The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski is the 7th film written, produced and directed by the Coen Brothers. The script was written in the early '90s around the time they released Barton Fink. In the meantime, they wrote, produced and directed the box office bomb, The Hudsucker Proxy, as well as the critically acclaimed and Oscar award-winning, Fargo. They waited as long as they needed to get Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in the cast and it paid off big time.

Synopsis
In Los Angeles, 1991, a mysterious man (Sam Elliot) introduces us to the lazy hero of this story, Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges). The Dude walks into his apartment and is attacked by two thugs, mistaking him for the millionaire Jeff Lebowski, whose wife, Bunny, owes money to pornographer Jackie Treehorn. Before they leave, one of them urinates on The Dude's rug. The next day, he tells the story to his bowling team, hard-nosed Vietnam veteran Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and good-hearted Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi). The Dude visits the Lebowski mansion and he's greeted by his cheery assistant, Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman). He meets with millionaire Jeffery Lebowski (David Huddleston), a wheelchair-bound philanthropist, seeking compensation for his soiled rug. Lebowski denies his request for a rug and The Dude leaves his office. He tells Brandt he can take any rug in the house. On his way out, he meets Bunny (Tara Reid), Lebowski's trophy wife.

Brandt summons The Dude to meet with Lebowski, who informs him Bunny was kidnapped and is being held ransom for one million dollars. He wants The Dude to meet with the kidnappers and give them a briefcase with the money inside. At the bowling alley, The Dude explains the kidnapping to Walter and Donny, thinking Bunny kidnapped herself. Later that night while relaxing on his rug, he's knocked out by two men and a woman. He wakes up and his rug is gone. Brandt gives him a phone to set up a meeting with the thugs. They receive an order to throw the briefcase over a bridge and Walter throws a bag of his dirty underwear instead so they can keep the million dollars for themselves. Later that night, The Dude's car is stolen with the briefcase inside.

Police question The Dude about the stolen car when Lebowski's daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore), calls him, revealing she took her rug back and sends a car to pick him up. He is brought to Maude's abstract art studio, where she's swinging around nude, throwing paint at a canvas. She shows him a video of Bunny acting in one of Treehorn's porno films. Maude assumes Bunny staged her kidnapping. Maude noticed the $1 million withdrawal from one of the Lebowski charity programs for the ransom. She gives The Dude the number of a doctor who will give him a free examination.

The Dude is given a limo back to his apartment and the driver shoves him into another limo with Brandt and Lebowski. Lebowski is furious that the ransom money wasn't delivered, accusing him of stealing the money and shows him a severed toe he thinks belongs to Bunny. That night, three German nihilists break into The Dude's apartment, threatening him to get the ransom money. His car was found by police but the briefcase is gone. He finds a piece of homework in the seat with the name Larry Sellers on it. The Dude and Walter go to his house, but the teenager refuses to speak. Walter takes a tire iron and smashes the Corvette outside of their house. The neighbor and owner of the Corvette runs outside and smashes The Dude's car with the tire iron.

Treehorn's thugs return and bring The Dude to Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara). He asks about Bunny and the money. He drugs The Dude's white Russian that brings him to a surrealistic fantasy titled, Gutterballs, where he dreams of Maude and bowling. The ending turns into a nightmare as he's chased by red men with giant scissors. He wakes up, running down the middle of the street. He's picked up by the police and told to stay out of Malibu. His taxi driver throws him out of the car for hating on The Eagles. Bunny driving a red convertible passes him, she still has all of her toes.

He walks home to find his place trashed. He trips and Maude stands above him in his robe, wanting him to make love to her. Afterward, Maude reveals her father has no money, having given it all to charity. Maude gets into a position she believes will increase the chances of conception. She assures him that he will have no involvement with her or the child. That's why she had him see a doctor.

The Dude finds a private investigator outside looking for Bunny. He reveals Bunny's real name is Fawn and she ran away from home a year ago. He's picked up by Walter and tells him there was no money in the briefcase and Lebowski wanted Bunny dead all along. They drive to Lebowski's to find Bunny's car crashed into a fountain. Brandt tells them Bunny went to visit friends in Palm Springs without telling anyone. Walter throws Lebowski out of his wheelchair and realizes he wasn't faking his paralysis.

