Greetings, students, and welcome to the John Maxwell Film School. Class is in session, so let's get to it! Now, if you had a chance to look at my DVD collection, you would notice a lack of films that many would consider basic for any collection. One of them is this week's movie, "The Big Lebowski" Now, while I have been meaning to watch this movie for some time, it was when the Dude, in a way, made an appearance that forced me to see this film at last and actually get the idea behind it.
Two weeks ago, Jeff Bridges appeared on the same episode of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" that a certain San Francisco band made a reunion appearance. Anyway, on the show, Jimmy said that it was only within the last couple of days that he finally saw the film, claiming that he was the last human to have seen it. Naturally, now having such a title myself was the last straw. A check of Netflix told me I had already placed it in my queue. So, I moved it to the top to be the next one to be sent out, interrupting another hobby of mine, watching old "Doctor Who" stories in order.
So, I have finally laid my eyes on the film and watched the whole thing. Let me tell you, I can why this film is considered to be a classic. It is one of the best films I have ever seen. The way it's constructed, the acting, the music, the settings. Just a nice mix and enough weird imagery to make you turn your mind on. Trust me, your second viewing will be to find all the stuff you missed the first time, and then keep repeating until the movie and you are one, just like the Dude. What kind of world do we find? Well, here at the Film School, the Dude has allowed us to look at this weird piece of his life from twenty years earlier.
The film begins... with a tumbleweed and the voice of Sam Elliot. With the wit of the cowboys of old, he guides us to Los Angeles around late 1990. Here, we meet Jeffery Lebowski, played by the one and only Jeff Bridges, who calls himself the Dude because he doesn't like his birth name and it just fits him. One night, he's visited upon by two cronies, who berate him into giving him money over debt owed by his wife. However, he's the wrong Jeff Lebowski. The one they're supposed to berate is a millionaire. Apparently, these cronies have 3-watt IQs and can't figure out the right person to mess with. To all to whom debt is owned, hire smart cronies. They'll get the job done.
Anyway, one of the cronies pees on the Dude's rug, so he shares his problems with his bowling buddies: Walter, played by John Goodman, and Donny, played by Steve Buscemi. Walter sees an opportunity, as he points out that he can ask the other Lebowski to pay for a new rug. A visit to this other Jeff Lebowski doesn't go well, as this one is a Korean War vet, who lost the use of his legs in said conflict and looks down upon people like the Dude. However, he manages to scoop up an antique rug and meet the missus, Bunny, played by Tara Reid. Bunny seems to have a vacant mind. Then again, she is a trophy wife, so brains are not a pre-set option.
After some bowling alley antics, we learn that Bunny has gotten herself kidnapped. Naturally, her husband turns to the most logical choice to locate her: the Dude. He tasks himself to follow the orders of the kidnappers in order to recover her. The kidnappers soon call and ask for a million dollars. This is then followed with orders to deliver said money to a freeway overpass. However, Walter joins us and offers a most genius plan: sub the million dollars for a ringer, he calls it. The ringer is a bag filled with laundry. As you might expect, the whole thing falls apart. The operation fails and no Bunny is returned.
Naturally, Mr. Lebowski is upset, because the kidnappers have now sent him a severed toe, apparently from Bunny. However, before the Dude sees this, he is visited by Mr. Lebowski's daughter Maude, who reclaims the rug the Dude took from her father. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, his beloved car is stolen from under him. If I had a day like the Dude, I might consider just giving up on the whole thing, which he tries. However, Walter again pushes him to find Bunny so they can have the money. Why not? More stupid things were done in the name of wealth. They do mention the whole mess with Kuwait. Make what you will with that.
As if things couldn't get any more worse, the supposed kidnappers visit him and threaten him with the loss of that certain organ all males share. At the same time, the police locate his car, minus the suitcase with the million in it. After a moment of being followed, he discovers a kid's homework. This leads him to the home of a former television writer, whose son is the one who left the homework. Some more pain comes to the Dude's car when Walter thinks a pricey car was purchased by the kid with the money. It, however, belongs to a neighbor, who takes his rage on the Dude's ride. Let this be a note to you: never let your friends damage some one's car.
