In 1998, the critically acclaimed sibling duo of Joel and Ethan Coen, who had won the Oscar for best motion-picture with their previous film, Fargo, wrote, directed, and produced a comedic film that has rivaled others, past and present, as one of the greats comedies ever made. The Big Lebowski, the cult-classic, stoner-friendly, and mysterious escapade of one Jefferey “the Dude” Lebowski, has since transcended into the new millennium, acquiring a variety of fans spanning different generations, and garnering praise for the themes of absurdism, that, in turn, provide a great deal of hilarity to the amusement of its audience. Starring Jeff Bridges, with the support of an exquisite roster of talent that includes John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, and John Goodman, who arguably provides one of the greatest comedic performances of all time in his portrayal Walter Sobchak, “the Dudes” gun-toting, freedom-loving, Vietnam veteran associate, The Big Lebowski provides the audience with a unorthodox comedic achievement, one that asks its audiences to pay less attention to the actual plot, rather enticing the audience to grasp the subtleties of the comedic material that need several viewings to fully understand.
The Coen Brothers, known to prioritize basic principles of philosophy as a cinematic mechanism in their films, do not fail in providing the questions of human existence pondered by ancient and modern philosophers alike. Whether it is the “Nihilists” lack of faith in a existential meaning of life, the existentialism of Walter, who has adopted Judaism from his past marriage, actively participates in the Sabbath, and abides by his belief in morality and justice (most notably when Walter draws a gun on rival bowler, who stepped over the line and fails to accept Walter’s premonition of order), or the “Dude’s” embrace of absurdism, that life may have not some external guideline set forth, rather one must take life in strides and abide by the laws on nature that set in motion ones life, the Coen Brothers expand the principles of philosophical thought in a genre that consists of embracing the latter. Furthermore, the Coen’s, who consist of a great knowledge of cinema, poke fun at themes, motifs, and symbolism in their favorite genre’s of film, including the Western-genre writer in Los Angeles, who is literally on life support in the film, and on figurative life support in the real world, where Western movies have steadily declined since the 1960’s.
While the Coen Brothers both utilize their proficiency in philosophy (Joel Coen was a Philosophy major) and film history, The Big Lebowski also successfully blends the comedy genre in an unlikely partnership with a preceding genre that dominated the film business post World-War 2. As much as The Big Lebowski is a comedy, the film is also modern interpretation of the Film Noir genre, one that has been defined by the usage of monochrome (black-and-white) cinematography, Anti-Hero detectives inhabited by a world of unease and despair, and an underlying theme of existential crisis. However, while The Big Lebowski is not the traditional Film Noir, it encompasses the themes of the Film-Noir succession, Neo-Noir, an evolved form of Film Noir that embodies the same themes, Hollywood crime drama plot, and content of its predecessor. Films, such as Chinatown, Blade Runner, and The Conversation have since been defined as the prime examples of the Neo-Noir genre, yet the Coen Brothers dabble in their own exploration of the genre through The Big Lebowski, in more ways than one.