Back at the bowling alley, they walk outside to find The Dude's car on fire. The three German nihilists demand ransom money. The Dude tells them there was no money or hostage. Walter throws his bowling ball at one of them, bites one of their ears off and beats the last one with their radio. Donny suffers from a heart attack and dies. The Dude and Walter refuse to buy an urn at the morgue so they settle with a coffee can to hold his ashes. On the Pacific coast, Walter gives his eulogy and spreads the ashes. The wind blows the ashes all over The Dude. He's angry at first then Walter suggests they go bowling. The mysterious man reveals there's a Little Dude on the way and wishes them luck in their bowling tournament.


Review
The Big Lebowski is difficult to discuss without revealing certain aspects of the film, which is why I included a shortened synopsis. To read the full synopsis, click here. Similar to The Big Sleep, The Big Lebowski takes a convoluted plot to extreme measures. Both films include a wealthy, handicapped millionaire, promiscuous young women, blackmailers and pornographers. Both films make us connect characters to one another and piece together a scattered plot.

Taking a large step back from everything that happens in The Big Lebowski, the story is essentially about nothing. There is no money in the briefcase. There is no hostage. The nihilists believe in nothing except money. The Dude is not seen bowling. The Dude has no job and we don't know how he makes an income. Walter uses Shomer Shabbos as an excuse to do nothing on Saturday even though he's no longer Jewish. The only reason The Dude gets involved with Lebowski is due to his rug and agrees to work with him for just a small portion of the ransom. From the beginning, The Dude, Walter and Maude assume that Bunny kidnapped herself to extort money from Lebowski.

The bowling alley is the safe haven for The Dude and his team. Walter takes the bowling league very seriously. He threatens a bowler with a gun for stepping over the line and gets him to mark zero on his scorecard. When bowling rival Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) confronts the team, Walter reminds them he's a sex offender that exposed himself to an eight-year-old. Throughout the story, The Dude shares his news to Walter and Donny at the bowling alley. The mysterious man most likely overhears their conversations which is why he can narrate The Dude's story. He's seen talking to The Dude at the bowling alley's bar and appears again at the end. He never introduces himself, but Sam Elliot's resonant accent and thick mustache make his character memorable.

The script is very funny and explicit. The Dude and Walter's dialogue often clash but it doesn't get in the way of their friendship. The script was written specifically for Jeff Bridges and John Goodman's characters. Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast as The Dude, he's often misunderstood and spacing out in his own world. Unlike previous Coen Brothers films with Steve Buscemi, Donny can barely get a word out before Walter tells him to shut up. Julianne Moore puts on an interesting accent as Maude, that isn't distinct to any one place. Maude's giggly assistant, abstract artwork and sexual nature make her one of the funniest characters in the film. She's the centerpiece of the Gutterballs dream sequence as a sexy Viking surrounded by bowling pin dancers.


The soundtrack is great and it's referenced throughout the film. The Dude and Walter are listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle" when delivering the briefcase. The cops who look for the car are worried the tape deck with Creedence would be stolen and are relieved when they find it still there. The song used in the opening credits, "The Man in Me" by Bob Dylan is used again when Maude knocks out The Dude and takes back the rug. They play the Rolling Stones song "Dead Flowers" by Townes Van Zandt after Donny's death.

The directing by Coen Brothers is very well done. Many of the cast members are reoccurring from previous films they've directed. The film's structure was influenced by detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler. The cinematography by Roger Deakins made the scenes look contemporary with the time period and the dream sequences to look bizarre. Deakins worked on previous Coen Brothers films such as Barton Fink and Fargo, as well as The Shawshank Redemption. The editing is impressive, especially during the dream sequences. The first-person camera shot inside the bowling ball as it rolls down the lane for a strike looks very sharp. They use pan and zoom shots frequently to go from a wide view of the setting to the subjects. They use long takes, the most impressive coming in the final scene, that finishes with a strike.

