Yes, only today did I see The Big Lebowski in its entirety for the first time. I had previously seen bits and pieces from it, but today I sat down and watched it properly from start to end, and I’m very happy that I did. After watching it, I started thinking while the credits rolled, what was this movie about.
And then it came to me, the movie is a big mostly plotless mess, but a very wonderful and funny mess. The movie begins with the introduction of Jeff Bridges character, The Dude. Yes, his character calls himself The Dude, as do all of his friends.
The Dude is a jobless drifter who spends most of his day doing nothing but smoking joints, and every now and then goes out to a bowling alley to meet his friends for some bowling. His friends are Walter (John Goodman) a gun crazy Polish Catholic turned Jew, and Donny (Steve Buscemi) a person who isn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box.
The “plot” begins with two thugs giving The Dude some beating because Lebowski’s wife owns their employer a lot of money and they have come to collect. Little do they know that The Dude, while being a Lebowski, isn’t the Lebowski that they are looking for. During the scuffle one of the thugs takes a piss on The Dude’s rug.
At first it doesn’t bother The Dude that much, yes he is irritated and annoyed by what the thugs did, but he only decides to do something about it after his friend Walter talks it into him. And that’s where the mess begins, The Dude goes to visit the real Big Lebowski to demand a refund for his rug, which is promptly denied, but the story doesn’t end here, far from it.
The Dude ends up working as the bag man responsible for handling the ransom of Big Lebowski’s wife. And this is where most of the humour comes from the movie. The sheer silliness, and to a big degree dumbness of The Dude and his friends really make for a lot of funny situations. After watching this, it’s really hard to imagine Jeff Bridges as anyone but The Dude, he really nails the role very well.
The Big Lebowski could be defined what a comedy should be like, great actors, loose plot, and more humour than five other comedy movies put together have. If you still haven’t seen this movie, just like I hadn’t a day ago, then I highly recommend that you watch it, it’s nothing short of brilliant.