Inspired, in large part, by Howard Hawk’s 1946 film The Big Sleep, The Big Lebowski incorporates various themes, plot points, and cinematic devices from their inspiration to make a Neo-Noir genre film to their own liking. The Big Sleep, a Film Noir that starred Humphrey Bogart, was an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel, in which Bogart is hired as a private eye by General Sternwood, a wheelchair-bound, millionaire to track down the extortionist who is sending Sternwood exploitative pictures of his daughter. In the film The Big Lebowski, the Big Lebowski is not Jeff Bridge’s the “Dude,” rather he is the other Jefferey Lebowski, a millionaire, philanthropist who bares the same name as his stoned-out counterpart. The Big Lebowski, forces, opposed to hires, the Dude to locate his missing wife, after he receives a daunting letter that informs Lebowski that his wife had been kidnapped and will only be exchanged for a determined amount of money. The character of the Big Lebowski is largely drawn on from the General Sternwood character in The Big Sleep, both finding themselves in a vulnerable situation. Likewise, the pornography of Sternwood’s daughter is refashioned in The Big Lebowski, where the Big Lebowski’s kidnapped wife, a much younger Bunny, is revealed to have been apart of a series of pornographic pictures produced by the prolific Jackie Treehorn, who later offers the Dude a laced drink, causing the Dude to subdue to a drug-induced coma. In fact, the famous dream sequence in The Big Lebowski, in which the Dude is surrounded by a flock of Viking princesses and must escape a runaway bowling ball, is largely inspired by the drug-induced nightmare Detective Phillip Marlowe endures in the 1944 film Murder, My Sweet, another film-adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel. The Big Lebowski continues to pay homage to the Film Noir era throughout the film: the Dude being tailed by another private investigator or “a brother shamus” in direct nod to The Big Sleep, where Detective Marlowe is also followed by a private investigator and the character of Bunny (Tara Reid) fits the mold of the “Femme Fatale,” an important woman character in Noir films that manipulates and deceives men through her seductiveness and allure. Even the title, The Big Lebowski, is an ode to the era of 1940’s Film Noirs, when the genre would include the word “Big” in the title of numerous films. As mentioned, The Big Sleep was one who utilized the word “big” in its title, but other films, such as The Big Heat, The Big Combo, and The Big Clock all featured the word “big” in their title as well.
Furthermore, Los Angeles has become the token city landscape for a majority of Film Noir and Neo-Noir films, primarily due the monopoly Hollywood had on film production, causing a large part of films in general to be shot in studio lots. However, Los Angeles offered a bleak glimpse into a preconceived reality of luxury, where outsiders gawked at the starlets, sunshine, and success, yet was a city still riddled with crime, corruption, and isolation. Los Angeles, or “La La Land,” marketed as a place where dreams our birthed and flourished, was also developed in a sinister, yet rarely mentioned scandal, where William Mulholland bought land rights from local farmers in the San Fernando region and diverted water from the Owen River Valley to Los Angeles, thereby leaving the remaining farmers with less than profitable farm land (the historical event that inspired Chinatown). The city of Los Angeles was built on corruption and greed yet has since been able to hide that piece of their history and promote the city as a dream-like paradise. The Big Lebowski, which takes place in 1990’s Los Angeles, further adds to the Los Angeles landscape as place riddled with crime, corruption, and sin. Various characters indulge in the seedier part of Los Angeles, whether their characters roles in the film are illegal or immoral. The Big Lebowski, a beloved philanthropist, is revealed to be a strict capitalist figure when he is insulted that the Dude feel he is owed compensation for his beloved rug. Furthermore, the Big Lebowski, much to his daughter’s disproval, divorced his wife in favor for the much younger Bunny, who is revealed to be a stereotypical gold digger and trophy wife, more enthralled by the Big Lebowski’s massive fortune, rather than an actual bond of love. When Bunny is kidnapped, The Big Lebowski furthers plays on the setting of Los Angeles in Film Noirs, as a city so romanticized with stars and celebrities, but not protected from the greed, sabotage, and crimes of man. Lastly, Jesus, the flamboyant bowler hilariously played by John Turturro, is revealed to be a sexual deviant who had a past life exposing himself to children, who now resides in a local Los Angeles neighborhood, adding another complex layer to the city of Los Angeles that is filled with criminals, sexual predators, and unsavory characters akin to previous Film Noir movies. Between the Big Lebowski, Bunny, and Jesus, all three of the characters add to the physical setting of Los Angeles as place fueled by deceit, lies, and corruption, concealed by the affinity for a city popularized for its stardom. Overall, everyone in The Big Lebowski has a secret to hide, much like its surrounding landscape, which has been a trope of Film Noir since its popularization in 1940.