At the time, The Big Lebowski was one of the Coen Brothers highest budgeted films at $15 million. It grossed just over $46 million worldwide. The Big Lebowski can be enjoyed on many viewings and it succeeds as both a comedy and a crime film. I highly recommend this film to adults.


4/4

Supplements:

The Making of The Big Lebowski

Watch The Big Lebowski on Amazon

The Big Lebowski Script

The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Sleep is based on Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. Despite its widely regarded convoluted plot, The Big Sleep ranks among the best film noirs of all-time.

Private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is summoned to the Sternwood mansion. He's welcomed by Norris the butler (Charles D. Brown) and meets Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers), the flirtatious and ditzy daughter of General Sternwood (Charles Waldron). Marlowe meets with wheelchair-bound, widower and millionaire, General Sternwood. He wants Marlowe to resolve the gambling debts that Carmen owes to bookseller Arthur Gwynn Geiger. He mentions Joe Brody, a gambler he once paid off and Sean Regen, an employee and friend who's gone missing. Before he leaves, he meets the alluring Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), Carmen's older divorced sister. She believes her father's true motive is to find Sean Regen.

Philip Marlowe's investigation leads him to pornographers, gamblers and blackmailers. He charms every woman he comes into contact with, leaving them aroused. Dorothy Malone plays a book store librarian in a tantalizing scene where she closes up shop after Marlowe sweet talks her. The romance between Marlowe and Vivian gets heated as the film progresses. Vivian works through the investigation with Marlowe, giving him leads and saving him along the way. They both play hard to get, raising the sexual tension until the climactic final words of the film. Marlowe is a rebel of sorts when it comes to detective work and effortlessly seduces every woman he meets. Vivian is mature and sophisticated compared to her younger sister Carmen, who throws herself at Marlowe every chance she gets.


The Big Sleep is directed by Howard Hawks. Hawks has many notable works such as one of the greatest comedies from the 1930s, Bringing Up Baby, and one of the best westerns of all-time, Rio Bravo. The camerawork is excellent and gives us every detail in a smooth fashion. The outdoors scenes are mostly rainy and gloomy.

The score is beautifully composed by Max Steiner. His musical résumé before The Big Sleep includes King Kong, Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. The score is masterful, as it sets the mood of each scene, building up tension and keeping us actively engaged.


The screenplay was written by three authors including Nobel Prize and two time Pulitzer Prize winner William Faulkner, as well as Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. The script is the major accomplishment of The Big Sleep because the film relies on its quick and intelligent dialogue. Bogart's consistently clever lines bring Marlowe's charming personality to life. "She tried to sit down in my lap when I was standing up." The screenplay was written around the Hays Code, the censorship policy that put restrictions on sexual themes. In the book, Geiger was selling pornography and he was in a gay relationship with his assistant Lundgren. Both selling pornography and references to homosexuality were prohibited. In the novel, Carmen appears nude in two scenes, but in the film, she is fully clothed. A scene that explains the plot towards the end with two characters, the police commissioner and the district attorney, was removed completely from the final version of the film.

Prior to The Big Sleep, Howard Hawks directed To Have and Not Have in 1944, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in her film debut. The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is just one of many reasons to watch this film. They got married in 1945 when Bacall was 20 and Bogart was 45 and recently divorced. Bogart frequently missed days on set due to his depression and alcoholism following his divorce. They were together until Bogart's death in 1957.

The film was pre-released in 1945 but was revised and re-released in 1946 for a few reasons. Bacall's agent, Charles K. Feldman, requested many of Bacall's scenes to be re-shot in order to capture the chemistry between her and Bogart. The famous racehorse scene was added solely for that purpose. Many of Martha Vickers' scenes were removed to boost Bacall's performance.

The Big Sleep is a film noir well worth seeing. The plot allows the audience to piece the puzzle together with clues that can be interpreted depending on how you see it. It heavily influenced The Coen Brothers to create the 1998 cult classic, The Big Lebowski. I highly recommend The Big Sleep to adults and fans of film noir.

