understandable when his good buddy Walters best intentioned intervention results in the drop being a complete disaster, neatly aping the American military's numerous catastrophic global interventions. Thus The Dude is mired ever deeper into the fiasco meeting numerous memorable supporting characters including Philip Seymour Hoffman's creepy "Smithers" like personal assistant, Julianne Moore as Lebowskis daughter Maude, an ultra confident feminist artist, a fantastic cameo from John Turturro as Jesus, The Dudes flamboyant bowling rival. Peter Stormare who played the blond deadpan killer in "Fargo" is memorable as one of the German nihilists whose main weapon is a ferret, and David Thewlis pops up as a permanently giggling video artist.The script is amazing, the plot zig s and zags with narrative relish, things and situations that seem un -related to the main thrust of the story pop up along the way. There is even time for a truly bizarre but wildly amusing musical dream sequence involving bowling that makes it seem a far more interesting pastime than it is. The cast are uniformly excellent and The Dude is such an unlikely but likeable everyman kind of hero it's amazing he hasn't featured in another film .But then as Sam Elliot's stranger narrates "Sometimes there's a man, well he's the man for his time and place". This was obviously The Dudes time and place.With numerous extras including storyboards and a thirty minute documentary which was, I believe, available on a previous DVD version of the film this is an irresistible package. A truly great movie with a reservoir of quotable lines, colossal amounts of hilarious profanity and the rug "That tied the room together", and like the rug it's colourful and contains multiple strands which tie everything together. It sure don't smell of p*** though.