"The Big Lebowski" (1998) - Written, Produced, and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, Starring Jeff Bridges

[DonRocks]

Well, "The Big Lebowski" is another picture that nobody can believe I'd never seen before, but I hadn't (this, and "This Is Spinal Tap" were the two I'd really been wanting to watch for a long, long time).

I was really getting into this film - a great comedy to be sure - when the terrorist attacks hit Nice, and pretty much ruined it for me. 

Still, that doesn't lessen the movie - Jeff Bridges is brilliant, and so is just about everybody else. I don't think I've ever seen a Coen Brothers film that I don't like - they are geniuses in the mold of Matt Groening.

I'm not up for a big, long write-up, but I'd love to discuss the movie with anyone who wants to. This Nice attack has pretty much wiped out any comedic effects the film had on me tonight; tomorrow I'll be better - I'm not going to let those assholes compromise anything about my life.

[MC Horoscope]

 

[DonRocks]

6 minutes ago, MC Horoscope said:

Hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!

I just cannot imagine anyone else in the role - Jeff Bridges was perfect, and how he wasn't nominated for Best Actor is beyond me.

[dracisk]

I saw it way after it was out in theaters, too, maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember many details, but I remember thinking as I watched, "Why do people think this is so funny?" I definitely run hot and cold on the Coen Brothers.

[farmer john]

3 hours ago, dracisk said:

I saw it way after it was out in theaters, too, maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember many details, but I remember thinking as I watched, "Why do people think this is so funny?" I definitely run hot and cold on the Coen Brothers.

I generally love the Coen brothers but "Big Lebowski" is a swing and a miss for me as well.

[MC Horoscope]

Love this one or not, and I do, Coen brothers' movies are so quotable!

[DaveO]

4 hours ago, dracisk said:

I saw it way after it was out in theaters, too, maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember many details, but I remember thinking as I watched, "Why do people think this is so funny?" I definitely run hot and cold on the Coen Brothers.

1 hour ago, farmer john said:

I generally love the Coen brothers but "Big Lebowski" is a swing and a miss for me as well.

43 minutes ago, MC Horoscope said:

Love this one or not, and I do, Coen brothers' movies are so quotable!

I'm with MC.  I too love this film.  Think its a riot; a sort of cultural classic.  And that dracisk and farmer john don't like this at all.   That is great.  Its why the world goes round. 

So interesting.   I may just have a white russian today!!!!

[Al Dente]

3 hours ago, dracisk said:

I saw it way after it was out in theaters, too, maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember many details, but I remember thinking as I watched, "Why do people think this is so funny?" I definitely run hot and cold on the Coen Brothers.

37 minutes ago, farmer john said:

I generally love the Coen brothers but "Big Lebowski" is a swing and a miss for me as well.

"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man." 

I love the movie and aspire to be just like The Dude.

"This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber."

 

[MC Horoscope]

That tied the room together!

[DonRocks]

4 hours ago, dracisk said:

I saw it way after it was out in theaters, too, maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember many details, but I remember thinking as I watched, "Why do people think this is so funny?" I definitely run hot and cold on the Coen Brothers.

For me, John Goodman had most of the laugh-out-loud moments in the film, and there were about a half-dozen (it's rare when I laugh-out-loud when I watch a film alone, but I did here, several times) - I wasn't in hysterics, but I was chuckling.

For example, when he found out the Germans - whom he thought were merely "Nazis," were *Nihilists*:

"Walter Sobchak: Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

50 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

I love the movie and aspire to be just like The Dude.

I've got news for you, Mike.

[Bart]

Every character and every line is brilliant, but John Goodman is amazing!

"SHOMER-FUCKIN'-SHABBOS!"

"You want a toe?  I can get you a toe"

The Dude: Will you come off it, Walter? You're not even fucking Jewish, man. 

Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talkin' about? 

The Dude: Man, you're fucking Polish Catholic... 

Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talking about? I converted when I married Cynthia! Come on, Dude! 

The Dude: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... 

Walter Sobchak: And you know this! 

The Dude: Yeah, and five fucking years ago you were divorced. 

Walter Sobchak: So what are you saying? When you get divorced you turn in your library card? You get a new license? You stop being Jewish? 

The Dude: It's all a part of your sick Cynthia thing, man. Taking care of her fucking dog. Going to her fucking synagogue. You're living in the fucking past. 

Walter Sobchak: Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax... 

[shouting]

Walter Sobchak: YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I'M LIVIN' IN THE FUCKIN' PAST! 

More here:  Quotes on IMDB

I'm laughing my ass off reading these.  

Need to re-watch.

Don - the more you watch, the funnier it gets, and the more jokes you get.  Every time I watch it, I pick up some new joke or some subtle thing.  

[Poivrot Farci]

What is charming about the movie/script is that words/phrases are re-hashed throughout the story, intentionally or otherwise (much like in Raising Arizona): “this aggression will not stand”, “chinaman”, “parlance of our times” and so on.

It is worth noting that the background colors of all the scenes in which the Dude is in are red, blue, yellow and green: his kitschy living-room lamp shades, bathroom wallpaper (he is listening to the sounds of whales later in the tub which is consistent with his whale themed checkbook), the radio and cocktail when Bunny Lebowski sells her services poolside, the neon stars in and outside the bowling alley, lights behind the Dude when he gets the cab in Malibu and so on.  

I went to the 2^nd Annual  Lebowski Fest in Louisville Kentucky a long time ago, which was held at a bowling alley next to a hotel which had a nihilist pool party and “welcome little Lebowski achievers” on the marquis.  There was a ringer toss* in the parking lot which was throwing a bowling bag of whites over the same make and model of the dude’s car  (bowling trophy hood ornament) from the passenger side into a bullseye, for charity.  Jeffrey Dowd (the pope of dope and OG Beta Dude) was in presence and a Big Lebowski proxy in an electric wheelchair won the costume competition, edging out the guy in a Creedence cassette tape cover.

*rotator cuff makes the ringer toss in the movie impossible

[Bart]

7 hours ago, Poivrot Farci said:

What is charming about the movie/script is that words/phrases are re-hashed throughout the story, intentionally or otherwise (much like in Raising Arizona): “this aggression will not stand”, “chinaman”, “parlance of our times” and so on.

Totally agree.  I don't know how many of those lines are noticed on the first watching.  I can't remember for myself, but I feel like I started really noticing them on my third, fifth or tenth watching.  Maybe Don can watch it a few more times let us know when he noticed them?  Maybe he already did?

"You mean coitus?"

[DonRocks]

LAPIN means Bunny in French.