Rolling in 35mm and Laughing in Anticipation
There’s nothing quite like seeing a 35mm print of one of your all time favorite films, dirtied from age, perhaps previously kept in poor storage, and with any luck, a lot of use. It flickered on the big screen so beautifully, focus soft, whites a little too hot, and grain just right.
The jokes were landing perfectly, everyone hanging onto every sequence and line of dialogue, giggling in anticipation and breaking out into uncontrolled laughter when a line did break. The very best lines caused a rage of clapping. It was incredible.
Surrounded by “freaks” like me, I laughed harder for The Big Lebowski than I ever did before. When the credits rolled, I didn’t want to leave, it felt like I got a taste of something special, I wanted more.
This fulfilled a little dream I had to see The Big Lebowski on the big screen, just as the few souls who caught it in the 90’s had seen it. Now, six years after seeing it for the first time in a dorm room, not totally understanding what was going on on the screen, and a dozen or so more viewings, I get it.
It’s down there somewhere, let me take another look.
A Case of Mistaken Identity and a Piss Soaked Rug
A dominating lack of clarity in story and plot defines this film. We are often misguided, led to believe something that may not be true, just as the characters are misguided, lied too, and exploited. In that way, we are on the same page as The Dude (Jeff Bridges).
The Coen Brothers designed it this way, to add complexity to what would otherwise be considered a stoner movie – padding intrigue and a story about exploitation with cutting self-referential and repetitive jokes, weed, and of course, a whole lot of bowling.
This film details a case of mistaken identity, a simple enough concept about two men with the same name: The Dude (whose real name is Jeffrey Lebowski) and the Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), a pseudo-wealthy Jeffrey Lebowski at the helm of his family’s charitable foundation.
A known pornographer’s goons make the initial mix-up and introduce The Dude to this treacherous situation by breaking into his apartment and pissing on his rug.
That rug really tied the room together, did it not? Fucking A. And this guy peed on it. Donny Please.
Thanks to the advice of his friend and bowling league-mate Walter (John Goodman), The Dude seeks compensation for the rug from the Big Lebowski, whose rug should’ve been pissed on.
Walter takes it as a personal affront to the service he provided in Vietnam – after all, he didn’t watch his buddies die face down in the muck to see his friends get taken advantage of. His argument was compelling enough to convince The Dude and us.
So, the two Lebowskis meet, the Big Lebowski sees The Dude for what he is, a hippy, and so, when his wife supposedly gets kidnapped, he decides to use The Dude as a scapegoat to cover for his embezzlement of a million dollars from his own family’s foundation.
The Dude, meanwhile, takes a rug from the Big Lebowski’s mansion without permission.
This stolen carpet leads to Maude Lebowski, the Big Lebowski’s daughter, who eventually breaks the truth to The Dude, that her father doesn’t have any money of his own, allowing him to finally put all of the pieces about the embezzlement and the “kidnapping” together.
…You Know, A Lotta Ins, Lotta Outs, Lotta What-Have-Yous.
Twice the Lebowski, Twice the Trouble
Let me explain something to you, I am not Mr. Lebowski. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m The Dude, so that’s what you call me. Ya know, that, or uh, his dudeness, or uh duder, or uh el duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
The Dude is the image of an aging counterculture-era hippy, taking it easy at home, smoking a joint and drinking a white russian, trying to use up what time he has left in comfort.
What adds so much depth to The Dude is contained in a few measly lines. Lines that explain his connection to the counterculture-era and his place in it.
It is revealed that he helped author an early draft of the Port Huron Statement, a major political manifesto espousing participatory democracy and idealizing egalitarianism, among many other things.
He is also one of the Seattle Seven, who were part of a radical anti-Vietnam War organization called the Seattle Liberation Front. (In fact, The Dude is based on actual Seattle Seven member Jeff Dowd)
So, perhaps Lebowski is still living in a sort of memory, mourning the loss of a movement, approximately two decades ago. His previous participation in the movement and as an activist highlights the tension between his character and that of the Big Lebowski.
The Big Lebowski is an intensely individualistic and egotistical man who values vanity and pageantry and demands drama for his situation. He served in Korea, and is proud of it, claiming the loss of his legs didn’t hold him back from achieving.
In reality, he is rather empty and pathetic. He hasn’t achieved anything, he’s terrible at business, and apparently married into wealth.
His attitude is the product of inadequacy, he knows the truth about himself, and he is unable to even allow the suggestion of the truth from others lest he begin to scream and throw a fit. He is so undesirable, even his own wife didn’t leave him anything.
