The Big Lebowski

Definitely not Sam Spade, could have been the tagline, in true Hollywood movie poster style, more like Sam Stoned. Post Barton Fink, the Coen brothers, and several of that cast, revisit Los Angeles, this time with the aim of strictly having fun with the varied citizens of the city “way out West”. The time is the early 1990’s, and the first Gulf War is in the offing. Times are tough for many, and when the going gets tough, the Dude (the movie’s antihero) gets stoned and/or goes bowling.

The Dude is, as the saying goes, an ex-hippy, but that isn’t quite right, rather he is a hippy. At least insofar as he is a mellow long-haired, eh, dude, whose pastimes self-avowedly include “driving around, and the occasional acid flashback.” His only form of i.d. is a supermarket loyalty card, his favourite and constant tipple is a White Russian, he wears a bathrobe in public and he says “man” a lot. Oh yes, he’s forgotten most of the sixties, and if further proof was needed, that surely clinches it.

Definitely a happy-go lucky sort, we imagine, but events around him are getting him uptight. These mainly issue from his unlikely and unwelcomed, on his part, position as a go-between in a strange affair that appears to be the kidnapping of a wealthy man’s trophy wife. Thanks to this affair, the Dude crosses paths with some players in the adult entertainment business, a trio of German nihilists, and the Malibu police department.

However, no matter how bad things get for the Dude, there’s always bowling. On his team are some other Coen brothers alumni, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi. Their nemesis on the lanes is the decidedly unwholesome Jesus Quintana, played by John Turturro, who was clearly “inspired” by Al Pacino. Goodman plays Walter, a Vietnam Vet, this fact dominates his self-image, the kind of guy who cites the first amendment when asked politely to keep his voice down in a diner, and who pulls a pistol on a bowler he believes to be infringing the rules of the game. To paraphrase the Dude, he’s not wrong, he’s just an asshole. He’s also the Dude’s go-to guy. Buscemi’s character primarily serves as a foil for Walter, and doesn’t figure much, but what there is is okay.

Some of the best sequences involve the Dude in acid flashback mode, itself usually catalysed by a right-hook to the jaw from one of the other players in the kidnapping affair. There is a strong reliance on music to enhance the mood, and the Dude’s theme, The Man In Me, by Bob Dylan, is used brilliantly here on a few occasions, as is Just Dropped in (To See What Condition my Condition was In), sung by Kenny Rogers. There’s more one could say about this movie, it’s charming, quirky and well-made fun. The enigmatic narrator, a cowboy, who’s never seen London or France, or no “Queen in her damned undies”, promises “stupefying events”, and it’s only fair to say we’re much obliged, stranger.

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