The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen) 1998
One of the
best comedies of the nineties, and the best film thus far from the Coen
Brothers, The Big Lebowski has been
criminally underrated, it seems. A lot of this probably stems from the fact that
it is so different in tone than Fargo
(Lebowski was the first Coen film to be released after it), which had
been the biggest commercial and critical success for the Coens up to that point.
Despite its gory murders and whatnot, Fargo had a terrific performance by Frances McDormand that made the
audience feel warmer and fuzzier than Lebowski
ever does. Lebowski has
an even better lead performance than Fargo
did, but it doesn’t reach out like McDormand’s. Jeff Bridges’ Jeff “the
Dude” Lebowski is a stunningly funny comic creation, but only if you can key
into it. Playing what should be a one-joke role, Bridges imbues the Dude with so
much character that his laziness isn’t just a habit, but instead becomes a
full-fledged ethos (as opposed to nihilism).
The
Dude’s existential state of mind is one that doesn’t question so much as
reacts, and when he does react it’s usually with a fluster of profanity and
repetition of what he’s heard before. Essentially stuck in the 70’s, the
Dude’s attempts to bolster his sense of authority are hilarious because when
he attempts to talk to people on a level they’ll understand he simply rattles
off some muddled sound bites. The
film, which is set in the early nineties just before the Gulf War, presents a
distorted freak-show version of LA that lends credence to the Dude’s decision
to stay as is. To cast him as a Chandler-esque detective is wholly
inappropriate, and that it doesn’t work as a compelling mystery is half of the
point. Even the narrator loses his train of thought here as he forgets exactly
what he was working up to. The (rather nihilistic) point, which also acts as
justification of the Dude’s behavior, is that everything is pointless,
especially in this film’s setting, which surely fits the absurdist comedic
slant of the film.
Thankfully,
since the film sacrifices all else (including emotional content, profundity, and
narrative logic) for the laugh, it’s downright hilarious. Once you stop
looking for the big answers here, and start accepting the small pleasures that
the film offers up, nearly everything feels like a masterstroke. Surely, Jesus,
the Hispanic pedophile bowler, is funny the first time through, but equally
oddball, if not so loud about it, is his partner Liam, who inspires chuckles
because of the association of his ordinariness with such flamboyance. Every
performance from the cast is perfectly modulated here, making thinly written,
but somehow fully conceived, characters come wildly alive. The Coens themselves
are able to flex a bit more muscle than usual, creating a never-ending series of
daft images and situations. Perhaps, it’s the dogged lack of profundity that
makes the film so much more fun to me than their other works but The Big Lebowski might be the one Coen film where their distancing
irony and snarky condescension toward their characters doesn’t bother me at
all. They create a slightly altered reality here that seems wholly worthy of
being taken with a grain of salt.
**** Masterpiece
01-17-02
Jeremy
Heilman