4/4

Supplements:

Opening Scene in Color

Watch The Big Sleep on Amazon

The Big Sleep Screenplay

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939) PDF

Introduction 2019

My name is Scott Setchell and I love film. I'm 24 years old, I was born and raised in DeKalb, IL. After I finished my Associate's degree, I began watching films daily. I've seen over 2,500 films and a handful of TV series. In the fall of 2016, I watched an average of five films a day. I log and rate every film I see on multiple platforms. IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd all have their own perks. If you're serious about keeping track of the films you've seen, I highly recommend using one or all of these platforms.

I started collecting DVDs and Blu-Rays when I was in high school, browsing local pawn shops and thrift stores searching for hidden gems. I logged my entire collection online and over the years, I've accumulated over 600 DVDs and 300 Blu-Rays. Not only do I collect movies for myself, but I collect so I can provide my peers with must-see films. One of my greatest pleasures in life is recommending and loaning out a disc and knowing it was enjoyed. I believe everyone, especially the people closest to me, should have full access to my library of media.

My biggest inspiration is Roger Ebert, film critic and historian for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. His passion, insight and dedication to film criticism are incredibly inspiring to me. I highly respect Ebert's opinion and I read all of his reviews for the films I've seen. I plan on adopting his 4-star rating system to my written reviews. I've read his memoir "Life Itself" and watched the documentary of the same name. It's amazing that he continued to write reviews after he lost his lower jaw to cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands in 2002. Roger Ebert's favorite film of all-time was Citizen Kane, he watched it over 50 times and studied it frame by frame. I watched Citizen Kane once and then a second time with Ebert's commentary. He points out so many subtle details I completely overlooked on my first viewing. This experience allowed me to see the film from the director's perspective while watching the film. I can use this skill to look deeper into a film, by observing camera techniques, special effects and other behind the scenes details.

Georges Méliès wrote, directed and starred in A Trip to the Moon (La Voyages dans la Lune) in 1902. In 1921, Charlie Chaplin released his first feature film, The Kid. Alfred Hitchcock started directing in 1922 until 1976. In 1941 at age 25, Orson Welles wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane. These early directors inspired some of my favorite directors including Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. Ebert had great respect for one of my favorite directors, Martin Scorsese. Ebert wrote an entire book dedicated to review and analyze all of Scorsese's works.

In no particular order, these are my top five favorite actors, actresses and films:
Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Pacino
Actresses: Amy Adams, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Natalie Portman and Naomi Watts
Films: Donnie Darko, The Godfather, Being John Malkovich, The Shining and Walk Hard

I've had the thought that being a film critic in 2019 would be challenging since there are hundreds of critics getting paid to write for newspapers, magazines and websites all over the world. I hope to bring a fresh angle to film criticism in my reviews because of how open I am to all types of films. From foreign films to animated films to black and white and silent films, no film should be overlooked because of its cover, title or age.

There are films that will change the way you view yourself, other people and the reality we live in. Films can make you feel a wide spectrum of emotions. Films allow you to explore topics including life, love, death, relationships, politics and religion through a visual and auditory medium. A powerful film will stay with you forever.

I aspire to write reviews in a structure that will fully engage my readers. Hyperlinks to IMDb will be embedded in my reviews so my readers can understand references to actors, directors and related films. Hyperlinks to Amazon will also be included as a direct way of buying or renting the film I'm reviewing. The links are there for your convenience, download the IMDb app for even more accessibility! If you have any questions on setting up an account on IMDb or Letterboxd, send me a message and I'll gladly help you out.

This is my introduction and the first of many blogs to come. I plan to publish my reviews on my website, IMDb and Letterboxd, mixing it up with new releases as well as throwbacks from every decade. My goal is to be as informative as possible and hopefully, you will look forward to seeing the films I review. Thank you for taking the time to read this and getting to know me. I'll leave some useful links below, check them out! See you at the movies!

IMDb's Top 250

Rotten Tomatoes Top 100 by Year

Roger Ebert's Great Movies

Martin Scorsese's Film School List