# The Big Lebowski question (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405 "2005-04-27T18:03:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/21 "2005-04-28T07:06:06Z")
> **[Quotes from "The Big Lebowski"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes)** > > The Dude: That rug really tied the room together. ---
**Author:** ![mdrobbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mdrobbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mdrobbo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/22 "2005-04-28T07:47:41Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Her carefree attitude when we see her later in her convertible implies (or at least, I infer) that she knows nothing about the plot. I always assumed she just got sick of hanging out with her co-conspirators and went home. Either way. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/23 "2005-04-28T11:40:41Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > I just saw it again (for some reason it screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). Because it is modern art. One thing that gets overlooked with this movie is how beautifully shot it is, how balanced the structure is, the imagination that went into it. While I think the Coen’s strive for that in most of their movies, they completely achieve it in this one. The opening shot of the bowlers with the BoB Dylan song playing is gorgeous. Maybe my favorite shot is when Donny dies, and the whole background fades to black except for the lights on the bowling alley wall. There’s a point of view shot from a bolwing ball. The flashbacks are inspired. I recently saw a guy with a T-shirt on that said, “Achiever” on the front and on the back it said, “And proud we are of all of them.” ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/24 "2005-04-28T12:30:08Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > I just saw it again (for some reason it screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). One thing I realized is that the Big Lebowski actually gets away with it! Sure, the Dude knows what’s going on, but the money remains taken out of the children’s fund, and into Lebowski’s hands. Do we actually know that the money was removed from the children’s fund? ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/25 "2005-04-28T16:13:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by\*\* Kyla:\*\* > _Do we actually know that the money was removed from the children’s fund?_ Yes; Maude discovers it’s missing, confronts her father, and hears the “abduction” story from him. Her error is suspecting Bunny as being the mastermind behind the theft, when it’s actually her father. Her father! My thinking on this case has gotten very uptight … ---
**Author:** ![TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoneyKingofNowhere)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/26 "2005-04-28T16:21:14Z")
It took many viewing to appreciate the subtleties in this, as noted by Silk1976. It occured to me (maybe this is common knowledge), how many opening scenes begin with Donny bowling a strike, then towards the end, they open with him only hitting 9, with the 10th pin tipping, then staying upright. Donny looks a bit amiss, as if confused. A bit of foreshadowing perhaps… then, the final scene with Sam Elliot and the Dude, the screen pans to the left, and it’s perfectly timed to where the guy in the background throws a strike, and boom: it’s over. There are so many little things that make this movie so great: Songs of the Whale “I am the Walrus” “Dude, I’m the calm one” “Who is this fucking guy?” “oh, that’s Ulee, the video artist” “… you mean … coitus?” ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/27 "2005-04-28T16:24:42Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > (And I wonder if Walter knows a recently infamous Wendy’s customer.) Every single time there is an update to that story, my husband says, “It was nihilists!” ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/28 "2005-04-28T16:50:15Z")
I love this movie… and I think you are right… The Big Labowski will get away with this. But at least they’ll be a Dude Jr. Didn’t like what happened to Donny though. Other things I have noticed. Chinese nationals (The Chinaman isn’t the point… and Dude the proper nonenclature is Asian American) get a bad wrap in this film. First there is the rug pisser the Lebowski states his legs were blown off by a China man in Korea. Both Lebowskis are leeches. Hell we never see the Dude bowl except in his dream sequence and even then he doesn’t roll the ball. Steve Buscemi who is a big mouth in Fargo and Miller’s Crossing is constantly shut up by Walter He also seems to have his remains made smaller and smaller with each movie he gets killed in. Miller’s Crossing He is left whole… fargo he’s ground into pulp, in Labowski he is incinerated into ashes. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/29 "2005-04-28T17:01:23Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > Oh yeah, not only that, but the Dude is left without a rug! It really tied the room together… But Maude said he could keep the rug he stole. (In exchange for a certain, umm, donation.) What we don’t know is how well the new rug ties the room together. FtG Family Factoid: My mother has been friends for years with the mother of one of the actors in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/30 "2005-04-28T17:05:49Z")
> [@mdrobbo](#): > > I always assumed she just got sick of hanging out with her co-conspirators and went home. > Either way. No, Bren explicitly states that she went to visit some friends and just didn’t bother to tell them. When the Dude goes to confront Lebowski about his malfeasance, he pulls up to see the convertible parked in the fountain, and walks in to find Bren picking up Bunny’s clothes from the floor and various bits of furniture, while she skips around on the balcony naked. That’s when we find out where she’s been. I suppose she could have been lying about where she’d been, but it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t get the feeling she gives enough of a shit about what her husband or Bren think to bother with lying. This _is_ a woman who, in front of her husband’s assistant, offered to prostitute herself. (And offered to prostitute herself in front of her husband’s assistant for an extra $100.) That’s typically not something you see from people who are concerned about other people’s reactions, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/31 "2005-04-28T17:07:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But Maude said he could keep the rug he stole. (In exchange for a certain, umm, donation.) What we don’t know is how well the new rug ties the room together. No she didn’t. She cracked him on the head and took the rug back, because it was a gift from her to her late mother and had sentimental value. That was the whole point of offering him 10% of the recovered money, so he could go buy any number of rugs that didn’t have sentimental value to her. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/32 "2005-04-28T18:01:11Z")
