The Big Lebowski (1998)
July 14, 2014 10:28 AM - Subscribe

The hilariously twisted comedy-thriller stars Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore. Join the "Dude" and his bowling buddies on their journey that blends unforgettable characters, kidnapping, a case of mistaken identity and White Russians. Enter the visually unique and entertaining world from the creative minds of the Coen brothers and remember: the Dude abides.
posted by mathowie (61 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Buzzfeed thing points out Aimee Mann, but doesn't note the presence of Jimmy Dale Gilmore as Smokey.
posted by LionIndex at 10:46 AM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


Thanks for linking to the Philip Seymour Hoffman piece. Of all of the prominent members of that talented cast it's hard to believe that he's the first to have gone.
posted by MoonOrb at 10:52 AM on July 14, 2014


I watched this (sober) about 5 years ago, after so much hype from so many people.

And I was sorely disappointed by it. I like much of the Coen brothers stuff, but couldn't get into The Big Lebowski. Maybe after sitting on disappointment for five years a rewatch would change my mind.

Anyway, interested to hear why others love this one so much.
posted by 2ht at 10:54 AM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


Here's a snippet from a piece I wrote several years ago:

Firstly, I want to talk about "The Big Lebowski." I warn you, however, the following comment spoils a plot point, so if you haven't seen the film, well, go see it. It came out in 1998. What have you been waiting for? When I recently visited Los Angeles, I stopped in Malibu to watch the sunset from a bluff over the ocean called Point Dume. It's a popular filming location — the climactic scene in the original "Planet of the Apes" took place here, with Charleton Heston making a terrible discovery on a beach that I won't detail in case you haven't seen that film either.

In "Lebowski," the title character, played by Jeff Bridges, goes out to Malibu to meet a pornographer named Jackie Treehorn, who is throwing a beach party just below Point Dume consisting mostly of very happy men tossing a topless woman into the air using a fireman's canvas life net. Later, Lebowski will have a run-in with the sheriff of Malibu, who will tell him, in no uncertain terms, to "stay out of Malibu."

Lebowski is no pushover, but he can be a little passive-aggressive, and Point Dume offers up one of the subtlest examples of this. Because later in the film, one of Lebowski's friends dies and Lebowski participates in scattering the ashes. Now, I've probably seen the film 50 times, but it wasn't until I visited Point Dume that I realized how subtle and how total Lebowski's passive-aggressive revenge was. Because not only does he return to Malibu to dump the ashes, in violation of the sheriff's demand, but he returns to Point Dume, bespoiling the exact spot where Jackie Treehorn throws his parties.

I will note that there is some argument about where the ashes-dumping scene was filmed — some maintain it was shot at a spot considerably south of Point Dume. Regardless of where it was actually filmed, I went back and looked at the shooting script, and it specifies Point Dume. I expect this is the sort of thing that will only be of interest to Lebowski fanatics, but I think it points to just how minutely detailed the Coen Brothers were in making what is, at is at its core, a very silly film. It genuinely is possible to watch the film for 13 years and still discover new things in it.

posted by maxsparber at 11:06 AM on July 14, 2014 [14 favorites]


Anyway, interested to hear why others love this one so much.

For me I think it might help that the Coens have a history of making movies very similar to it, enough that they've almost created their own genre of taking the zeitgeist of a particular area and time and then populating it with idiots. For Lebowski, they're basically recreating an LA Film Noir detective story with the parts horribly miscast.

Also, as maxsparber notes, there's new things you pick up on subsequent watchings. I thought it was funny and enjoyable the first time through, but I didn't really start thinking it was great until the little background things started poking through on repeated viewings, like the way lines or phrases are repeated by other characters who weren't around to hear it said in the first place.

