The Big Lebowski

365 Films

Entry #128

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Directed by Joel Coen

There is so much to be said about The Big Lebowski that it seems futile to attempt to contain it within a single blog.  Case and point, the volumes of text that have been created in its wake, everything from documenting the philosophy of the film to the cult that was birthed by it, The Big Lebowski has become more of a religion than a singular film.  In some instances, this has its drawbacks, the most undeniable being that the film now has a reputation to live up to as opposed to being the undiscovered gem it once was.  To those people, I literally have nothing more to say other than, your loss.  The Big Lebowski was the highly anticipated follow up to the Coen brothers Oscar glorified Fargo released the previous years.  That they would follow up such a highly acclaimed work with a seemingly throwaway Chandler meets Cheech and Chong meets Busby Berkeley mystery-detective-farce that literally goes nowhere is in an of itself a commendable act.  That they would create and enduring legacy in cinematic comedy, one as fresh and innovative today as when it debuted some fifteen years ago, is another thing entirely.  As melodramatic as it sounds, I feel like I need to bookmark my cinematic education (in the comedy realm anyway) as existing between two periods BD (before dude) and AL (after lebowski.  The Big Lebowski changed my concept of what a comedic film was capable of in terms of maintaining a freewheeling madcap logic while also being brilliantly structured and maximized down to every last stutter and utterance of dialogue.  The thing is just a marvel of comedic writing to behold is the plainest way of putting it.  I also had not encountered a comedy that remained as line-by-line funny as The Big Lebowski was and continues to be.  The way I’ve always put it to newbies is that for me, The Big Lebowski is like a classic Simpsons episode; I can watch it over and over and over again and still laugh at all the same jokes.  The Big Lebowski is also incredibly special for me because it initially existed as a private little in-joke amongst my family and a few friends.  I don’t want to get all territorial about the love for a film that has grown astronomically beyond my control (such an act would be pointless, obviously) but I would be remiss not to mention one tiny detail that actually separates my family from a fairly substantial majority of Lebowski devotees: we were there first.  I remember every little detail about our first viewing of The Big Lebowski, right down to the fact that it was on a Sunday afternoon at Cinemark Movies 10 on West Newport Pike in Wilmington, Delaware and that we all went together as a family.  I remember the unanimous favorable opinion of the film (although I believe it was most strongly felt between my Dad, my Brother, and Myself but the other accountable parties are more than welcome to correct this statement if need be) and the subsequent befuddlement that followed when the rest of the world did not conform to our views.   That was the procedure for the next five or so years, The Big Lebowski was like a secret language we spoke with each other and every fresh viewing brought on a potent new analysis that had to be shared immediately.  I suppose I should be glad that the Lebowski fests that sprung up over time have only validated how prescient our taste was even in the infancy of the film’s existence.  At the same time, I can’t help but mourn the fact the little film that was once ours and ours alone that has now turned into the baby from Honey I Blew Up The Baby.  I guess if I wanted to be a jackass about it, I would feel that way.  Instead, I believe I’ll choose to see our story as the story that began every Lebowski fest since its inception.  One that began in coded references and grew into a mutually shared utopian vision of humanity bound together by one incredibly funny, Zen-silly, and in the end, touchingly heart-warming piece of cinema.