The Big Lebowski

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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The Dude abides.

Maybe that’s why it’s difficult to believe it’s been 20 years since we first met him in the personage of Jeff Bridges in the Coen Brothers classic, “The Big Lebowski.”

Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski was the epitome of cool, a slacker who preferred bowling to holding down a job. He was described as being “terminally relaxed.”

In the 1998 film the Dude becomes a reluctant detective when he’s mistaken for a millionaire of the same name.

As he says to his wealthy namesake, “Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not ‘Mr. Lebowski.’ You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or, uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”

David Huddleston plays the eponymous Big Lebowski of the film’s title.

The cast also includes John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Tara Reid, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Thewlis, and Ben Gazzara. Also that mustachioed ol’ cowpoke Sam Elliott appears in the iconic role of The Stranger.

Written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, they said they were going for a Raymond Chandler feel. Joel Coen recalls, “We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story – how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that’s ultimately unimportant.”

Not very successful when first released, the film has morphed into a cult favorite, noted for its “idiosyncratic characters, dream sequences, unconventional dialogue, and eclectic soundtrack.”

Premiere magazine voted the film as one of “The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time.” Film critic Roger Ebert included it on his “Great Movies” list.

Joel Coen shrugs uninterestedly. “The movie has more of an enduring fascination for other people than it does for us.”

Now, TCM Big Screen Classics is hosting a presentation of “The Big Lebowski – A Special 20th Anniversary Event.” This special screening takes place on August 22 at Tropic Cinema.

As TMC puts it, “From the Academy Award-winning Coen brothers, ‘The Big Lebowski’ is a hilariously quirky comedy about bowling, a severed toe, White Russians, and a guy named … The Dude.”

Jeff Bridges reminisces about how he came to be the Dude. “The Coen brothers said, ‘Oh we’re writing something for you.’ And I was so excited because I’m a big fan of ‘Blood Simple.’ Years passed, finally they presented me with what they had written, and it was, you know, the Dude. I couldn’t figure out where they got this character. It was like nothing I had played before. But it seemed like they had been in a few parties back in the Sixties with me or something. It reminded me a lot of myself back in those days. I smoked my share of pot and all that, and the long hair.”

The movie’s message? “Well,” muses Jeff Bridges, “I think the Stranger sums it up pretty good with that last speech, you know, ‘I hope you had a good time, it was funny.’ So that was one message, that life is funny, you can find the humor in it.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com