I think it helps to just accept that nothing in the movie really matters - there really isn't much of a plot to it, what plot there is is just people confused about something, and there are a lot of things that are ultimately pointless and make no sense being in the movie, like Sam Elliott, and that's something to celebrate instead of worry about.
posted by LionIndex at 11:24 AM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


It probably wasn't until the fifth time I saw it that I even understood the linear sequence of events and all of the various conspiracies/lies thrown around.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:26 AM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also re: the last item on the Buzzfeed list, Jeff Bridges wore that same shirt twice before in two different films.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:29 AM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think one of my favorite things about the movie was the feeling I had when Walter was accusing the Big Lebowski of actually being able to walk. Up to that point in the movie, Walter had been right about everything, no matter how ridiculous the hypothesis. So, watching that scene, I totally expected Lebowski to be able to walk and was genuinely surprised at the actual result. I don't know if engineering that response was an actual motive of the Coens, but it happened, and it was great.
posted by LionIndex at 11:34 AM on July 14, 2014


I watched this (sober) about 5 years ago, after so much hype from so many people.

I've never watched it anything but sober. Most of my friends that like it a lot also enjoy it sober. It might enjoy a reputation with potheads because the Dude smokes quite a few doobs during the course of the movie, but there's more to it than that.
posted by LionIndex at 11:43 AM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


I like this movie quite a bit, and apart from it being a fun and quotable cult movie, I also think it's a very smart critique of the American left in the wake of the 60s and 70s.

In many ways it reminds me of The Long Goodbye by Altman, where your detective character is mostly there to get the shit kicked out of him, and doesn't really accomplish all that much aside from being used by those with more power than him.
posted by codacorolla at 11:55 AM on July 14, 2014 [5 favorites]


Of all the many things I love about this film, first and foremost is probably the soundtrack, which was responsible for introducing me to both Yma Sumac and Captain Beefheart.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:04 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


This was a date movie for me and the man who would become my husband.

We saw it, and, afterwards, I kept telling him about how the Dude lived in my Los Angeles. How my childhood was spent in bowling alleys and with guys who always wore shorts. With drop-outs and deadbeats and bums and the tumbling tumbleweeds. With Ralphs half-and-half paid for with a check.

It's still one of my favourite movies. And it's still one of our favourite movies.

Also, thank you, Archie McPhee, for your most modestly priced receptacle.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:30 PM on July 14, 2014 [9 favorites]


So, I only really saw this movie a few years ago because my friends convinced me I was a prophet of The Dude.

A friend lent it to me to watch it in 2000 or so, but I couldn't get into it. I turned it off after maybe five minutes and returned it to him the next day. Then, maybe five years ago, a friend of mine asked me some trivia about the movie and I told him I had never seen it.

"What do you mean you've never seen it?"

I told him about my abortive attempt at watching it and his mouth hung agape. "Dude. You quote the movie all the time. How have you never seen it?"

"What do you mean I quote the movie all the time?" I asked.

"Just the other day for example. You said, 'Hey! Hey! Careful! There's a beverage at stake here, man!' That's a line from the movie."

"Is it? Huh."

Eventually this was confirmed by at least a dozen of my friends and associates. Thus the legend grew about how I could quote the movie without having seen it and how I must be a prophet of The Dude.

So I sat down and watched it with them. Now, not only do I finally understand what all the fuss is about, but it's one of my favorite movies. I should probably get ordained as a Dudeist priest, but I never seem to get around to it.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:51 PM on July 14, 2014 [9 favorites]


I'm kind of in 2ht's boat here: I've seen it once, found it mildly diverting, but ultimately felt that it was one of those things like Monty Python and the Holy Grail that had been rendered less appealing by the sheer intensity of the fandom.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:09 PM on July 14, 2014


"...rendered less appealing by the sheer intensity of the fandom."

Like virtually the entire modern Internet.
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:35 PM on July 14, 2014


Best interior decoration advice of any film ever.
posted by sammyo at 3:36 PM on July 14, 2014


Love this movie, because it's the perfect intersection of stoner movies and film noir, somehow making both realistic.

Also: Shut the fuck up, Donny!
posted by RainyJay at 4:42 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


I had been (only) 2 years in Korea when this came out, and almost entirely unable to get access to current TV or movies or anything else from North America, legally or otherwise, unlike today. A couple of my friends emailed me independently and said, verbatim: 'hey, they made a movie about you!'

It took me another couple of years before I actually saw the movie for the first time, and although I can only wish I was as gloriously shambolic, charismatic, and laid back as the dude, I took the comparisons as massive complements.

I'm less dude-like in appearance and a bit more dude-like in demeanor these days, I think, and I sure do love that movie. It took quite a few years before I became aware of how many other people did too, but that doesn't diminish my love for it, although I do hear a lot of people say it does for them.

