movie: The Big Lebowski
starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman
genre: Comedy, Drama
year: 1998
format: Netflix Canada
plot:After mistakenly being beaten up by a couple of hired thugs, a bowling nut becomes wrapped up in helping to solve a crime for the man he was mistaken for.
This is one of those movies that you can sit down and have a laugh at while watching, then spend days coming back to analyzing. I don't have days right now, I have like 45 seconds.
Part crime story, part wacked out stoner culture. The first time I saw this was when it first came out almost twenty years ago, and I didn't care for it to be honest. The big broadway style dream sequence sort of put me off the rest of the film. But, all these years later, giving it a second spin, I half way see the appeal. As a crime story, I liked it.
The character of the cowboy/narrator (the tumbling tumbleweed at the beginning) I was never completely sure if he was a figment of the lead character's imagination or not? And I'm not a fan of bowling, so I kept sort of waiting for something to push that element along. (Bowling, Bingo and Boardgames are the three B's I just won't) Which of course, there wasn't because it was the core of the groups reality. And you end up getting stuck in the back of the bowling alley, witnessing this family dynamic, between Bridges (the hapless husband mode), Goodman (the overbearing wife mode) and Steve Buscemi (the neglected teen mode) halfway taking in the excitement in their nonsense before realizing it's a conversation about a conversation.
what did I learn? Like Jediism, Woodism (the religious study of Ed Wood), Cult of the Cthulhu and various Star Trek related religions, there is an actual religion based on this movie and it's characters, Dudeism.
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