He’s forced to live off of an allowance, which apparently he cannot maintain as illustrated by his embezzlement. Making him a hypocrite on top of everything else.
Yet, when he’s on the floor crying, he’s so pathetic, we can’t help but agree that Walter went a little too far by lifting him out of his wheelchair and dropping him.
This is what happens Larry, this is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass.
When the two worlds of these men meet, they clash. Their world’s are at conflict, so why shouldn’t they be?
The Big Lebowski, being an opportunist, takes advantage of The Dude’s perceived naivete, when his wife goes on vacation without telling anyone, and he receives a letter that she’s been kidnapped.
He doesn’t care about his wife, he sees an opportunity to steal a million dollars and get away with it, so, he does what people on his side of the culture war does, he exploits The Dude, uses him, and attempts to discard him.
What’s more, Maude, steps in to get her piece of The Dude too. After sending him to the doctor to check that the appropriate organs were in working order, under the guise of worry for the punch her goons had thrown at him, she seduces him with the goal of getting pregnant.
She assures him, she doesn’t want his help raising the child. So that floats fine with The Dude.
Otherwise, The Dude, with Walter at his side, wasn’t going down so easy. They put two and two together, the Big Lebowski’s trophy wife eventually shows up, and Walter embarrasses the Big Lebowski in his own home.
Yeah, well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.
It doesn’t get much better than that. In some small way, I like to believe they reclaimed a little lost ground for the counterculture.
Regardless, the Big Lebowski reassures The Dude that the “bums lost,” and that he should do what his parents did and, “get a job.”
The Bums Lost, Get a Job or The Aftermath of the Failure of a Counterculture
Considering the political landscape in the early nineties, more than a decade after the counterculture of the sixties and early seventies died down, we get the sense that The Big Lebowski is right.
The “bums” and “hippies,” or “freaks” as they would eventually call themselves, did end up on the so-called losing side, and while they did leave a lasting impression on western culture, that didn’t stop business from marching forth alongside more war, individualistic capitalism, and representative democracy .
The confusion of the film and the muddled layout of the story suggest that there is a certain hopelessness in the aftermath of the failed movement, that perhaps The Dude and his buddies are attempting to use up what time they have left broke, high, and easy.
Yet, there is clear reference to the times in the Bush clip at the beginning of the film, talking about aggression in Kuwait, a sign the war machine never stopped looking for adversaries, that none of the idealism of the counterculture meant anything.
So, we get caught up in the misdirection of the film, just as the Big Lebowski is hoping for, to dupe The Dude and pin the loss of a million bucks on him, “someone the square community won’t give a shit about,” thus covering his embezzlement. It’s a total exploitation of one side of the culture by the other.
This aggression will not stand, man.
This film may serve as a microcosm, an exposing of the truth about “straight culture,” a small incident in the larger landscape of exploitation. An exploitation of American citizens by people in power by any means necessary, by diverting attention away from the truth, and taking or doing whatever they want. Just as the Big Lebowski tells The Dude his side lost, the rich and powerful killed the counterculture and claimed victory over the hippies.
Without a doubt, The Dude is living in the aftermath of a failed movement, and he sees the signs everywhere. Except, The Big Lebowski offers a little bit of light.
I like to think The Dude takes a small win here. He steals the Big Lebowski’s carpet, impregnates his daughter, exposes the truth of the embezzlement, and ultimately, with his friend Walter, totally humiliates him. Most importantly, he is never anything but himself regardless of what the “square community” believes.
Psychedelic Imagery Infuses Politics and Fear
The influence of counterculture on The Big Lebowski makes it a stoner flick on the surface level, embracing the psychedelic trips one might have on LSD and depicting those warped visions through The Dude’s dream sequences, which reveal his inner life, his sexual urges, and his greatest fears.
To illustrate the loss of his new carpet after Maude’s goons punch him and knock him out, The Dude flys through the air, swimming toward Maude who’s quickly getting away on the flying carpet.
He then plummets toward earth at the behest of a bowling ball. A miniature version of himself appears and gets plugged in the finger hole of a bowling ball and then gets thrown down a lane, speeding toward pins.
This sequence proves to suggest his distress, over losing yet another carpet, and perhaps some worry about his performance bowling. The Dude is never seen bowling and yet, he has been the bowling ball himself twice, in this sequence and the next.