Along with my favorite movie of all time, It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (my single-serving tribute site to it is here), it's an evergreen thing for me -- I rewatch both of them every few months, with a few beers, and expect I'll probably do so forever.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:03 PM on July 14, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm kind of in 2ht's boat here: I've seen it once, found it mildly diverting, but ultimately felt that it was one of those things like Monty Python and the Holy Grail that had been rendered less appealing by the sheer intensity of the fandom.

You're totally allowed not to be passionately in love with it, so don't take this as argumentative or anything, but: I think it's the sort of thing that isn't really spectacular-seeming to most people until they've seen it a handful of times.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:13 PM on July 14, 2014


I think it's the sort of thing that isn't really spectacular-seeming to most people until they've seen it a handful of times.

It gets better each time, which incidentally makes it basically the opposite of The Eagles, who only get worse with repeated listening. I hate the fuckin Eagles, man.
posted by MoonOrb at 6:39 PM on July 14, 2014 [4 favorites]


The Buzzfeed article misses the point re: the date on the check. September 11th is significant here because we shortly learn that "tomorrow is already the 10th." The Dude's cash flow is such that not only does he pay for his 69c half-and-half with a check, but a post-dated one at that!


The 3 most Dude lines IMO, things that no other person real or imaginary would have said in his place:

"It's down there somewhere, let me take another look."

"This is a private residence, man!"

"That's my robe..."
posted by STFUDonnie at 7:54 PM on July 14, 2014 [4 favorites]


I remember seeing this opening day when I was in high school with one of my friends. We sort of knew the girl who was selling tickets at the box office so we didn't get carded (also I think she didn't care because people had no idea what the movie was and it wasn't a hard R). I like it so much that I convinced my parents to go again that Sunday and they liked it too.

I'm saying that sometimes my parents were cooler than I usually remember them being.

I watched this recently and it's definitely one of those movies that is different when you live in LA, even if it's only because you get what a hassle it would be to have to drive all the way out to Pasadena to get to the Big Lebowski's mansion. Or like, I'm not super into In n Out but those are good burgers and if you're saying we can stop there after, I'm totally down.
posted by dogwalker at 8:18 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


The Buzzfeed article misses the point re: the date on the check. September 11th is significant here because we shortly learn that "tomorrow is already the 10th." The Dude's cash flow is such that not only does he pay for his 69c half-and-half with a check, but a post-dated one at that!

omigod i never noticed that thank you
posted by shakespeherian at 8:19 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


COunt me in as "saw it the first time, went "thats amusing? and left it at that and didn't understand why it had such a huge following" to watching it a few years later and going "OH GOD IT'S THE BIG SLEEP" but with the detective played by a character from a completely different movie universe. Suddenly it all clicked into place, of course it's set in an LA where a film noir and a stoner movie are happening in the same place and OF COURSE the characters from the noir are trapped in 1949 while the characters from the Stoner flick are stuck in 1969. It's got a downright literary pacing, rambling and olf fashioned but with a coherent plot and conspiracy going on behind it.

And yeah, it might be the most LA thing ever.
posted by The Whelk at 9:02 PM on July 14, 2014 [11 favorites]


Up to that point in the movie, Walter had been right about everything, no matter how ridiculous the hypothesis. So, watching that scene, I totally expected Lebowski to be able to walk and was genuinely surprised

Thanks for noting this. I never understood that scene, and it always felt really hokey and out of place in an otherwise excellent movie. Now I see it is all about rising hubris and dashing expectations.
posted by meese at 9:11 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


I love this movie, but I feel like it is a comedy where basically nothing funny happens. In fact, most of the stuff that we consider funny is actually really shitty. I guess that's the way with most comedy, but in The Big Lebowski literally everything is shit. I mean there isn't even a satisfying ending. Not one person in the film ends up better off than they were. The Dude abides, but he finishes up with a dead friend and as far as I know he never got his rug back.

