The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski
by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

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DVD details

Actor: David Huddleston, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Producer: Ethan Coen
Writer: Ethan Coen
Producer: Joel Coen
Writer: Joel Coen
Producer: Eric Fellner
Producer: John Cameron
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-10-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Polygram USA Video

DVD Reviews of The Big Lebowski

DVD Review: This dude abides!
Summary: 5 Stars

The individual DVD arrived very efficiently and in perfect condition. "The Big Lebowski" is one of my favorite movies and I'm glad to finally own it. The only complaint is that the "menu" - such as it was - consisted of two options for viewing the film (widescreen or full screen) and nothing else. Otherwise, the disc was in great condition and I recommend the seller highly.

DVD Review: I just don't get it...
Summary: 1 Stars

I absolutely love most Coen Brothers movies, but when I tried to watch this one when it first came out, I hated it. Wanted to give it another try, given its rise in popular culture to iconic level. Unfortunately, I still hated it. Didn't like 'The Dude', didn't find it funny, and didn't care for the plot. For the second time, I turned it off before getting halfway into it. I just don't get it.

DVD Review: One of a kind movie
Summary: 5 Stars

all time classic movie you can watch ten times over and still laugh a must see movie... enjoy!

DVD Review: A cult classic!
Summary: 4 Stars

You have to enjoy movies like Half-baked and the like to enjoy this flick. Definitely one that you will be quoting soon after watching.

DVD Review: IS THIS JEFF BRIDGES' BEST MOVIE? OR WHAT?
Summary: 5 Stars

It well may be. I've never been a fan of his although in early adolescnce I adored his father, Lloyd. Still, every time I see him in a movie my estimation of his ability rises notch by notch. And in this inspired farce he's simply, complicatedly wonderful. It's a buddy flick, and he plays against John Goodman, that inspired farceur who earned his stripes and paid his dues playing the tender side of the mad, manic, monomoniacal virago ROSEANNE, in the TV Sitcom of the same name. A decade in that well-paid hell gave him nuts enough to do anything, and here he shines as a psychotic Viet Nam vet. (Satiric portrait of Ms. Barr?) But then, the entire cast is so brilliant they make your teeth itch. Can't name them all.

But without going any further I have to tell you that there are several intense sections in this flick that have some of the best effects of good Jazz, and by good Jazz I mean the best jazz. Particularly, here, Count Basie's music. Basie's approach was to float a secure, framework of familiar song in blues mode, and to let the band's soloists work their specialities in the time alotted, when their turns came up. Simple, but with Basie, the soloists were so fantastically good, and so (mutually) energized by being free to improvise and encouraged to do their 'thing,' they rocked the house and each other to hights beyond nightclub high. And its much the same here. The "Mistaken Identity Whodunnit Flight From Armed and Merciless Crazies" is a standard in movies, since Silents, and though brilliantly revived here by Les Cohens, the seance comes to life when the soloists get their cue. Bridges & Goodman play as close as nested spoons, riffing and grooving with such great timing and virtuosity they're like Jimmie Noone and Joe Poston at the Apex Club. Weep for joy! You can go back again and again to try to see how they do it.

Is this the best edition of the film available on DVD? Don't know. Can't comment. Mine features the Cohens themselves, in an interview about how the film came to be, and to my mind its worth extra bucks to watch those two sitting, side by side, twisting their fingers, tearing at their cuticles, wringing their hands, scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes -- not quite in unison; its not quite a choreography of Ritilin-fueled siamese hyper-activity -- and talking in manic but repressed monotone about the creation of one of the best movies since the end of WW II.

The plot? Read another review. Its a take-off on or homage to Chandler and Hammitt's novels, stories and screenplays, set in the chromium glitz and glare of East Hollywood's neon-spangled hamburgeries and bowling alleys. Amazingly, in all its dizzying detail and with its huge cast of extras and bit-players, everything fits. The attention these geniuses pay to every detail of the production is awe-inspiring in total, but to try to describe the film adequately would require a piece of writing that demanded more time to read than the movie requires to watch. Not worth it.

My particular favorite bit? The recital of the Dude's Landlord. The Landlord himself (a short, balding, pudgy, middle-aged schlepp) is so tiny a part -- of only two or possibly three short lines -- that it's obviously a throw-away character. And then, somehow, and without explanation, The Dude and his crew find themselves members of a tiny audience in a makeshift theatre, watching a one-man performance of some kind; a dance and pantomime performance to brilliant modern symphonic music, as highh-minded, intense and serious as it is ridiculous in its ineptitude. And then, long after the scene is over I came to realize that a crucial part of the Dude's rental agreement is or must be, that he he appear with his friends at the Landlord's Performance Art events. Throwaway. High Art in L.A. And eventually, in this Mardi Gras parade of geeks, freaks and wanabees, the Dude impregnates a chic, international dyque-as-femenist and certifiably crazed Performance Artist -- though we never get to see her in action in one of her own works -- we see her in a Buzby Berkley Bowling Ball Ballet dream sequence of the Dude's. Don't ask. Its like those great insights they told you you were supposed to get when you first took LSD or Mescaline. Such insights didn't exist, but the rationale within the fantasy of easy enlightenment was just so damned interesting.

If you haven't seen this movie you've nobody to blame but yourself.

Description of The Big Lebowski

After the tight plotting and quirky intensity of Fargo, this casually amusing follow-up from the prolifically inventive Coen (Ethan and Joel) brothers seems like a bit of a lark, and the result was a box-office disappointment. The good news is, The Big Lebowski is every bit a Coen movie, and its lazy plot is part of its laidback charm. After all, how many movies can claim as their hero a pot-bellied, pot-smoking loser named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who spends most of his time bowling and getting stoned? And where else could you find a hairnetted Latino bowler named Jesus (John Turturro) who sports dazzling purple footgear, or an erotic artist (Julianne Moore) whose creativity consists of covering her naked body in paint, flying through the air in a leather harness, and splatting herself against a giant canvas? Who else but the Coens would think of showing you a camera view from inside the holes of a bowling ball, or an elaborate Busby Berkely-styled musical dream sequence involving a Viking goddess and giant bowling pins? The plot--which finds Lebowski involved in a kidnapping scheme after he's mistaken for a rich guy with the same name--is almost beside the point. What counts here is a steady cascade of hilarious dialogue, great work from Coen regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, and the kind of cinematic ingenuity that puts the Coens in a class all their own. Be sure to watch with snacks in hand, because The Big Lebowski might give you a giddy case of the munchies. --Jeff Shannon

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