The second dream sequence is rather more intense, and rightfully so, as it is most likely an actual drug trip. Thanks to Jackie Treehorn, a known pornographer, The Dude drinks a particularly strong white russian, and then passes out.
We are then presented with a bowling themed parody of a Jackie Treehorn porn flick called “Gutterballs” starring The Dude and Maude. Quite a bit is revealed about The Dude’s subconscious here, what he desires and what he’s afraid of.
Again, The Dude is miniature, dressed up as a cable-repairman, strutting in toward a shoe counter where Saddam Hussein gives The Dude a pair of white and gold bowling shoes. Perhaps suggesting his fear of another war.
Then he dances down a large floating staircase to Maude, his desire, dressed as a sort of goddess of bowling. He takes her body in his and puts the bowling ball on her fingers, and as if to instruct her, starts to guide her hand.
Then a row of women, dressed identically, walk in unison down the lane, and then part their legs. Maude releases the ball, and again, The Dude becomes the ball. His body floats down the lane, under the women’s legs, until finally hitting the pins which float off into blackness.
Finally, he is running away from the three German nihilists, each donning red bodysuits and brandishing enormous scissors, chasing down The Dude to cut off his johnson. This expresses his desperate fear of losing control of the situation by way of losing his penis.
I don’t like your jerk off name. I don’t like your jerk off face. I don’t like your jerk off behavior and I don’t like you. Jerk off.
When he comes out of it, he is found running down a street, sweating and panting, set loose by Jackie Treehorn. He gets picked up by the police.
When he is “interviewed” a fascist cop beats him and tells him to stay out of Malibu. Again, his fears are coming true. The very thing he attempted to defy in the sixties comes back to kick the shit out of him now.
Fun side note: When The Dude meets Maude for the first time in her art studio, there is a painting of enormous scissors emblazoned in red on the wall. It’s incredibly interesting how the Coen’s play with The Dude’s subconscious, and this stands as an excellent example of that.
Bowling to Death with Donny
Bowling is a singular constant throughout the film, grounding our characters in a league and place where they can go to think things over, argue, and roll.
It’s what keeps the characters together, and it’s really the only place we get to see Donny. Even when The Dude tells Walter to fuck off, he still reassures him he’ll be at practice.
Smokey this is not Nam, this is bowling, there are rules.
The alley serves as a place of solace where they can go over details about the case, bringing about theories that the rest of the film chases, and lands a lot of really great jokes, iconic lines, and sequences.
There is also the romance of a bowling alley, it’s unassuming nature, it’s plain-clothed patrons, it’s dark spots and bright spots, the flurry of cigarette smoke in the air, the sounds of pins getting smacked hard by balls in the background. It’s a simple pleasure.
The Active Narrator
The Stranger (Sam Elliot), a cowboy who seems to have some inside knowledge about this here story, changes too. But, not so much as a character.
Interestingly, from the start he seems to be the unknown authority on the subject of the film, setting it up for us and introducing The Dude. Then he actually interacts with The Dude, on two occasions, at the bowling alley.
He even requests that The dude use less cuss words.
In the end, he reclaims narrative authority, but only partially. After his final conversation with The Dude at the bar, he turns to look into the lens, and rambles on about what he liked and didn’t like about the movie.
There is a blurring of the line between authority and participation. I don’t believe we were meant to identify with the Stranger, but his summations and opinions certainly help shape the audience’s experience about what happened.
Perhaps that’s just what it is, a way to settle down the audience, to review what had happened, to put it into perspective and mark the end of the narrative.
Well, that about does her. Wraps her all up. Things seemed to work out pretty good for The Dude and Walter, and it was a pretty good story. Don’t ya think?
Fun, Fun, Fun
Jeff Bridges, known for taking behind the scenes photos on a Widelux F8 panoramic film camera, took several photos on the set of The Big Lebowski some of which can be seen here. He also has a book of photos in publication which you can find on his website.
If you’re ever in Los Angeles or in need of more Lebowski wherever you are, I’m A Lebowski, You’re A Lebowski by Bill Green, Ben Peskoe, Will Russell, and Scott Shuffitt is a fantastic book that was gifted to me by a friend and that I can’t recommend enough. It’s pages will make you smile with actual filming locations and all things El Duderino.
Finally, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to American Cinematheque for caring enough about movies to put on the show.
The Big Lebowski
Writers/Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore
Movie screenshots courtesy of film-grab.com/Images property of Gramercy Pictures of Universal Pictures