Lastly, the overall mood and plot of The Big Lebowski, albeit quite hysterical, also mimics the mood and plot-points of the Film Noir era. Traditionally, Film Noir create a world encompassed by darkness, utilized by the black-and-white cinematography, in order to evoke a mood of bleakness, corruption, paranoia, disenchantment, greed, and nihilism. Likewise, the plot of Film Noirs are notably complex, convoluted, and not central to film itself, rather serving as an extension of the mood. The Coen Brother’s are even quoted as describing the plot of The Big Lebowski as such, claiming that the plot is less important to the actual humor of the film, exhibited primarily through the confusion over the whereabouts of Bunny and her captures. Later, it is revealed the Bunny had not been kidnapped at all, rather she embarked on a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas without informing the Big Lebowski. The ransom letter was a fraudulent attempt by the Nihilists to extort the Big Lebowski, who later discover their attempt at blackmail was thwarted in the bowling alley parking lot, where the Dude informs them of her return. All the beatings, drugging’s, misinformation, disillusionment that the Dude endured through the majority of the film is essentially meaningless, resembling the same nihilistic revelations of the detectives in Film Noirs who found themselves at the end of a case that denied them retribution and justice, but rather prompted more greed, corruption, and powerlessness. Furthermore, following a fight that breaks out between Walter and the Nihilists, Donnie suffers from a heart attack and perishes in the parking lot, symbolizing an unwarranted death through an unjustifiable cause. The search for Bunny was meaningless, all spawned from the unsolicited advice from Walter for the Dude to seek compensation for his tarnished rug at the beginning of the film. In the end, the Dude alike the protagonists of Film Noir, is left momentarily in a situation far worse, simply by engaging apart in an act of misfortune, ultimately deeming, through the death of Donnie, that no life is innately important, the universe is not coded to a set of universal principles, the actions we take are not derived from some existential meaning, and humanity evolved through basic biology for no greater purpose than to eat, sleep, and slowly wither away. The Nihilists, although unable to successfully claim the ransom, won in the end by proving that their viewpoint of meaninglessness is the only universal truth about humanity.
However, The Big Lebowski later rejects nihilism as the overlying principle of humanity, rather embracing absurdism through the view of the Dude. Like nihilism, absurdism rejects the notion that life and the universe have any intrinsic meaning, ultimately concluding any form of fulfillment through searching for meaning is utterly useless. Nevertheless, absurdism differs from nihilism on key principles, offering that although life has no intrinsic meaning, we embrace the absurdity of life and create our meaning through personal connections, the daily activities of existence, and individualism. While the common theme and mood of Film Noir is directing the audience to a nihilistic viewpoint, the Dude famously “abides” to the absurdity of life, accepting he is powerless in the greater context of humanity, and is here for a good time, not a long time. At the end of The Big Lebowski, the Dude encounters the stranger and narrator of the film (Sam Elliott), where the two briefly engage in conversation. In true absurdism acceptance, the Dude describes life as a series of “strikes and gutters,” and proclaiming that as sad as Donnie’s death was, sometimes you “just eat the bar.” Overall, the Dude is back where he is most comfortable, with Walter preparing to reach the finals of their bowling league, thereby creating the meaning of his life opposed to looking for it. As the Dude walks away, the stranger instructs the Dude to “take it easy,” prompting the Dude to respond “Well… you know…the Dude abides.” One subtle interaction morphs the course of the entire film, one that was intent on depicting a Film Noir replica through various themes, tropes, and cinematic devices that result in nihilistic perspective of life, shattered by the Dude’s easy-going acceptance of the unorthodox sequence of events. The stranger can not help but laugh as the dude meanders away, breaking the fourth wall to engage with the audience, and reflecting on his comfort that the Dude is out their “taking her easy for all us sinners.” In more ways than one, the stranger is correct. The world is a better place with a film like The Big Lebowski. Yet the stranger offers an uplifting message rivaling the nihilistic conclusion of Film Noirs, one that states for all the corruption, greed, bleakness, pessimism, and disillusionment, there are those like the Dude, who take life in stride, embrace the absurdity of it all, and abide by the laws of nature. Overall, The Big Lebowski is a cross-genre achievement that masterfully combines humor in a Film Noir plot, that ultimately rejects the nihilism of Film Noir and asks the audience to embrace the absurdity of life. Much like the stranger, I am glad there are people like the Dude out there, taking it easy for the rest of sinners.
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