Dissertations on His Dudeness
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 movie, “The Big Lebowski,” which stars Jeff Bridges as a beatific, pot-smoking, bowling-obsessed slacker known as the Dude, snuck up on the English-speaking world during the ’00s: it became, stealthily, the decade’s most venerated cult film. It’s got that elusive and addictive quality that a great midnight movie has to have: it blissfully widens and expands in your mind upon repeat viewings.
“The Big Lebowski” has spawned its own shaggy, fervid world: drinking games, Halloween costumes, bumper stickers (“This aggression will not stand, man”) and a drunken annual festival that took root in Louisville, Ky., and has spread to other cities. The movie is also the subject of an expanding shelf of books, including “The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers” and the forthcoming “The Tao of the Dude.”
Where cult films go, academics will follow. New in bookstores, and already in its second printing, is “The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies,” an essay collection edited by Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe (Indiana University Press, $24.95). The book is, like the Dude himself, a little rough around the edges. But it’s worth an end-of-the-year holiday pop-in. Ideally you’d read it with a White Russian — the Dude’s cocktail of choice — in hand.
More than a few of this book’s essay titles will make you groan and laugh out loud at the same time (“ ‘The Big Lebowski’ and Paul de Man: Historicizing Irony and Ironizing Historicism”). But just as often, the writing here is a bit like the film: amiable, laid-back and possessed of a wobbly Zen-acuity.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/books/30lebowski.html?scp=1&sq=the%20dude&st=cse
I love this movie. A true classic.
Jesus...
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I'm not a big movie goer, and generally prefer watching older (B&W) films on the tube. This is why I'm often surprised when I "discover" a killer film that everyone's known about for ages. ;)
Happened with Rocky Horror Picture Show. Back in my teens, a friend had been bothering me for years to go with her to see it, but I'm like "A horror movie about transvestites? No, I don't think so." She finally dragged [pun!] me out to the big hoo-ha on Hollywood Blvd. with her.... Wow! :eek: Who knew?!
Years later, a roommate put a life-sized poster of Mr. Blonde in the big window of our front door, for all the world to see. I had no idea who or what this was about, so roomie tells me it's from Reservoir Dogs, a movie about some batshit crazy fuckers killing people. "Hm. I'm not real big on gratuitous blood and guts; thanks but no thanks."
I was wrong again. Ever been wrong? It happened to me. :rolleyes:
So, this friend says one day, sort of out of nowhere, "That rug really tied the room together." From that, I "discovered" The Big Lebowski. And I realized that, at least as far as knowing and appreciating strange and unusual films, I was out of my element.
:D
I did not know 'what was up' with "The Big Lebowski". But, now, thanks to Jinx's spinach-language clip, I still don't.
What it again.... you'll get it at some point.
I did not know 'what was up' with "The Big Lebowski". But, now, thanks to Jinx's spinach-language clip, I still don't.
Rent the film. You will not be disappointed (
and you'll no longer be out of your element).
This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass! Shomer fucking shabbos! :D
OK, I'll see the flick. Really tho, you had me at 'Shomer fucking shabbos!'
Have you seen the edited for TV version?
"See what happens, Larry, when you find a stranger in the Alps?!"
OK, I'll see the flick. Really tho, you had me at 'Shomer fucking shabbos!'
:D John Goodman
kills in this flick. You're gonna love it!
Have you seen the edited for TV version?
"See what happens, Larry, when you find a stranger in the Alps?!"
Isn't it awful? Stupid censors!