About "The Big Lebowski (1998)"

• Directed by : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• Written by : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• Starring : Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore

- Synopsis :

Two goons mistake 'the Dude' Lebowski for a millionaire Lebowski and urinate on his rug. Trying to recompense his rug from the wealthy Lebowski, he gets entwined in an intricate kidnapping case.

- Review :

To say that “The Big Lebowski” is a film presenting a story would be a massive understatement, with a plot that functions mostly as a backdrop to a study of interpersonal connections, it becomes anecdotal in its approach. Each character has something to offer to the themes discussed, regardless of the impact on the story itself, which is fully noticed by how little the main character, “The Dude” Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), impacts the narrative.

The Dude is somewhat of an anti-protagonist, dropped in the middle of a series of hurdles that he’s supposed to overcome, only he doesn’t want to. He just wants his rug back since it really tied the room together, then return to the comfort of his beloved bowling alley, drinking White Russians with his fellow bowling enthusiasts. He wasn’t seeking any of the events we got to witness throughout the film, as he was suddenly dropped in the middle of “a hopelessly complex plot that’s ultimately unimportant”, per Joel Coen. The catalyst of the story, however, is Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), a right-wing divorced Vietnam veteran who’s so influenced by his life experiences that he projects his PTSD and anxieties on bowling rules, Donny (Steve Buscemi), and the entire story of this film. He practically leads The Dude throughout the entire movie, from one inconvenience to another, with The Dude being nothing but a spectator witnessing the chaos inflicted by Walter’s hotheadedness.

The film’s fresh absurdist modus operandi to storytelling was the reason it was doomed to be a critical and commercial failure when it was released back in 1998, and also why it was revitalized as a cult classic in the wake of the 21st century as the American cinematic narrative shifted throughout the years, from finding meaning in the heroic tales of John Ford, to accepting the gritty truth of anti-heroism with the likes of Coppola and Scorsese, up until The Coen brothers, who dropped conventional settings in favor of a world of parallels and idiosyncrasies, confusing but intriguing, meaningless but funny, almost as if I’m describing the Gen-Z brand of humour, only that The Big Lebowski came a few decades early.

The Big Lebowski is a essentially a film noir, the main inspiration being The Big Sleep (1946), however, the Dude doesn’t fit into any of the essential tropes attached to the genre, he isn’t trying to solve any mysteries, he doesn’t have any of the morals or principles closely associated to the male protagonists of film noir. What mirrors film noir though, aside from the obvious elements of kidnapping, ransom money, and Nihilistic burglars, is the characters’ association to their past, The Dude was an ambitious counterculture activist hippie one day, Walter is still longing for the glory days of Vietnam War, Maude (Julianne Moore) is still trying to find a place for the Fluxus art movement in the cultural zeitgeist, all of them decades past their peak in the 60’s/70’s. The film is set in the 90’s, characterized by a surging stock market, an economic boom, The Gulf War and fast-food chains inviting people to supersize their meals, The Big Lebowski is consequently an invitation for people to chill out, a pure display of Taoism so strong that it sparked its own religion, a modern take on Taoism without the metaphysics, called Dudeism, in 2005.

The Dude is a tumbling tumbleweed, dealing with the good and bad in the same fashion, trying to achieve balance in his life, not by finding a job or making babies or any of the other capitalistic virtues, but by simply being him, he knows that whatever he does, life is  bigger than he could ever be and he’s a tiny piece in a large game of chess, one can say that The Dude is a Camusian, his idea of success is to take it easy and go with the flow, the world is moving so fast that personal fortune has become a necessity rather than a source of pleasure, and all we can do, just like The Dude, is to enjoy the simple everyday pleasures, and abide.

                                                                      Taha LOUAFI