Slightly less gloomily, I always kind of compared it to a Korean comedy film in the way that you are laughing and then suddenly right at the end someone dies or has a miscarriage or something else terrible happens. I don't want to sound like a sap, but the scene at the end where Walter hugs the Dude is so sincere that I get a little misty eyed. I know that it is supposed to be awkwardly funny, and John Goodman's kind of bent over posture just nails it. But, it is also encapsulating Walter's agreement that the Dude is right and he has been stuck on his ex wife and Vietnam and he has been living this horribly depressing life and just needs to move on. It is moving, is what I am trying to say. At least for me.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:33 PM on July 14, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm probably alone in this, but I keep hoping they make a sequel call "The Little Lebowski" about The Dude dealing with meeting Maude's kid. Yeah, I'm ok in being alone with that.
posted by Catblack at 9:40 PM on July 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


This film has one of my all-time favourite gags. My first time watching this flick I was so completely lost I was desperate for SOME ANSWERS. Just any clue I could latch on to about what was actually going on.

The dude suavely converses with Jackie Treehorn until they are interrupted by a phone call. Jackie writes something down on a notepad, politely excuses himself like a Bond villain, and the Dude decides to do a little detective work. He stealthily but awkwardly makes his way over to the pad, shades it with a pencil and uncovers... a crude doodle (in both senses of the word).

It was such a brilliant subversion of a standard mystery genre trope that I cracked up and became far less anxious about trying to figure things out and far more dude-like about how I was watching the movie.
posted by Start with Dessert at 2:32 AM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Yeah, it's a mystery story where pretty much everything that happens is a MacGuffin. Why do lines repeat from one scene to the next? Why does the Dude's dream with the nihilists include the scissors from one of Maude's paintings? What's the point of having the Jesus or the Stranger (Elliott) in the movie? What's the whole point of visiting Arthur Digby Sellers and why does the Dude end up singing the theme song to Branded when he's in the cop car? What's the deal with Treehorn's little sketch?

Nothing. It's all totally pointless.
posted by LionIndex at 7:33 AM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


It stubbornly refuses to have a point aside from its own stoned sense of place and I kind of love that.
posted by The Whelk at 7:38 AM on July 15, 2014 [4 favorites]


Every time I check someone's profile here and read that it is not active, I hear it in Brandt's voice: This account is...disabled.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:00 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Why does the Dude's dream with the nihilists include the scissors from one of Maude's paintings?

Because they're going to cut off his Johnson.
posted by maxsparber at 3:18 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]


Yes, but why with those particular scissors instead of, say, a giant marmot?
posted by LionIndex at 3:47 PM on July 15, 2014


Yes, but why with those particular scissors instead of, say, a giant marmot?

Does the male form make you uncomfortable, Mr. LionIndex?
posted by Celsius1414 at 5:31 PM on July 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


Because marmots chew off Johnsons, they don't cut them off. I mean, an unlicensed amphibious rodent ... chewing off johnsons ... that's not legal either.
posted by maxsparber at 7:15 PM on July 15, 2014


Does the male form make you uncomfortable, Mr. LionIndex?

Don't be fatuous. I can mention my "rod", "dick" or Johnson without batting an eye.
posted by LionIndex at 8:46 AM on July 16, 2014


I'm actually a little surprised this thread didn't exclusively consist of re-purposed quotes from the movie. I think there is a lot that went into making this film a contemporary cult classic, including the fact that it seems to be a Philip Marlowe novel set in contemporary Los Angeles with characters who mange at once to seem like the sort of LS weirdos that you meet all the time and also characters from a 1940s crime novel ("I'm a brother shamus!")

But what I think contributed most of all is the film's dialogue. It really is preposterously quotable.
posted by maxsparber at 9:02 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


But what I think contributed most of all is the film's dialogue. It really is preposterously quotable.

Yeah well you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
posted by MoonOrb at 9:10 AM on July 16, 2014 [4 favorites]


Yeah well you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Were you listening to maxsparber's story, MoonOrb?

Were you listening to maxsparber's story?

