The Big Lebowski (1998)

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

Dir: Coen Brothers

"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man." Just like many others before and after. There is no way to pin down the Dude. A rug, that really ties the room together, is pissed on, and it sets into motion a neo-noir tale that none of the characters care to be in. Nothing is learned. Nothing is gained. There is no arc for the main character. He is who he is from beginning to end. From one White Russian to another the world spins as he lights up another joint. The Dude is our hero because of this.

The period of the late nineties is an odd one filled with apathetic white dudes emasculated by the world around them and completely ineffectual to their surroundings. The Narrator in Fight Club (1999) is often misread from the perspective of weakened white dudes seeking power when in fact it was a satire of misogyny itself. The Narrator prior to meeting his split personality is content with owning things that eventually own him. He is content with not feeling and not sleeping and not caring about life around him. How about Lester Burnham (*cringe* Kevin Spacey) from American Beauty (1999)? He’s reached his midlife crisis and the best part of his day is hiding in his shower and masturbating before he has to face his wasted life. He fears the end has come, but as art imitating life would have it, a predilection for pedophilia gives him a new lease at getting his sh*t together. The only difference is that Lester doesn’t act on his urges the way Kevin did. Let’s look at Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998) based on the real life Hunter S. Thompson who allowed life to happen to him, happen all around him, and he reacted in his writings. And sometimes with a gun, but that’s besides the point. There’s the one-two punch of The Truman Show (1998) and EdTV (1999) that thought that boring white dudes were so important we should be watching them 24/7. But all of these films create a breakthrough in the main character whether it’s the creation of an imaginary friend, recapturing their youth, a bender to end-all-benders, their boat crashing through the fourth wall, or the realization that worship is overrated. This leaves The Big Lebowski, whose Jeffrey Lebowski is the same when we meet him as when we leave him. If we do see any movement in The Dude’s character, it is when Donny dies.

“I didn't like seein' Donny go.” Within all the humor of Lebowski, we have the death of Donny. In the world of Walter and The Dude, Donny was the innocent. You can see it when he’s sipping his sodas and excited by his strikes. He can’t ever understand the depraved sh*t Walter and Dude get themselves into, and that’s why he’s constantly asking questions. Whether you like it or not, you respond to Donny’s innocence, and when he dies for no reason to the plot you’re affected. His meaningless heart attack that has no place in the plot is a result of the conflict with the nihilists. This is funny on its own. But, Donny’s death does give Dude the chance to finally speak up against Walter’s bullsh*t… while covered in Donny’s ashes. Does this explosion amount to anything? No, the pair go bowling. The same can be said for the Noir characters Lebowski draws from. After the case, life for the hard-living detective seemingly go back to normal.

Bunny Lebowski in LogJammin’: You must be here to fix the cable.

Maude: Lord, you can imagine where it goes from here?

The Dude: He fixes the cable?

Dude as a Bogart-esque detective is one of those impressive details place right beneath the surface that keeps you returning again and again to the film. The Coen brothers have made a perfect parody of Noir films, but by injecting absurdism, surrealist dream imagery, and quirky characters we’re never confronted directly with their film-geek musings. We have the mystery, Dude as detective, Margot as femme fatale, and twists in plot. Even the quick wit dialogue of film noir is present. It’s just delivered through the slur of White Russians. Bogart would never show fear in the face of any threat. Neither does the Dude. We can easily write it off as him being an impressive *sshole, but instead, it’s that noir trope shining through. “Careful man, there’s a beverage here!” While being manhandled and tossed into a car is humorous because its calm in the face of aggression. “Obviously, you’re not a golfer,” “At least I’m housebroken,” and, “Yeah well, I still jerk off manually.” All among Dude’s arsenal of quips to disarm his would-be aggressors. Can you imagine Dude as a late nineties Philip Marlowe? Absolutely. Think about the evolution: Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), to Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye (1973) to Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. I can see it.