Hey, fellow acheivers, it’s the 20th anniversary of The Big Lebowski. Here is a poll. Walter Sobchak claims to have seen his buddies die face down in the muck. Did he? The movie is unclear on the point. Was he a combat veteran? Did he go to Vietnam but only serve in the rear? Or is he full of shit? Poll to follow.
Personally, after watching a screening tonight and talking with my buddies, I’m leaning to “Served, but never saw combat.” What do you think?
Agreed; served, never saw combat. IMO, he saw a lot of injured/dead while serving in a rear-area capacity, and deals with some kind of survivors guilt over that, and overcompensates; but that’s a generous interpretation.
Could just as easily be some kind of “Stolen Valor” kind of thing: he served “In-The-Rear-With-The-Gear” and poses as/pretends to be an actual combat vet of some kind.
[Walter]
Shut the fuck up, Larry!!
[/Walter]
He’s all bluster. If he served, it was behind a desk, well away from the front.
Working in the mess I reckon, I see him wielding a ladle.
He didn’t flinch at all when facing the nihilists, and was by far the most effective fighter – I think he might have actually seen combat.
Reminds me of James Gandolfini’s character in The Man Who Wasn’t There, another Coen Brothers movie from just a couple years after The Big Lebowski. He spends the first half of the movie talking about killing a bunch of Japs and island hopping through the Pacific, but later it’s revealed that he spent the war working on a dry dock in San Francisco. I suspect these are similar characters in that way, both big blowhards who felt like inflating their wartime service in order to feel better about themselves.
Back in the 70s I worked with some Sobchak-like characters who were Viet Nam Vets. I’ll give Walter the benefit of the doubt and say he saw combat.
Semi-OT note: If you’ve ever seen The Men Who Stare At Goats, it’s not a stretch to imagine that The Dude saw combat too.
+1
I think he may have seen combat. Might even have been not bad at it. While he always impressed me as someone who’s rather personality disordered, I didn’t think his disorder was one of extreme confabulating.
I always thought he saw little to none combat, which why he felt the need to bring it up whenever possible.
Yeah. Certainly, there are all kinds of people in this world, but if you actually watched your buddies die face down in the muck, I can’t believe you’d be inclined to announce that fact to everyone over and over for the next 20 years.
Kind of like that saying, if someone tells you they are SEAL or Delta Force, they aren’t.
“Fuckin dipshit with a nine toed woman!”
Yeah, I just rewatched that scene, and it’s absolutely not his first fight. I think the movie set us up to think he’s nothing but a blowhard, so we expect him to either run away or get his ass kicked in this scene, but he wipes out all 3 nihilists without even breaking a sweat.
Amateurs.
Yeah, I never got the sense that he was lying about his experience in Viet Nam. Unable to ‘get over it’, yes, but not faking. In the fight with the nihilists, he stands his ground, facing down three assailants, one of whom had a sword. He assesses them as not real threats, while the Dude and Donny are panicking. Walter takes all three out, then coolly notes that Donny is down. He stays with Donny and tells the Dude to get the medics, saying that he himself is too woozy to do it. While this is not proof that he has had combat experience, it does make clear that he’s not all bark and no bite.
Thirded or fourthed or whatever we’re up to now. He stands up to the nihilists without flinching or fear and also comforts Donny and reassures him in that scene. It is his looking out for his friend then that vindicates his character to me. This too re-enforces the military veteran personality - he might argue with his comrades, but he is loyal and there to back them up.
He also is fearless and prepared earlier in the film when he passes off his dirty underwear instead of ransom and rolls out of the moving car. “You didn’t think I was going to roll out of here naked, did you?”
As far as I was concerned: combat veteran all the way.
I think he served in Vietnam, but never saw combat. He’s the kind of guy who talks the talk but never walked the walk. He’ll fiercely hang onto his Vietnam service and raise it in conversation at every opportunity, but when all is said and done, he’s a blowhard, a fake and a wimp. He does himself proud facing off against the nihilists in the bowling-alley parking lot, though - I’ll give him that.
I love that movie! My favorite Coen Bros. film, by far.
Did you watch the video I linked above? Wimps don’t face a guy with a sword and bite off their ear. Especially when its Peter Stormare.
He was at least partially based on John Milius, director and writer of the best 80s films. He apparently wholeheartedly tried to serve in Vietnam but was rejected due to asthma, and it became a big part of him.
I always thought Walter was in Vietnam for sure, but I think it amusingly likely he was a REMF.
I’m not sure how to read his willingness to fight. That could be a product of his being in a fight before, or it could be simply that he’s ludicrously aggressive. Pulling a gun over a bowling league schedule isn’t courage, it’s crazy.
Stolen valor all the way.