So you have no frame of reference here, MoonOrb. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know what's going on.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:44 PM on July 16, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, I was once having a discussion where an interlocutor thought we were talking about John Lennon and my immediate reaction was to shout "SHUT THE FUCK UP! V.I. LENIN, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!" I think I also added "You're out of your element!" for good measure. The reference went unnoticed and I came off as a real prick.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:53 PM on July 16, 2014 [10 favorites]


I have to say that this weekend I finally got around to ordering a blu-ray version to replace the DVD I lost or forgot I lent to someone, and I was all set to watch it last night because I had the night to myself when my wife was out of town, and Amazon claimed that it was delivered at 334pm, and, no, no delivery was made yesterday, and I am really, really grumpy about it.
posted by MoonOrb at 3:14 PM on July 16, 2014


COunt me in as "saw it the first time, went "thats amusing? and left it at that and didn't understand why it had such a huge following" to watching it a few years later and going "OH GOD IT'S THE BIG SLEEP"

Same with me. It wasn't until the 5th or 6th viewing that I realized it was a pretty typical noir detective film set in a different time with a different assortment of characters. In fact, I remember having that realization on the line "You mix a hell of a Caucasian, Jackie," as the Dude finds that he's drugged, thinking to myself, "Man, that sounds straight out of The Maltese Falcon or something ... hey ... wait a minute!"
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:37 AM on July 17, 2014


I was going to type up a long thing about "the point" of TBL, but while doing some research about how the movie uses the first Iraq war as a plot device I came across Todd Alcott's read on it here.

Saying that the movie doesn't have a point misses the mark, but is sort of accurate. Rather, it's about pointlessness and how we deal with that.
posted by codacorolla at 11:28 AM on July 17, 2014


I should probably get ordained as a Dudeist priest, but I never seem to get around to it.

Further evidence.
posted by phearlez at 1:20 PM on July 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


This sounds like complete bullshit, but I swear it's true (and possibly relevant, but whatever): I just realized that I've been using a screenshot from The Big Lebowski as my default avatar image almost everywhere for years. I mean, it's not that I wasn't aware of the provenance of the image: I captured it and cropped it and messed with the color balance myself, after all. But using it has been just so reflexive after all this time that it took this thread for me to think about the fact that it might actually put some of people off, because they'd assume that I'm A Major Enthusiast, and all that that apparently implies.

I admit I am a lower-case enthusiast, but I understand how Lebowski Super Fandom can and could and maybe should be off-putting, and drawing a spurious dotted line that I did not intend there is not unreasonable.

Ah well. I just think it's a funny, wonderchickenny image, fan as I am of the movie, so: so.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:09 AM on July 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


This has been bugging me for years: Walter at some point says to Donny "life does not stop and start at your convenience you miserable piece of shit."

That amount of vehemence toward Donny always seemed oddly out of character, even in the context of Walter's outbursts. Anyone have any thoughts?
posted by griphus at 9:55 AM on July 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Did he ever really treat Donny nicely if Donny wasn't in the process of delivering the league schedule or dying?
posted by LionIndex at 10:12 AM on July 18, 2014


Walter's mistreatment of Donny never really seemed personal to me. It always felt to me like Walter just acting out some script that he felt was set for him and for Donny. Walter, given who Walter is, and Donny, given who Donny is, just have a certain sort of set means of engaging with one another. But, despite that, it always seemed clear that Walter did, deep down, have great affection and care for Donny.

I still feel like I don't entirely understand Donny's role in the movie. I feel like I understand his death. It makes sense, for him to die, for no reason. But what about Donny, in general? Who is he?
posted by meese at 10:23 AM on July 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


He loved the ocean.
posted by maxsparber at 10:28 AM on July 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


...and bowling.
posted by griphus at 11:13 AM on July 18, 2014


I'm flying out to CA tomorrow, and must watch this again. Awhile back a co-worker explained to me how he wanted to set something up, gave me a rough idea of how he wanted it to work, and then asked me how I would tackle it. I broke it down into 8 steps and he said it was too complicated. I told him that what he wanted involved 8 steps, and that I would need him to simplify his requirements in order to eliminate any. He insisted it was simply too complicated. Finally, I said "show me which step is too complicated. I need to know what you mean." He said again, "it's just all too complicated, you're overthinking it!" Finally I said "you're out of your depth, David." It was actually another name starting with "D" changed to protect the guilty. I was dead serious and not quoting the movie at all; I said "depth" and not "element" and was not thinking at all about the movie. Meanwhile my good friend and "better" co-worker is chuckling on the sidelines and initially thought I was flippantly trying to quote the movie. But I was dead serious, David.
posted by aydeejones at 12:53 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Finally saw this last week for the first time and was as annoyed as I thought I'd be by the gratuitous violence, exclusive use of female characters as sexual props, and general teen boy sensibility, BUT...

