A few years ago, the Brothers Coen, Joel and Ethan, made a
little film called The Hudsucker Proxy. It wasn't much liked by critics, or by the general public either for that matter. Many people compared the film to the body of the Coen brothers' work, films such as Miller's Crossing and Blood Simple, and found it sub-par. This was a disservice to the film, as it was, of its own merits, quite a good film. It was wildly satirical and had some of the best talent in Hollywood working for it, Paul Newman, Tim Robbins, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, to name only the principals.
The same situation is true of The Big Lebowski, the most recent
cinematic venture of Joel and Ethan Coen. The film itself is outrageously comical--not perfect, admittedly, but still very funny. However, when held up against, say, Raising Arizona, the film's faults seem amplified and it pales in comparison. The Big Lebowski suffers if the viewer is constantly searchng for similarities or the lack thereof to the Coens' other films and it can seem inferior when in reality it is a flawed, but still brilliant film.
One comparison that is completely justified would be to say that
The Big Lebowski is Chandler-esque. The main character of the film, The Dude (played by Jeff Bridges), closely resembles the protagonist of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled mystery novels, Phillip Marlowe. Like Marlowe, The Dude is thrown into countless situations in which he is at the mercy of bigshots and crooks yet always he seems to come out unscathed.
This is the beauty of the characterization Jeff Bridges accomplishes with The Dude. At first glance it seems like Bridges is on auto-pilot this time around, but when you stop and analyze it, the character is the one on auto-pilot. Bridges is just letting the character drift along with him.
The Dude may seem to be not too bright, as he continues to allow
himself to be used by all of the people in the film. But really he's just playing it cool, lying low until he has a real handle on the situation and can do something. The Dude gets what he wants from each character, so just as he is being used, he is using them. He lets them dismiss him as a brain-dead burnout and slowly gathers information, turning these bigshots against each other. Finally it is he who finally cracks this kidnapping case,
rather than any of the other, supposedly more intelligent characters.
And the Dude really does have a heart of gold. He may be a loafer, but he's a loafer with a soul. The Dude is the one bright point in this film full of cold-hearted, manipulative egocentrics.
The plot of the film can seem a little meandering at times, but
this fact is due to the complexity of the story. In the beginning
especially the movie can be very confusing, but it is merely so we, like The Dude, are clueless as to what is going on. What may seem at first to be a mere case of mistaken identity and a simple kidnapping is actually a very in-depth story with so many twists and subplots that it requires real intelligence from the viewer. But as long as you hang on, you'll be in for a wild ride that I'm sure you'll enjoy.
The plot follows The Dude as he is mistaken for his richer namesake, the Big Lebowski (David Huddelston), by two goons for a producer of pornography. Their boss Johnny Treehorn shot a film with the new wife of the Big Lebowski, Bunny, and now she owes him money. When she turns up missing a short while later, the Big Lebowski asks The Dude to be the drop-off man for the ransom money. But the drop-off goes awry, and The Dude is soon being hounded by countless people looking for both Bunny and the million-dollar ransom. And along the way, The Dude and his buddies somehow find time to bowl.
The best part of this complicated plot is that it affords the Coen brothers many opportunities to indulge in the characterization of minor players, and it is in this area that the brothers do their best work. From the man in the iron lung and his son to the nihilist "kidnappers" to the psycho bowler Jesus Quintana (played by John Turturro) every character in the film, no matter how minor the part they play, is fully fleshed out. In only a few moments, Joel and Ethan Coen can fully round out a character so that they truly become human.
This talent the Coen brothers have for brilliant character
development could explain why the supporting cast of this film really are the highlight of the whole show. John Goodman and Steve Buscemi play The Dude's drinking and bowling buddies, and they do an absolutely wonderful job. Steve Buscemi pulls off the most low-key performance of his whole career as the soft-spoken Donnie and does excellently. On the other hand, John Goodman
is just off-the-wall from the get-go. His character Walter is a Vietnam War veteran who doesn't just have flashbacks; he lives his life as if the war never ended.
The only performance that seems off-kilter is that of Julianne
Moore as the daughter of the Big Lebowski, Maude. Normally Moore is such a brilliant actress that here her work seemed like she could have put more into it. Every aspect of her character just was a letdown because I knew from seeing her in other movies that she is capable of better.
Not everyone will feel that way, hopefully. I admit to being one
of those people who was watching the movie with the Coen brothers' work in mind, and so the flaws of the film stood out for me. The narration provided by Sam Eliot, for one, was completely disjointed, especially the final one, in which he sat and talked into the camera for five minutes straight. Also, the visual work in the film was merely average. Most of the film's look was standard, except for some of the dazzling and odd dream sequences The Dude had.
Perhaps the only really major flaw the film had was the way in which some of the subplots sort of unraveled at the end. The subplots with Johnny Treehorn and Maude were never really resolved fully, leaving the ending a little anti-climactic. Maybe it was in the nature of the film, with so many things going on at once, that some things would be left unfinished, but it just left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
But the film still was hilarious and it fully explored each and
every character with ease and excellence. I enjoyed the film immensely and I think that you will too, as long as you give it a chance to succeed on its own. Let this movie out from under the Coen brothers' enormous shadow and I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed. 'Cause, I mean, hey, it's a movie about bowling. How can you go wrong?
