Jesus Quintana: Let me tell you something, pendejo. You pull any of your crazy shit with us, you flash a piece out on the lanes, I’ll take it away from you, stick it up your ass and pull the fucking trigger 'til it goes “click.”
The Dude: Jesus.
Jesus Quintana: You said it, man. Nobody fucks with the Jesus.
Amend that to “you need to have a quirky since of humor and appreciation of the bizarre.” If your idea of a funny movie is limited to Norah Ephrem rom-coms, the Coen Brothers aren’t for you (although the insufferably dull Intolerably Cruelty got close).
Not by me; not only is he completely, scene-chewingly, brilliantly over the top, he also reminds me in appearance, speech, and manner of a guy I used to work with (although, to my knowledge, he did not bowl). But heck, there wasn’t one bad performance in the whole film.
I agree with The Other Jeffrey Lebowski: it helps to be familiar with the entire genre of film noir; ditto with The Man Who Was Not There, which is utterly deadpan in its humor and seemed to slide right by most viewers. Frankly, this is true of Blood Simple, too, as well as the vastly underrated John Dahl film, The Last Seduction.
That movie turned my opinion on John Goodman around 180 degrees. I’d never liked him before I saw The Big Lebowski. Granted, I don’t think anything he’s done since then is THIS good, but he’s terrific as Walter.
Not to diss The Big Lebowski, definitely one of my faves for all of the reasons alreasy enumerated ( and yes it took me multiple viewings to really appreciate it ), but IMHO Goodman’s finest performance was in another Coen vehicle, Barton Fink. A perfect blend of earnest salt-of-the-earth charm mixed with a hint of subtle menace. It’s an unnerving performance and if you ask me it should have easily been oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor, along with or even if necessary instead of, Michael Lerner ( who did a fine job and was the one actually nominated from the film ).
Not that I think this is really autobiographical, but their parents were both university professors, and the movie is being filme in and around where the brothers grew up. Intriguing.
It’s funny- I’ve loved this movie for so long that until I saw it mentioned so many times here- I would hardly believe myself that I also wasn’t sure what to make of it on my first run through.
I’m not even sure why I watched it again, except I have so many friends who loved it, I must have thought to give it another go.
Honestly, I’m not one to be all… “Because I Love it it’s great, and if you don’t enjoy it you’re just pathetic.” If you don’t like enjoy it, and you’ve given it an honest try… well, it’s just not your thing. The Coen’s are like that.
It’s funny, my parents just saw it for the first time the other day. I was at their house, and they asked me… “Have you seen The Big Lebowski?”
I say, “Yeah! It’s one of my favorite movies!”
They respond with how strange it is… and I reply stunned… ."But how can you not find it funny when… " I think I mentioned when they fill up Steve Buscemi’s ashes in the coffee can (“It’s our most modestly priced recepticle.” “Just because we’re bereaved doesn’t make us SAPS!”) And we then went on to discuss funny parts for 5 minutes.
My point is, I definitely think this is a movie that just grows on you, and it’s still funny to me after dozens of viewings. Compare that to say “Borat…”, to me was amazingly funny the first time I saw it. When I saw it pop up on DVD- I rented it for a second viewing, and ended up turning it off.
I hear a lot of people say they didn’t like it the first time around, then it grew on them. Not so for me. I thought it was awesome from the first weekend I saw it in the theater, and it’s only gotten better from there.
How can you not laugh when he drops is roach on his lap while driving, tries to douse the burning with his beer, all while being followed by a mysterious man in a blue Volkswagen, and ultimately crashes into a trash can on the street, a jarring collision that lifts the Torino’s front tires entirely off the ground?
Movie’s all right. Dude’s car got a little dinged up.
Women tend to not get it.
No Country for Old Men sucked donkey dick. No, wait- it didn’t- as at least sucking a donkey dick is a clearly understandable act.
I think I can get on board with that line of thinking.
Big Coen Bro’s fan. Love Lebowski. It’s my favorite Coen Bro’s film, with Raising Arizona practically tied. I also loved O Brother Where Are Thou? and I thought Ladykillers was effing brlilliant … hell I even enjoyed Fargo.
But I just didn’t get No Country ….
On the other hand, this is the Coen Brothers we’re talking about. I reserve the right to love it if I can force myself to watch it again.
And let me leave with this thought:
“Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
Count me in as another who just hated it. I’m a woman, but I don’t like chick flicks, and usually tend to like a lot of “guy” movies, so I figured I’d like it, but nope. Hated it from the get-go.
I didn’t really like the plot of the movie, seems to me like its been done many times. But the dialogue is what made it for me. Not to mention the quirky characters like Jesus, Donny, and Walter.
I just recently saw this for the first time, actually. I was cooking at the time so I couldn’t really focus on the “plot,” which probably helped. Every so often I’d catch a bit of dialogue and wind up laughing - I remember the nihilist line particularly cracked me up. Walter was great. I swear I’ve known Walter.
No, I didn’t love it and I’m not sure I quite get why it’s so highly regarded by many, but I’d probably catch it again just for the heck of it. O Brother remains my favorite Coen, then Fargo, then TBL, then Raising Arizona. Haven’t seen No Country yet.
One of the nice features of the 10th Anniversary Edition (besides the bowling ball case) is Jeff sharing his photos from life on the set. On all his films, Bridges plays photojournalist, and passes out books of his images to the crew. He uses a panoramic Widelux camera and gets some really cool shots.
