09/29/09 - The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski (1998, 117 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/

I'm on a bowling team and everyone loves The Big Lebowski. I'd seen it once a while ago but didn't really remember the whole story so I wanted to watch it again. I hadn't really enjoyed it that much the first time so I was hoping this go-round it would be better.

The Big Lebowski is a Coen Brothers movie. That tells you a lot right there. There's a huge cast that awkwardly interacts with each other at every turn. The plot is all over the place and pretty much impossible to describe in a short summary (or at least give it a fair depiction). Instead, I'll just highlight the motley cast: Jeff Bridges as main character The Dude (also known as Jeffrey Lebowski); his good friend and bowling buddy Walter Sobchak played by John Goodman; another bowling friend in Steve Buscemi's "Donny" Kerabatsos; playing millionaire The Big Lebowski (also known as Jeffrey Lebowski) is David Huddleston; Tara Reid plays his wife Bunny Lebowski; Julianne Moore plays his daughter Maude Lebowski; Philip Seymour Hoffman gets a minor role as The Big Lebowski's butler Brandt; the three nihilists are headlined by Peter Stormare who actually has a name in Karl Hungus; John Turturro rounds out the bigger characters with his portrayal of creepy bowler Jesus. Serving as narrator for the picture is Sam Elliott as The Stranger.

As you can see from above there's a huge cast and most of them have smaller roles. Bridges and Goodman are in the majority of the scenes and carry most of the movie. I personally found Sobchak's character better and Goodman's acting great here. That's not to say Bridges is bad, it's just that his character isn't as cool in my opinion. Buscemi is great as always in a Coen Brothers movie and Hoffman is great as he is in just about every movie. Finally, I think Turturro does the best with his character. Though in only about two or three scenes, he completely steals them and is so over-the-top it's hilarious. Stormare is equal in this department, taking his character to the extreme with amazing results. Huddleston is noticeably weak in my mind and is the weak point of the whole movie. Reid comes across as an odd choice but her role is so minor she doesn't do anything bad. Moore is the last character worthy of mention and I find her acting on par with everyone else. Nothing really stands out in my mind here.

Sadly, I think I might be the only person I know that doesn't heap insane amounts of praise on The Big Lebowski. I'm just not a fan of the whole thing. It seems to me that it's a movie that relies on absurdities far more than substance. It's almost as if the Coen brothers thought how they could make each character as eccentric as possible and this just doesn't make it a good movie in my mind. However, I will admit that The Big Lebowski is quite possibly the most quotable movie ever. The dialogue is simply amazing and extremely memorable. But this doesn't make a great movie. I don't know, really, why everything put on the screen just doesn't come together for me but it doesn't. Putting nihilists, a Jewish Vietnam vet, a slacker, a millionaire, a sex offender, and a feminist (to just name a few) together just seems to scream out "Look how bizarre this movie is! These characters are so unique!" and it just doesn't work for me.

The next comments I have for The Big Lebowski is on the music choices. Most everything works great here. Using the technique of fading every song heard in dream sequences into the next scene really works in my opinion. Also, the songs chosen match up great with what's going on in the film. I think I found the usage of the flamenco version of "Hotel California" the best in both regards.

Overall, I gave this film a 6/10. There's no doubt that The Big Lebowski can be an immensely enjoyable film and that it's well put together. It's just that it doesn't do it for me and I feel it falls incredibly short in putting a good story on screen and instead relies on just a weird, eclectic mix of characters to make a fun movie. Is it fun? Yeah, no question. Is it worthy of all the praise it seems to get? Not in my opinion.