The Big Lebowski

J

"The Big Lebowski" is one of those rare movies that works on multiple levels. In one sense, the film can be viewed as an entertaining stoner comedy with many colorful characters. The movie has a massive list of hilarious one liners, most of which seem like weird non-sequiturs about Vietnam, nihilists, feminism, etc. The movie operates as kind of a Scooby Doo episode in which The Dude and friends are caught in a crazy mystery surrounding a rug and a kidnapping. To be sure, the movie works very well on this level. But what makes "The Big Lebowski" a truly original and great film is the philosophical milieu in which it operates. The entire movie is essentially an identity crisis for The Dude, who is exposed to different political and social philosophies during his epic adventure.

The film begins with a portrayal of The Dude as the prototypical American male. We see tumbleweeds rolling past the screen and are introduced to an old fashioned cowboy character known as "The Stranger" who talks about the Dude as if he were a legend of some kind. It's worth a momentary pause to reflect on the meaning and history of the word, "dude." While there can be multiple definitions, I think the movie evokes the nineteenth century understanding of the term. The word is derived from a colloquialism said by western cowboys in reference to easterners who wore brand new, store bought clothes. It was used by cowboys to identify and criticize someone who was between two places: the city and the frontier. In the film, the Dude is between two places: a pacifist who perpetrates no evil himself but who passively watches it as it happens around him. The film centers around the Dude's forced entry into the outside world and into civic responsibility. Surrounded by different philosophies and modus operandi, the film is the Dude's odyssey through conflicting ideologies and how the representatives of each system use him to their advantage.

It is no mere coincidence that the whole chain of events is sparked by thugs mistaking The Dude for someone else and desecrating his rug. It is The Dude's connection to this material object, his one material weakness that "really tied the room together," which spurs his identity crisis. This corrupting result of materialism is demonstrated later in a dream sequence in which The Dude is chasing his magic carpet only to be violently pulled back to earth by his other beloved material object, a bowling ball.

Embarking on his journey, The Dude meets a collection of people with differing political and social philosophies who challenge his spectator worldview. At each encounter, he goes through the same process: the Dude is exposed to the philosophy; he flirts with and even repeats concepts from the belief system; and thankfully, throws off those beliefs and returns to himself. In each case, the human representations of the respective philosophy turns out to be a complete fraud.

As The Dude goes in search of a new rug, he meets another Jeffrey Lebowski, the man for whom he was mistaken. It's as if he sees the bizarro version of himself: a rich old man with many philanthropic achievements, most notably the "Little Lebowski Urban Achievers." But as the movie pushes forward, we find out that the rich, high achieving Lebowski is a major fraud; he is a blundering fool on a fixed income who embezzles money from his charitable foundation to cover up a fake kidnapping. His impressive independent lifestyle is actually a facade as his daughter runs his charitable businesses and provides him with a stipend.  

The other large philosophy constantly hovering over The Dude is the militarism of his friend, Walter Sobchak. The Coen brothers somehow anticipated the rise of neoconservatism under George W. Bush as early as 1998. Walter is comically obsessed with Vietnam and consistently supports preemptive violence to solve conundrums. In perhaps the best example, Walter draws a gun during a disagreement at the bowling alley, an action which garners his bowling team a league penalty. Later, when stonewalled by a teenager who supposedly stole The Dude's car and money, Walter destroys a corvette that he suspects was purchased with the stolen money that was in the backseat. Of course, the corvette actually belongs to an Arabic neighbor, foreseeing the future mistaken identity between Iraq and Al Qaeda during the Bush years.

The movie takes place during the first gulf war, a conflict that Walter is all too happy to support. Walter is chock full of references to the cold war and communism and how the wars in the middle east are an extension of both. Sobchak describes the current conflicts as "a bunch of fig-eaters wearing towels on their heads, trying to find reverse in a Soviet tank." But like the other pontificating forces in the film, Walter is also a fraud. Despite his obsession with hardline violence and demonstrations of power, we find that he bends to the whim of his ex-wife by sheepishly babysitting her tiny dog. Also, mirroring the neocon movement, Walter's violence is inexplicably mixed with pacifist religious values. He refuses any action on the Sabbath  citing "Shomer Shabbas! Shomer fucking Shabbas!" Finally, when Walter's intense plans ultimately fail, he takes no responsibility for his actions and insists: "Fuck it, dude, let's go bowling."

"The Big Lebowski" has many other characters who represent a hypocritical system of belief or ethos. "The Jesus," one of the funniest characters in the film, has obvious ties to Catholicism and the secret shame of the religion: pedophilia. The Dude is also introduced to the other Lewboski's daughter, a radical feminist who later uses his trusting nature to get impregnated by him without his knowledge. Furthermore, The Dude meets Jackie Treehorn, a pornography mogul, who stands for excess and the corrupting power of money. Of Treehorn, The Dude says: "he treats objects like women." Finally, my personal favorite is a group called "the nihilists," who proudly extol that they care about nothing. Walter has two hilarious rebuttals to the nihilists: "There's nothing to fear Donny, these men are cowards" and "Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos." Judging from his conflicting comments, Walter doesn't know what to make of a group without a belief system.

The key quote in the movie, which leads to the interesting final question, is "The Dude abides." On one hand, this can be viewed as a compliment, supporting the idea that The Dude is a benevolent force who hovers above petty wars and politics. On the other hand, The Dude's agreeableness and escapism into a world of perpetual bowling and laziness can be viewed as a bad attribute. Isn't it a problem that The Dude almost totally ignores the outside world? Isn't that how the ideologues in the film gain power and perpetrate evil? In this way, The Dude can be viewed as a typical American inside a nonchalant bubble, letting the highly ambitious control the fate of the country. After all, when The Dude is finally brought into the real world in which there is a constant battle of political and social ideologies, he is inept and confused in choosing one. I think the Coen brothers leave this point up to interpretation, as they should. The lazy man who stands for nothing may not directly perpetrate evil, but evil can be perpetrated in the name of the willfully ignorant. Perhaps this concept points to the central animating aspect of the film: mistaken identity. In the end, how do we judge the The Dude?

The Coen Brothers have a celebrated filmography that includes masterpieces like "Fargo," "No Country for Old Men," and many others. "The Big Lebowski" deserves to be in this pantheon because of its utter originality and interesting contemplation of America in the 1990's. This movie was not immediately successful or well received, but has grown exponentially in popularity over the years. "Lebowski," as it is affectionately known, is a film that takes a few viewings. While it is funny enough on its surface, its comedy only grows more profound when viewed in the background of American culture and the battle for a controlling personal and national philosophy.