Review of The Big Lebowski (1998) by Swati — 02 Jan 2014

The Big Lebowski is about a man who has lived life on his own terms, failed at it, but still has no regrets. Every scene with the protagonist, the Dude, is ripe with little quirks of his character. He is a perpetual chiller. Some of the supporting cast also made for good comedy, chief among them Walter, who is a Vietnam veteran angry with the world for no good reason. The humour mainly came from the characters of the Dude and Walter, whose inept skills of detecting mess up everything that could make things easier for the world, themselves included.

Some hoodlums mistake the Dude, whose real name is Lebowski, for a millionaire and extort him. They decide to piss on his favourite rug, which makes him want to seek compensation from the rich man. Needless to say, things escalate unexpectedly when this man's wife is seemingly kidnapped and he asks the Dude to take the ransom money to the rendezvous and potentially identify the kidnappers. His involvement in the affair seems to be to the detriment of all the concerned parties. Things go wrong from the beginning as the pair, the Dude and Walter, lack a reasonable voice and go along without planning anything. There's a plot that moves the movie forward but the focus is on the lifestyle of the Dude. Everything else works to portray his life as fully as it could be.

What the movie does extremely well is insert quick-witted quips throughout the length of the movie, often when you won't be expecting them, which certainly had me cracking up every other moment. There was a lot of serious talk going on in the guise of dialogue. A comedy it was but to be able to discern these little moments of enlightenment every other while made me respect the script a lot more than I would have if the intention had been just to make me laugh at goofy lines. That was a work of genius and deserves recognition.

There were a lot of secondary characters which lighted up the moments. There was this rival of the main duo at the bowling alley who seeks to incite confrontation with every word of his. Walter always seems to want to stand up to bullies and makes big statements and bold moves, the majority of which end up creating trouble for the Dude. Thrown into the mix is the rich Lebowski's daughter (Julianne Moore) who believes that her father's trophy wife is faking her abduction and wants the money for her own. So she sets the Dude on her own personal agenda to help her prove that she's right.

The Dude is pushed around by everyone who comes into contact with him, from the rich Lebowski to his daughter, the kidnappers, a porn producer and even the police; and much of the comedy originates from this. They all just barge into his private space whenever they feel like it and bully him. But nothing ever shakes his exterior and his values of pacifism never leave his side. Even for a man as passive as him, trouble seems to find ways to bring itself to him.

There are some scenes of such hilarity that I literally had to double over and hold my stomach. There was also a fair amount of profanity and nudity, and the Dude is a compulsive smoker of weed.

The narrative during the first half was strong and carried the movie very well. The second half seemed to lose a bit of steam, as the plot became somewhat convoluted. But what you have to understand is the bigger picture_ which is not to get the plot which is by no means difficult to follow, but witness a chapter in the life of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski while he tries to enjoy his life. I feel like Jeff Bridges deserved to be lauded for his portrayal for the character much more than he did for his other roles.

For such an intelligent comedy, which is a rare brand, I feel like it deserves a perfect ten for the effort and achievement in creating compelling characters that succeeded in making people laugh yet be a bit brooding and make statements about politics and war under the layer, if you care to look for them, without diminishing the entertainment value of the piece in the least.