The Dude Abides

The Big Lebowski. Working Title Films (1998).

By R.J.F

The Big Lebowski might’ve been asleep at the wheel in 1998, but it’s become a cult-classic phenomenon since then.

I never even knew The Big Lebowski existed until I found my brother showing it to my dad one afternoon. I can distinctly remember my dad laughing his ass off, and I remember thinking that I was surprised that he found the film that entertaining because it just didn’t seem to be his style. Nevertheless, they had a father/son moment that afternoon.

It was probably a week or more later when I sat down on my parents couch and found that it was going to be replayed on one of the movie channels they had. I figured I’d give it a chance because if it could make my dad laugh almost uncontrollably, there was probably something magical about it, and I was fucking right!

I became immediately obsessed with the movie. Any time that I saw it was playing, I would watch it even if it was in the middle. I bought the DVD (back when those were a thing), so I could frequently watch it or have it on as background noise, I started making myself white Russians when the mood struck, and I would find myself quoting lines when they would fit the conversation. Hell, I even dressed up as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges, in one of my most infamous and popular Halloween costumes.

“Far out, man.”

I was able to figure out what my dad had found so amusing: a burnt out stoner from the 60s goes on a wild goose chase trying to find the person/people responsible for pissing on his rug that “really tied the room together” in the hopes that he can get it replaced. Throw in his two meddling friends/bowling partners, one of whom is a Vietnam vet who is still hung up on his time in the war, a handful of nihilists trying to cut The Dude’s Johnson off, a wealthy artist that only wants his sperm in order to conceive, a missing trophy wife, a high powered man also named Jeffrey Lebowski that seems to have it all together but turns out to be a scam artist, and a bowling pedophile. All of this, somehow, created one hell of a ride!

I think the thing I love the most about this movie is that the characters are caricatures; they are extreme versions of tropes. The Dude is what everyone would think of as an old stoner: he listens to music from the 60s and 70s, he dresses sloppily, he says things like “far out”, and has a permanent, stoney gaze in his eyes. Walter, played by John Goodman, is a cliché of a Vietnam veteran. He angrily shouts about government wrong-doings at a moment’s notice, gives unnecessary speeches about his friends he lost in the war even if it doesn’t fit the situation, and dresses in camouflage attire like he is still hiding from Charlie. There is comedy in extremes.

It’s weird to think that the movie wasn’t very popular when it was released in 1998 considering how many people now praise it. Maybe it’s because it’s an oddball movie with a plot that makes sense and doesn’t make sense. It goes up, and over, and sideways, and backwards, all while moving forward. It’s not a clearcut film about one thing or another. Is it a “who done it” mystery? Is it a comedic action film? Is it a think piece about deception and perception?

Perhaps it’s a film about zany friendships. Maybe it’s commentary about the advantages that the wealthy have, and their reliance on a fallback chump when the shit starts to hit the fan. The Cohen brothers, writers and directors, are known for making these kinds of films, and The Big Lebowski is just another brick in their wonderfully strange-world wall.

By the year 2000, only two years after it debuted, there were already midnight and special screenings of the film, fan lore about whether or not Bridges was actually stoned while filming, and to top it off, in the year 2002, Lebowski Fest was established. Despite The Big Lebowski essentially being a flop when it was released, it has undoubtedly become an instant cult classic and didn’t need a good 5–10 years to find its audience.

Even though the critics weren’t kind in 1998, as The Dude says, “Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” Whatever magic my dad saw that afternoon when my brother showed him the movie, and whatever magic I found when I watched it for the first time, it has lasted for over two decades. As more and more people either discover, or rediscover The Big Lebowski, an end to its popularity doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight.