# Big Lebowski, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Nathaniel R. Atcheson

    The Big Lebowski (1998)

    Director:  Joel Coen
    Cast:  Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Peter
    Stormare, David Huddleston
    Screenplay:  Joel & Ethan Coen
    Producer:  Ethan Coen
    Runtime:  117 min.
    US Distribution:  PolyGram/Gramercy
    Rated R:  Language, drugs, sex, violence

By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)

The Coen brothers are strange. If their films reflect their personalities in any way, I probably wouldn't be terribly interested in meeting them, not because I wouldn't like them, but because I would fear them. That's okay--chances have it I'll never meet them. I'll continue to watch their films, though, and probably continue to enjoy them.

The Big Lebowski fits nicely into that Coen style, a mold in which they amalgamate original humor with violence and high numbers of expletives. At the same time, the film is essentially pointless. I find this to be a strong point. It's occasionally nice to see a movie that doesn't force feed a Deep Meaning, but simply forces viewers to pay attention because it's jam-packed with pop-culture references and bowling jokes. Wait, now that I think about it, The Big Lebowski features a deeply complex bowling motif.

Jeff Bridges stars as a man named Jeff Lebowski, but he goes as The Dude. The Dude is an unemployed loser (for lack of a more concise word). He does bowl, though, and presumably he is very good. He bowls with his friends, Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi). The first scene of the film places the Dude in a situation in which he is roughed up by a couple of thugs looking for a man named Lebowski. The Dude quickly explains that they have the wrong man, but it's too late: they have already urinated on his Oriental rug.

Irate (or, as irate as the Dude can get), he heads to meet this Lebowski (the Big Lebowski, played by David Huddleston). The Dude demands that his carpet is replaced. And...

Wow, I could just go on and on. The story unravels so quickly, and there are so many developments that I don't know where to stop summing it up and end the paragraph with "It goes on from there." It's all about the consequences the Dude faces just because he wanted his rug replaced.

It's entertaining and engaging all the way through because there are a lot of well-drawn characters. The Dude, for instance, played with wonderful indifference by Bridges, is easily the most interesting washout I've ever seen. He always has a dumbfounded look on his dim-witted face, even when he gets splashed with paint and toilet water. I don't think he utters more than one or two original thoughts in the entire film; most of his dialogue is in reflection of the ongoing destruction of his car.

John Goodman, in just over two months, has now appeared in four films this year. Miraculously, I'm not sick of him yet--I suppose this proves, to some extent, that he can change enough from film to film that I don't grow tired of his antics. He utilizes the f-word very well here, and seems perfectly fit to play a Vietnam vet who ain't afraid of nothin'. Julianne Moore, who needs to be in every film, is wonderful here as the Big Lebowski's somehow-British feminist daughter, Maude. We get the feeling she adopted the British accent because she thought it was cool, and wanted to project the coolness in her voice.

And there is the usual array of colorful cameo characters. John Turturro is disturbingly amusing as a purple-clad pederastic (is that a word?) bowling freak named Jesus (that's Gee-zus, not Hey-soos). David Thewlis has a juicy two-line cameo as a girly friend of Maude's. Steve Buscemi gets cursed at a lot by Goodman. And Sam Elliott shows up a couple of times to brief us on the state of the characters, and to provide a few closing thoughts.

Coen films work because, even at their most ridiculous moments, they still convey hints of realism. I never doubted that any of the ludicrous things happening on screen could actually happen in real life. I didn't care much for the excessively-strange dream sequences, but in a film this over-the-top, I can accept it to go a little further over the top. The Big Lebowski is a funny, entertaining movie. And, like I said, it has no point. What makes a pointless Coen film different from the average pointless film, however, is that the chances are you'll remember the Coen film for quite a while, even if it is just to figure out what that damn bowling metaphor means.

    *** out of ****
    (7/10, B)

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               Nathaniel R. Atcheson

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