I love this movie but one thing never really made sense to me.
Why kill of Donny?
Donny was an innocent who paid the price for the stupid and venial actions of others. All we know about him is that he was an excellent bowler (and apparently liked to surf). A lot of Cohn bros. movies are about the consequences of stupid decisions and one of those consequences is that people like Donny get hurt.
Except Donny died of a heart attack. Granted it was right after the shenanigans with the nihilists, but it’s not clear if that’s what initiated it, or if he was just due for one. He wasn’t really involved in any of the fighting, IIRC.
Because shit happens.
And because without his death, we wouldn’t have the cliffside scene, which provided the movie with a nice tragicomic denouement.
That’s the real world. This is a scripted story.
His heart attack was coming on before the parking lot scene, you can see it in the bowling alley hes not feeling well.
because Steve Buscemi’s character’s have a nasty habit of dying in Coen brother films:
Yeah, I think he noted somewhere that the Coens kept leaving less and less of him behind when they disposed of him in a film, culminating in his demise in a tree shredder in Fargo.
tr0psn4j, grab a sasparilla and content yourself with the knowledge that there’s a little Lebowski out there, soon to be taking it easy for all us sinners.
Because he was out of his element.