Let me briefly summarize the last third: the Dude finds out that the whole thing was a scheme by Mr. Lebowski to rid himself of his wife. At the same time, Maude visits him for the express purpose of making love to him so she can conceive a child. Bunny returns home, no money was ever in the suitcase, the fake kidnappers set fire to the Dude's car, Donny dies, ashes scattered, the end. The reason I summarize the last third because the last third is so weirdly constructed, it's hard to distill into a full plot summary. I don't know anyone on Wikipedia could do it, but it's done. Anyway, the story is excellent for many reasons, too many to go into. Let us, instead, point out some of the best elements of the movie.
One thing I must point out is the acting performance of John Goodman as Walter. I'm a fan of the show "Roseanne" (and that show will be put before the class in the future), and his performance is worthy of an Oscar. That is, if the Academy recognized comedic performance. He plays a converted Jew who obeys the Shabbos, which is Saturday, so much he raises a fuss when an important tournament falls on it. Later in the movie, an important moment in the story forces Walter to disobey Shabbos, which he complains about as the Dude unravels the mystery of Bunny. According to the Coens, the role was written for him and he delivers, without question.
Another point is the character of Bunny, Mr. Lebowski's trophy wife. Her past is the usual porn star one. In fact, the money that the thugs want in the beginning is to pay off debt owned by her for her career. In the last third, we learn that the man following the Dude earlier was a detective searching for Bunny, who ran away from her parents in Minnesota. As part of his task, the detective shows a picture he's been told to show Bunny. The picture is of the most desolate farm ever, with nothing that could be called home. The reason for the request is her parents think it might make her homesick. It would make be board a boat to Hawaii, for the maximum distance from the dead farm.
After some bowling alley antics, we learn that Bunny has gotten herself kidnapped. Naturally, her husband turns to the most logical choice to locate her: the Dude. He tasks himself to follow the orders of the kidnappers in order to recover her. The kidnappers soon call and ask for a million dollars. This is then followed with orders to deliver said money to a freeway overpass. However, Walter joins us and offers a most genius plan: sub the million dollars for a ringer, he calls it. The ringer is a bag filled with laundry. As you might expect, the whole thing falls apart. The operation fails and no Bunny is returned.
Naturally, Mr. Lebowski is upset, because the kidnappers have now sent him a severed toe, apparently from Bunny. However, before the Dude sees this, he is visited by Mr. Lebowski's daughter Maude, who reclaims the rug the Dude took from her father. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, his beloved car is stolen from under him. If I had a day like the Dude, I might consider just giving up on the whole thing, which he tries. However, Walter again pushes him to find Bunny so they can have the money. Why not? More stupid things were done in the name of wealth. They do mention the whole mess with Kuwait. Make what you will with that.
As if things couldn't get any more worse, the supposed kidnappers visit him and threaten him with the loss of that certain organ all males share. At the same time, the police locate his car, minus the suitcase with the million in it. After a moment of being followed, he discovers a kid's homework. This leads him to the home of a former television writer, whose son is the one who left the homework. Some more pain comes to the Dude's car when Walter thinks a pricey car was purchased by the kid with the money. It, however, belongs to a neighbor, who takes his rage on the Dude's ride. Let this be a note to you: never let your friends damage some one's car.
Let me briefly summarize the last third: the Dude finds out that the whole thing was a scheme by Mr. Lebowski to rid himself of his wife. At the same time, Maude visits him for the express purpose of making love to him so she can conceive a child. Bunny returns home, no money was ever in the suitcase, the fake kidnappers set fire to the Dude's car, Donny dies, ashes scattered, the end. The reason I summarize the last third because the last third is so weirdly constructed, it's hard to distill into a full plot summary. I don't know anyone on Wikipedia could do it, but it's done. Anyway, the story is excellent for many reasons, too many to go into. Let us, instead, point out some of the best elements of the movie.
One thing I must point out is the acting performance of John Goodman as Walter. I'm a fan of the show "Roseanne" (and that show will be put before the class in the future), and his performance is worthy of an Oscar. That is, if the Academy recognized comedic performance. He plays a converted Jew who obeys the Shabbos, which is Saturday, so much he raises a fuss when an important tournament falls on it. Later in the movie, an important moment in the story forces Walter to disobey Shabbos, which he complains about as the Dude unravels the mystery of Bunny. According to the Coens, the role was written for him and he delivers, without question.
