![]() It's a wonder that I haven't covered this one yet, since starting this site up a couple of years ago. This is an all-time favourite of mine; probably well within my Top 5. So yeah, I'm kinda one of those culty "Dudes" in my own way. In all honesty, above all else, what does it for me is largely the dialogue. For my money, this is probably the most quote-worthy movie since 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. That may also be because I've seen this so many times with so many people on the same fan-level as me, but I digress. The point is, like it or hate it, the dialogue is memorable. Here we meet The Dude; real name Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges). He enjoys spending his spare time bowling (no pun intended) with his friends, Vietnam veteran, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and kindly runt of the trio, Donny (Steve Buscemi). One day, the Dude comes home to find a couple of angry thugs looking for a pile of money, but having the wrong Jeff Lebowski in mind. During the hastle, one of them urinates on the rug, and looking for compensation, the Dude visits the other Jeff Lebowski (David Huddleston); a wealthy overachiever, playing contrast to the Dude's almost "hobo-esque" way of living - a comfortable house coat, unemployment, and White Russians as far as the film can see. He's technically unlucky with the compensation. Later on, the Dude gets a call from the Big Lebowski's assistant, Brandt (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) asking him to come back to speak with Lebowski over the matter of his kidnapped and significantly younger wife, Bunny (Tara Reid). He puts her life in the Dude's hands, and what starts as whats should be a simple ransom hand off escalates into all sorts of fun chaos, until we reach the end, which is where it will ultimately leave you very satisfied, or very disappointed (satisfied, for me, but I'll be honest, it took a few viewings). I find that there's a steady balance between this movie's haters and lovers, but it's definitely a situation where there seems to be two extremes. I seldom find anyone meeting this one in the middle. Of course, I'm a solid lover of this movie, but there are things about me to bear in mind with that. For example I love unusual and random comedy, and this is most definitely unusual and random. On top of that the overall near-realism of how some of these lines are delivered can't help but make me laugh out loud. It's especially hilarious whenever Walter loses his temper. Beyond that, there are just a lot of interesting and memorable characters throughout this movie. Although we don't necessarily get to know a whole lot about them, they end up leaving a lasting impression, and everyone acting here does a solid job of it whether it be a slightly bigger role, like Sam Elliot's Stranger, or a simple big-named cameo, like David Thewlis' Knox Harrington. This is a title that certainly won't be for everyone, nor would I recommend it to just anyone. You'll have to appreciate the random and strange side of comedy here, and not be afraid of F-shots because there's a total of 260 of them (seriously, Google actually had the answer to "how many f*cks in Big Lebowski") in 120 minutes, averaging around 2 f*cks per minute. I do hold this one close to my heart, personally. I even find the Dude to be a sort of role model of sorts. Not that he should be, but I speak more of his mellowed out personality more than anything. He's not particularly shy, he embraces the little things in life, he doesn't lose his temper when he gets angry, and above all doesn't give a damn what people think of it all. It's mentioned that he's in no way a good role model or hero, but in some ways, I beg to differ. I hope that as I recommend this, others can find the same charm that I managed to get out of it. But fair word of warning, it did take a few viewings for me to get to this point. So it's definitely one of those multiple-view-worthy movies.
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