THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) A film review by Mike Cameron
Director: Joel Coen Writers: Joel and Ethan Coen Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, Flea, John Turturro, David Thewlis, Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott.
Release date: March 6, 1998
It seems, perhaps out of what is, by now at least,a force of habit, that people have a tendency to define a generation, or more aptly, an era by decades. Baby Boomers: The 60's. The Disco Era: The 70's. GenX/Cheesy Pop Synth Music/British New Wave Era: The 80's, also refered to as the me decade. So, we are now in the 90's, which will be over in a few years, and what will call this decade? So far, we have a generation defined of this era, Slackers. Now, this is not to say that the Cohen boys are Slackers by any means. They have created some of the most entertaining films of the past 10+ years, and achieved world-wide fame and glory, public and critical success and praise with "Fargo." Their follow-up "The Big Lebowski" is more closely related to their previous efforts, "Raising Arizona" and "The Hudsucker Proxy." What they present is a somewhat dis-jointed collection of oddball characters that drift in and out of a losely structured film. The lead character, one Jeff Lebowski, is a jobless, slightly shiftless layabout, meandoring through life in LA in the early 1990's, who prefers to be called The Dude. He is mistaken one fateful evening by some low rent thugs for another Jeff Lebowski, The Big Lebowski (David Huddleston) who's wife has apparently ran up quite a tab with a local pornographer. To drive home their point, they urinate on his rug. He then goes to the home The Big Lebowski looking for compensation, is refuted, scams a rug from The Big Lebowski's assistant (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), meets the wife in question, Bunny (Tara Reid) and her drunken nihilist boyfriend (Peter Stormare) on his way out. This leads the way for The Dude's involvment kidnap scheme involving Bunny, that is alot more complicated than it should be, at least when The Dude's friend/bowling partner Walter (John Goodman) becomes involved. What follows are the introduction of many weird characters, including Julianne Moore as Maude, The Big Lebowski's estranged avant-gaurde artist daughter, who has more than a passing interest in The Dude, Steve Buscemi as Donnie, the third partner in The Dude's bowling leauge, who is contantly having trouble keeping up with conversations and being to shut up and Ben Gazzara and the pornographer who may or may not have had Bunny abducted. These characters, along with hilarious cameos by John Turturro as a bowling pedophile named Jesus, Sam Elliot as The Stranger, who pops-up, as well as narrarates the story, intermittently, and Daved Thewlis as a John Waters-esque friend of Maude. All of these characters, along with the abuse suffered by The Dude's car, make the plot inconsquental by comparison. In fact, what appears to the main plot, Bunny's kidnapping, is wrapped in such a lazy "Aha! So the real cuprit is..." fashion, that it's almost ant-climatic when it is revealed. But again, the plot takes a back seat to the characters and what the movie is really about. And what is that? Well, take a look in the time period in which the movie is set. I believe that the Cohen's choose the early 90's for a specific reason. We were coming out one already pre-defined decade and into a new, shapeless era. The Slackers were taking over, and the Baby Boomers were following their lead. We were a people, much like The Dude, with no driving force behind us, since no one had yet to tell us what were or what we going to be. Coming out of The Me Decade, we just didn't care about too much else except that me factor, and although political correctness hadn't quite taken over, we could see it was on it was way, well, we had better take it easy while we could. Even the "plot" , with it's lazy, generic "twist," seems as if it was pulled right out of a late 80's/early 90's tv Perry Mason movie. So, the Cohen brothers take look at our culture, makes fun of it/us/themelves, and manage to make a highlt entertainingmovie all at the same time. Because even if you don't "get it," they've managed to put enough off-the-wall scenarios to al least keep you wondering excatly what they are going to come up with next. I mean, after all, excalty how long can that car last, anyway?
Rating:
Thumbs up/ ***1/2 (out of ****)/ A
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