Review of The Big Lebowski (1998) by Dave R — 11 Aug 2014

The Big Lebowski is a witty contemporary adult comedy movie that had me laughing almost non-stop from beginning to end. The film follows the life of Jeffery 'The Dude" Lebowski; an under-achieving, unemployed man with an interest in bowling and a knack for getting into trouble. The film falls into the typical adult-comedy film genre with its cynical dialogues and adult themes revolving around sex, drugs, and murder. The main plot of The Big Lebowski begins when two moronic thugs break into the home of Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaking his identity with that of a millionaire with the same name. The thugs pee on The Dude's rug before leaving his apartment to bully him into paying a debt that he knows nothing about. The Dude takes the issue to Jeffery Lebowski; the wealthy man who the thugs originally intended to attack; in order to gain compensation for the ruined rug. Mr. Lebowski offers The Dude a handsomely compensated job which involved the safe delivery of a ransom payment for the return of his allegedly kidnapped wife, Bunny. The Dude accepts Mr. Lebowski's offer and quickly recruits the assistance of his friend and bowling mate, Walter Sobchak; a gun toting, Vietnam War veteran with severe anger issues and strong tendency to be violent and mischievous just to prove a point. Walter and The Dude's antics and deception soon lands them into more trouble than either of them imagined. This was realized when their friend Donny Kerabatsos dies outside of the bowling alley during an attack by nihilist thugs. Deceit leads to more conflict and before he knows it, The Dude seems to have everyone from Nihilist gang members to the Malibu Police Department to porn industry tycoons wanting a piece of him.

I believe that editing in The Big Lebowski was appropriate considering the fact that it was a film that involved a considerable amount of heavy drinking and drug usage. There were multiple cut scenes that transitioned from The Dude's sober, conscious state to a hallucinogenic mind trip/dream sequence. I deem editing like this appropriate because it helps the view of the film better understand how out of touch with reality The Dude really is, while at the same time adding a touch of silliness to the film. Sound usage was also considerably effective in the film. All background sounds effects were appropriate for the atmosphere of the scene and music selection typically consisted of "trippy" 1970's rock with a lot of twangy guitar usage to help the viewer feel the disorientation of The Dude's drug and alcohol induced hallucinations. The scene where Donny died included fast German techno music with a lot of bass in the background. This was done to help the viewer feel the increased drama of the action scene while the German Nihilist's were attacking. Cinematography techniques in The Big Leboswski involved mostly realistic settings with a few hallucinogenic trip scenes that definitely fell into the non-realistic setting category. All of the action and fight scenes involved shots where loose framing techniques were used to help express the energy of the scene. The scene where Jesus was introduced involved several shallow shots where the background was blurred to show more focus on the character and his actions than the bowling alley and extras in the background.

The social context of this film was set to show that being a deadbeat can be hazardous but entertaining to watch from a third party perspective. There wasn't any deep, between the lines meaning or morals to been seen in The Big Lebowski, however it was still incredibly enjoyable to me. I liked it because I find the drug based humor and crude white-trash comedy that this movie is primarily comprised of to be extremely funny. I would absolutely recommend this film to someone who has never seen it, simply because it is funny in an indecent sort of way. I would rate The Big Lebowski 8 of 10 because it was funny and included a great cast of Hollywood stars. I didn't give it a 10 because there weren't any truly incredible special effects or plot twists, however I feel that it was a great movie none-the-less.