THE BIG LEBOWSKI
The temptation to call “The Big Lebowski”, the Big LeBomb,
or the Big LeBore is overwhelming. So there it is. I did it.
“The Big Lebowski”, may not be a bomb, but it is certainly boring
a
lot of the time. There were stretches when the guys I was supposed
to care about seemed to drift away. “The Big Lebowski” did not
grab
my attention! Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been a big Coen Brothers
fan
since they reinvented the film noir genre with “Blood Simple”.
It wasn’t until they had a few more movies under their creative
belts that the intricate plots, the over the top characters, and the
quirky dialogue that defined their individual style, became known as
Coenesque. It didn’t matter that the narrative frameworks were modeled
after proven formulas like the Capraesque “Hudsucker Proxy” and
“Miller’s Crossing” which loosely resembled “The Glass
Key”, a Dashiel
Hammett story that was filmed twice before with George Raft in the
thirties and Alan Ladd in the forties. The Coen Brothers are still
using the tried and true classics to stir their creative juices.
“The Big Lebowski” borrows the basic plot elements from Raymond
Chandler’s “Farewell My Lovely” and “The Big Sleep”.
The forties’ film
versions are the classics. “Farewell My Lovely” became “Murder
My Sweet”
with Dick Powell; and “The Big Sleep” became, well, “The
Big Sleep” with
Bogart. (Is there more than one?) Both played the world weary detective
Philip Marlowe as did Robert Mitchum in the 70’s. His two remakes kept
Chandler’s original titles. In the Coens’ version, or inversion,
Chandler’s hero is turned into the world weary stuck-in-the-seventies
Jeff Lebowski, aka, ‘The Dude’, who would rather smoke pot, drink
White
Russians, get laid, and go bowling with his buddies than deal with the
world. But the real world, inhabited by the Coens’ menagerie of surreal
characters, comes crashing down around him when he is mistaken for The
Big Lebowski, an old rich guy whose nubile nymphet wife owes some bad
people a good deal of money. A soiled rug, a big headache, the desire
for retribution, not to mention the instigation of his bowling pals,
especially Viet Nam Vet, ex Catholic, Walter Sobchak, who doesn’t bowl
on Saturday(don’t ask!), propel him into an intricate web of deceit,
embezzlement, and double crosses. And when things don’t go quite the
way
Lebowski wants it, he can always go bowling, which he does - in his waking
hours and in his nightmares!
The beginning of “The Big Lebowski” was promising with a loopy
narration from The Stranger with the Texas drawl. You know you’re in
for
a tall tale from the get-go. (At least, you were supposed to be.).
The performances were right on. Jeff Bridges’ Jeff Lebowski is a guy
who
is content to let the world pass him by without regrets, while his best
buddy Walter, played by John Goodman, is the bigger than life pal who
wants that same world to deal with him on his terms. He is a combat vet.
He is proud of it. And God help anyone who wants him to prove it.
Each helps the other with the things that drive the other guy crazy.
If there is anything in “The Big Lebowski” to make you want to
like the
movie, it’s their relationship. Not the plot - which is forced. Not
the
quirky dialogue - although there’s plenty of it. And not the secondary
characters - although there are enough of them to satisfy any Coen fanatic.
And certainly not the surreal nightmares that always end with Lebowski
scoring a strike with his head amidst a set piece right out of a Busby
Berkeley musical. The unfortunate thing is that the emotional elements
that should pull us to the bosom of Lebowski and his buddies don’t
seem
to fit as neatly together as the plot. It’s like having two separate
layers
of a cake with the icing on the side. Each ingredient can be savored for
itself, but they never taste as good as when it all goes together.
They don’t come together in “The Big Lebowski”. On a more
positive note:
The ingredients to savor in “The Big Lebowski” are the supporting
roles.
Steve Buscemi is the less-than-life-like third buddy. Julianne Moore is
properly flaky as the avant garde artist daughter of The Big Lebowski,
played by David Huddleston: and John Turturro is hilarious as the macho
groin grabbing bowling opponent, Jesus Quintana. David Thewlis dares us
to
laugh with him as a hyena like art dealer. There are several nice cameos
from Ben Gazzara and Peter Stomare who was Steve Buscemi’s thug-buddy
in
the Coen Brothers last movie, “Fargo”. I just wish there was lot
more of
that Stranger, played by Sam Elliot.
For Trivia Buffs: Raymond Chandler’s story line from his novel,
“Farewell My Lovely”, was used for the first time in
“The Falcon Takes Over” (1942) with George Sanders as the Falcon.