Another point is the character of Bunny, Mr. Lebowski's trophy wife. Her past is the usual porn star one. In fact, the money that the thugs want in the beginning is to pay off debt owned by her for her career. In the last third, we learn that the man following the Dude earlier was a detective searching for Bunny, who ran away from her parents in Minnesota. As part of his task, the detective shows a picture he's been told to show Bunny. The picture is of the most desolate farm ever, with nothing that could be called home. The reason for the request is her parents think it might make her homesick. It would make be board a boat to Hawaii, for the maximum distance from the dead farm.
Then, there's Donny. Such a interesting person. I mean, throughout the movie, he is told to shut up. I read that the reason for this gag was that Buscemi's character in "Fargo" wouldn't stop talking. Anyway, at the end of the movie, Donny suffers a heart attack and dies. The characters then proceed to act like he was always with them even though he was told to keep out of their business. The scattering of the ashes into the ocean, which ends with most on the Dude then in the ocean itself, is the perfect capper to our madcap ride, complete with a hug and then heading off to bowl once more. Donny, you could have been more than a gag but we're glad you were. Otherwise, how would we know the funny?
The whole thing with Maude also sums up the movie. When she first appears, she's there with thugs to take the rug the Dude took from her father. She then proceeds to invite him over to her place to discuss it. There, she reveals not only Bunny's porn star past but the fact that her father is not the success story he claims to be. Finally, she tells him that the money was from a charity and if he recovers it, he can use a small part of it to buy a rug that doesn't have meaning for her, as the one the Dude took is from her mother. The capper for her character is appearing at his place, demand that they make love, and then reveal the baby scheme. I wonder what she does when she's bored, if the events in the movie weren't the answer...
The thugs at the beginning of the movie are probably the dumbest characters in the movie. I mean, it takes them having it pointed out to them that they have gone after the wrong Jeffery Lebowski. I mean, their boss told them to follow and threaten a millionaire and they choose the wrong one without any question. Later in the movie, they return and brag how the boss now wants to see the Dude and that they know they have the right one now. This would mean that the thugs went back, told of their mistake, and probably got a dressing-down like no one's business, complete with naming of your favorite form of slow and painful torture. Lesson: always double check before you threaten, because your own life may be on the line.
The other thugs in the movie, the kidnappers, are a trio of former German techno-pop singers who are nihilists. A nihilist believes in nothing, as in life is nothing but matter interacting with matter until your set of matter stops moving. The movie reveals that they came up with the kidnapping plot after hearing Bunny took off without telling anyone. They then proceeded to ask for a million dollars in ransom and even cut a toe off one of their girlfriends in pursuit of the money. I mean, these guys fail kidnapping 101 as they never ever had the victim in question. Their torching of the Dude's car and the beating they get from Walter just shows that maybe it helps to actually believe in something. Otherwise, you just fail even the basics of committing a crime: actually commit the crime.
As I said, there's too many reasons why this movie is funny. Yet, this film wasn't a hit when it came out. It's only over time that it has become part of the culture. Recently, I've been writing a script for a film I want to make because I'm bored myself. One of the things I was hoping with watching this film was to figure out how to really write 'weird funny'. After watching this movie, I feel I need to rewrite my script because I came nowhere close to the 'weird funny' of this film. All I mentioned above are things I would never have come up with. Maybe I should pick another Coen Brothers movie if I wish to make 'weird funny' movies like them. Not now. I need time to recover from just one before I can take in films like "Fargo" and "Raising Arizona".
However, this end the week's review. We find that "The Big Lebowski" is a true classic and it should be used as an example of when filmmakers used a genre they love to make a project they love. The jokes, like a good comedy, come out of the plot and even make the plot work. It made me laugh a lot and I'm now on a quest to buy a copy for my own collection. Speaking of which, we head back there for next week's selection. Over these first few weeks of the Film School, all our films have been live-action. Well, that changes as the next film up for review is probably my favorite of the Disney animated films. It's not a musical and it's not new. Back to the 1970s we go as next week, the Film School will receive a visit from those beloved mice, "The Rescuers"...
Until then, this is John Maxwell, saying class dismissed!!!
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