Let us now praise John Goodman:

He is so smart, and so charismatic, and with such timing and presence. He makes this completely scary wingnut asshole so damn likeable. The way he uses his face and his body is just so good and clever. I love this man. He is a great actor and so damn funny. I would love to watch the spinoff Walter movie although he is designed to be an insane and great sidekick. John Goodman, you are the man.
posted by latkes at 8:37 AM on July 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


Also, can someone explain how there is now a whole subgenre of hyper-violent stoner movies? Violence and weed don't seem to naturally go together. Why has this become a "thing", and should we blame Lebowski for starting it?
posted by latkes at 8:47 AM on July 21, 2014


TBL isn't really a stoner movie by design (although it's definitely become one because of people finding an idol in The Dude). It's a noir. Violence (I wouldn't say gratuitous, since the violence all tends to serve a narrative purpose), sexualization of women and teen boy sensibility basically describes classic Chandler to a T.
posted by codacorolla at 9:03 AM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


I really don't get how this movie can be described as "hyper-violent". The only death in the whole movie is from natural causes. The only gun firing fires by itself. The only dismemberment is consensual and off-camera. Sure there's some violence, and Walter is pretty clearly meant to provoke discomfort in the viewer, but hyper-violent?
posted by LionIndex at 8:00 PM on October 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


I really don't get how this movie can be described as "hyper-violent".

Obviously you're not a golfer.
posted by MoonOrb at 11:18 PM on May 20, 2015


My Mom has a Yorkie that I call a Pomeranian sometimes, which annoys my Mom sometimes.
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:18 AM on June 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


I liked The Big Lebowski from the first time I saw it, but it definitely grew on me with repeated viewings - and once you realize it's a noir mystery with a highly unlikely detective, something clicks into place. I'm not a connoisseur of stoner movies, but The Big Lebowski never really struck me as such. The Dude is a stoner, but that seems more of a reflection of his personality ("Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide") than the cause of it.
Not one person in the film ends up better off than they were. The Dude abides, but he finishes up with a dead friend and as far as I know he never got his rug back.
I think The Stranger's closing monologue perfectly sums up why this film (and the character of The Dude) has become such a cult favorite:
"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. I sure hope he makes the finals."
Throughout the film we see glimpses that The Dude isn't stupid... he just doesn't give a shit about the 9 to 5, and manages to coast through life with an ease many of us find enviable; specifically his ability to just not stress out about anything, and even after everything that happened, and the loss of Donny, he's able to return to that steady equilibrium almost instantly.

But even though he writes a post-dated check for the half and half, and is late with the rent, he doesn't feel like a total deadbeat to me; the landlord doesn't say anything about last month's rent, for example; presumably he paid it eventually. I've always liked the detail of The Dude going to the landlord's dance performance - arguably as a goodwill gesture to offset the late rent, but it also feels like a simple kind gesture to me. The Dude strikes me as a 'Neutral Good' character overall.
posted by usonian at 1:45 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


The only dismemberment is consensual

Say what you like about the nihilist's dactylectomy, at least it was consensual.
posted by ambrosen at 3:16 PM on November 20, 2016


This has been bugging me for years: Walter at some point says to Donny "life does not stop and start at your convenience you miserable piece of shit."

That amount of vehemence toward Donny always seemed oddly out of character, even in the context of Walter's outbursts. Anyone have any thoughts?


I've always thought that Walter is responding to the idea that the Big Lebowski would summon the Dude during a bowling game. However, I also think it is deliberately written to be ambiguous whether he's talking to the hypothetical Big Lebowski (and thus completely ignoring Donny), or heaping more unreasonable abuse onto Donny.
posted by polecat at 3:59 PM on May 2, 2022


The Dude abides, but he finishes up with a dead friend and as far as I know he never got his rug back.

I'm pretty sure the movie doesn't say what happens, but the Dude actually did crack the case and figure out where the million dollars was. If Maude was good for her word, then she'll pay him the 10% and he can buy any number of rugs.
posted by polecat at 4:06 PM on May 2, 2022


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