Yesterday I had the chance to see The Big Lebowski, the next selection in the TCM Big Screen Classics series, and, in the parlance of our times, it is hilarious! The Stranger (Sam Elliott) introduces us to The Dude (Jeff Bridges), an unemployed slacker who likes smoking weed, drinking White Russians, and bowling. He inadvertently becomes involved in a kidnapping gone wrong because he is mistaken for someone else. Like most films by the Coen brothers, it is populated by characters with exaggerated personalities, quirks, and mannerisms such as the millionaire philanthropist Jeffrey Lebowski (David Hiddleston), his trophy wife Bunny (Tara Reid), his overwrought assistant Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his daughter Maude (Julianne Moore), an experimental artist. We also have the Dude's bowling partners Walter (John Goodman), a Vietnam veteran with anger management issues, Donny (Steve Buscemi) a mild mannered ex-surfer who can't get a word in edgewise, and Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) another over-the-top bowler in the Dude's league. Add in Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazarra), a director of pornographic films, and a gang of German nihilists (Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, and Flea), who may or may not be the kidnappers, and you have a film with such an outrageous plot that you can't help but laugh out loud (as everyone did in my screening). My favorite moments are when Jesus Quintana, wearing a tight purple jumpsuit, dances after bowling a strike, when Walter pulls a gun in the bowling alley, and when the Dude gets thrown out of a taxi after saying he doesn't like the Eagles. The absurdist comedies of the Coen brothers are hit or miss with me, but this (along with Fargo and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) is one of the good ones and should be seen on the big screen (go here for more information). Am I wrong?
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