The thing I love about this movie, is it tries so hard to be film noir, but its efforts are thwarted by its characters. My favorite scene is when Dude confronts the detective who’s been stalking him trying to learn form a master. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/33 "2005-04-28T18:08:00Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > Oh yeah, not only that, but the Dude is left without a rug! It really tied the room together… But comeon man! Ge got laid! ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/34 "2005-04-28T18:46:31Z")
> [@Maus Magill](#): > > The thing I love about this movie, is it tries so hard to be film noir, but its efforts are thwarted by its characters. I thought it was more like. . .the movie accidentally became film noir without trying. The movie reminds me the most of “The Long Goodbye” with Elliot Gould playing Phillip Marlowe. . .also a “film noirish” thing but not fully. Gould gets beat up, late night trips to the grocery store, stumbles upon clues, gets seduced. . .they’re similar in a lot of ways. If anyone hasn’t seen it, I think it still plays well. I haven’t seen it in about 5 years but for a time it was one of my faves. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoneyKingofNowhere)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/35 "2005-04-28T20:45:34Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > No, Bren explicitly states that she went to visit some friends and just didn’t bother to tell them. When the Dude goes to confront Lebowski about his malfeasance, he pulls up to see the convertible parked in the fountain, and walks in to find Bren picking up Bunny’s clothes from the floor and various bits of furniture, while she skips around on the balcony naked. That’s when we find out where she’s been. > > I suppose she could have been lying about where she’d been, but it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t get the feeling she gives enough of a shit about what her husband or Bren think to bother with lying. This _is_ a woman who, in front of her husband’s assistant, offered to prostitute herself. (And offered to prostitute herself in front of her husband’s assistant for an extra $100.) That’s typically not something you see from people who are concerned about other people’s reactions, ya know? What’s great is that Bren might be the most perfectly cast member of the whole movie, which is saying alot, considering there couldn’t have been a better Walter… or Dude… er, or Jesus for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/36 "2005-04-28T21:41:46Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I thought it was more like. . .the movie accidentally became film noir without trying. > > The movie reminds me the most of “The Long Goodbye” with Elliot Gould playing Phillip Marlowe. . .also a “film noirish” thing but not fully. > > Gould gets beat up, late night trips to the grocery store, stumbles upon clues, gets seduced. . .they’re similar in a lot of ways. If anyone hasn’t seen it, I think it still plays well. I haven’t seen it in about 5 years but for a time it was one of my faves. I read somewhere (and I can’t remember where) that the Cohen’s original idea for the movie came when one of them asked what _The Big Sleep_ would have been like if, instead of Philip Marlowe, the detective was their good friend Jeff “The Dude” Dowd. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/37 "2005-04-29T04:07:26Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Because _Bunny is friends with the Nihilists_. Remember when the Dude is at the Big Lebowski’s house and there’s a drunk guy in the pool? He’s a Nihilist! Oh! That must be exhausting… > [@BabaBooey](#): > > Another reason why I don’t think they’re doing it for Bunny is that, once made aware that the ringer was a ringer, they still insisted that The Dude/Walter/STFU Donny still hand over what little money they had. Just a bunch greedy nihilists, that’s all. I agree – they weren’t doing it for Bunny. They were just using the circumstance (like many others in the movie) to try for their own personal gain. They gave up on the million simply because they realized Walter was telling the truth and there was never any money in the briefcase. “Fuckin’ dipshit with a nine-toed woman!” ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/38 "2005-04-29T04:37:25Z")
> [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](#): > > What’s great is that Bren might be the most perfectly cast member of the whole movie. [nitpick] I do believe his name was Brandt [/nitpick] And yes, he was well cast. And his forced laughing expression right after Bunny says, “I’ll suck your cock for $1000” – not only was that great, but it reminded me of a friend in college who had that same mannerism at times. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/39 "2005-04-29T07:05:50Z")
I knew a group of guys that would get together once a month to watch this movie. They would make a White Russian or light up every time The Dude does in the movie. By the end of the movie they get totally wasted. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405/40 "2005-04-29T11:46:03Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > [nitpick] > I do believe his name was Brandt > [/nitpick] > > And yes, he was well cast. > > And his forced laughing expression right after Bunny says, “I’ll suck your cock for $1000” – not only was that great, but it reminded me of a friend in college who had that same mannerism at times. Well, it’s another feather in the cap for Phillip Seymour Hoffman in what could have been a throwaway role. When he’s going through his speech-lets of each of the photos, it’s perfect. Also, “That did NOT occur to us.” For another great performance by him in a kind of throwaway movie (even though I liked it) check out “Along Came Polly”. He’s VERY funny and a little sad in it. His “entrance” is hilarious, and the whole time they’re going to the art opening is some of the funniest 10 minutes of movie I’ve seen in a long time. The scenes on the basketball court are classic, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-lebowski-question-spoilers/301405.md?page=3)