Saturday-Sunday: The Big Lebowski

I decided to end this weekend marathon a little earlier, after bailing twenty minutes into Terrence Malick's The New World. Rather disappointing for a film such a presumably great director. I wouldn't know because I haven't seen any of his other films. So I just moved on to The Big Lebowski, which I honestly didn't know that much about going into it. I know that Jeff Bridges played a man called The Dude, that the film was directed by the Coen brothers, and that somehow Steve Buscemi figured into the story. So I'm glad to have had the fresh experience going into it.

The film starts out like your normal everyday Christmas special, with Sam Elliot narrating the adventure of The Dude from the beginning. When The Dude loses his favorite carpet which really brought the room together, he's thrown into a series of coincidences and classic Coen mishaps. It became very clear to me as I went on that this wasn't exactly a classic, as some people have told me it is. It has all the Coen beats to it, including unexpected character deaths, seemingly random but highly enjoyable interludes, and the incomplete conclusion which answers all the questions, but doesn't exactly offer complete resolution.

I have to say that nobody writes dialogue quite like the Coen brothers, and this definitely has some hilarious scenes, particularly with John Goodman. Almost the entire gang has something that they bring to the table. Jeff Bridges' The Dude certainly is as Sam Elliot described in the opening. He's just your regular sort of guy who doesn't want money or a job or anything important like that. He just wants his goddamn carpet back. Goodman's Walter is a dark comic treat. I knew that somebody would end up pulling a gun on a mild-mannered pedestrian, and it makes me feel good to know that it was him.

Julianne Moore shows up along the way, and it's a funny little role that she's supposed to play stingily. Finally, as he's really the only other person worth mentioning, Steve Buscemi is in this film, sort of. He has a slight presence, but he's not 100% crucial to the story. He offers a perfectly good recurring joke, and I'm glad he exists for that reason alone. Ultimately, The Big Lebowski was just a mellow, fun, and enjoyable time, but nothing above and beyond. That would almost betray the character The Dude was created to be. The film fits the in the film, mostly. I'm glad I watched it, and I think it's a lot better than most average films. It's an average film slightly above average. I'm losing my train of thought.

B+