Comments on: The Big Lebowski

By: Big Mike

Big Mike — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:49:29 +0000

I think it is very representative of the Nineties and eerily similar to our own decade. It could probably be my favorite Coens film too, for without it, we would surely not have No Country For Old Men. It was all a part of their natural progression.

And they do enter the next round robin.

By: Chalupa

Chalupa — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:11:33 +0000

The Coens are known for meshing genre styles and classic characters, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that people have different opinions of one of their films. I think TBL can easily be seen as a stoner-movie at face value, but once you’ve seen it a few times you start peeling layers off the onion-like plot and you’re opened up to a whole new world of insights.

By: Rick Olson

Rick Olson — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:04:15 +0000

I guess I’ll weigh in on this one. When I first saw it, it didn’t thrill me, but upon repeated viewings, I liked it more and more. I wouldn’t call it my favorite of the Coens, but it ain’t chopped liver either.

You know, Luke, I never really thought of it as a “stoner comedy” until your piece. They’ve camouflaged it pretty well, if it is, doing their Coen thing of taking a genre and subverting it, in this case with elements of the P.I. flick and existential musings (they’re nihilists, Donnie).

By: Phillip Johnston

Phillip Johnston — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:30:53 +0000

This is definitely in the top tier of my favorite Coen films and, from my perspective, it may be the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. There are so many things I just find so darn hilarious: Sam Elliot, the iron lung, Donny, those nihilists, Jackie Treehorn’s compound, the dream sequence, the ‘Nam jokes. Classic comedy.

By: Fletch

Fletch — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:45:48 +0000

Ah, the power of the Coens - where one sees a Cheech and Chong-like buddy pic, the other sees an allegory for the 90s.

I’m pretty sure I fall somewhere in between. I definitely think of it as a classic, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily as simple or complex as either of you do. First and foremost, it’s a character piece (one that was at least somewhat based on a real-life person), and second, this was a chance for a mistaken-identity crime caper.

I think the rest is composite window dressing, and I love it all. Even if half the characters are paper-thin (Donny), the depth to which you get to know Walter and the Dude more than makes up for it.

It’s far and away my favorite Coens film.

By: Evan Derrick

Evan Derrick — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:48:39 +0000

You know, I’m of the mind that this is somewhat of a classic. I think it embodies a certain type of thinking that was pervasive in the nineties, not necessarily the stoner mentality (which is there, to be sure), but the disenfranchisement of large swaths of Americans. Walter could be the harbinger for future American foreign policy - he’s like a more crass version of Dick Cheney, but their thinking is essentially the same.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few decades, The Big Lebowski is viewed as a seminal representation of the 90s. I might be giving it more credit than it deserves, but I think there is more going on underneath the surface than pot jokes.