Alessandro
De Rocco
4/13/2015
The Big Lebowski is about
a man who has many names, from the dude, Dudaret, el Dudarinio to his Dudeniss.
The dude is a man who is as chill as the
white Russian that he drinks(all the time), but his drink gets a stir and The
Dude finds himself chasing down bunny (a cheating wife), with his two bowling
team mates Walter and Donny.
The movie is just like The dudes character
simple but has a strong underlying meaning.
This gunnies movie or piece of art had a unique set of characters that
were at first miss understood and also an outlandish story line, but as humor
and cinematography have developed over the years it shed a new light on the Big
Lebowski.
“Sometimes there’s a man, he’s the man for his time and place. He
fits right in there, and that’s The Dude, in Los Angeles.”(the big Lebowski narrator). The Coen brothers wanted to create a man that
could be relatable, but when the world first saw him no one really cared for
the Dude. In today’s society, not 1998 this
quote rings true, he was a different type of humor for his time and place it
just took a couple years for people to understand it.
The Coen Brothers produced this movie ahead
of its time. The Big Lebowski wasn’t
culturally popular when it came out in 1998 and tanked in the box office, now it’s
won National Film Registry in 2014 and two satellite awards, Outstanding
Overall DVD and Outstanding DVD Extras. I
guess he is more relatable today than he was 17 years ago. 17 years ago rush hour was a box-office hit, a
buddy action film using two distinctly different personalities thrown into
funny action packed scenes. It was good, but not better than The Big Lebowski. Also
since 1998 film making has changed, weed is now legal (which The Dude smokes a
lot of) or the fact the being outlandishly different with a unique style is
culturally looked up upon. Look at Riff Raft or Die Ant-word who are at first
looked at differently, and that difference sparked there carriers. Just like these characters The Dude stood for
his own type of humor which was dry and very relaxed. Now that being an individual and unequally
different is powerful this helped spark people’s interest in the dud. We have seen so much of the same characters
and plots that we want something completely different. The
reason why this movie “came out of the shadows” is because we now are
understanding the humor the Coen brothers wanted to show us. Remember 1998 was before the war in Afghanistan
and gay marriage was illegal. Change in
Humor over the years and the mass amount of exposure to it weather through
television or movies is what allowed people to start understanding it.
The explicit Meaning of the movie is about The
Dude, an unemployed bowler who gets mixed up with another Lebowski and finds him
self-delivering ransom to save bunny.
What many people miss understood was the
implicit meaning of the movie, which is how The Dude abides. The Dude finds himself in pandemonium that’s
getting worse and worse. While the story around The Dude is outlandish and spiraling
out of control, he turns out to be a man of wisdom. While Walter his best friend wants to find
justice and get back at the other Lebowski The Dude tries to teach us that
sometimes we cannot control what goes on around us and that taking it easy or “abiding”
can sometimes be the smart move, or that sometimes we need to take a step back
and let all of the troubles blow past us.
The Coen Brothers mad a misunderstood man of wisdom before his
time.
The scene of The Dude in the limo seemed to
show the audience of the underlying problem. Maude Lebowski explained to The Dude that Mr. Lebowski is
a fraud. That there was no ransom money, just Mr. Lebowski trying to hide some
money for himself and bunny was all a cover up. After the conversation Maude Lebowski sends The
Dude home in a limo.
The driver starts going on a rant, talking about how his “wife's a pain in the
ass. She's always busting my friggin' agates. My daughter's married to a real
loser bastard. And I got a rash so bad on my ass, I can't even sit down. But
you know me. I can't complain."
The Dude: Fuckin' A, man. I got a rash, man”.
That rash is bunny, an Annoying Wife that The Dude and his bowling palls
were trying to save with the ransom money given to them by Mr. Lebowski. It turns out that if they stopped itching it
or worrying about bunny it would have gone away a lot sooner than it did. Yet because of their constant itching of the
rash The Dude destroyed his car and got his rug urinated on. If he just listened to his wise self and not Walter
they would have been fin and not in their current situation. We find that Walter was also a contributing
factor for all of this madness at the end of the movie, when he empties Donny’s
ashes into the sea and they end up getting blown into The Dudes face but Walter doesn't even notice. Turns
out that The Dude was wise and just needed to listen to himself from the begging
and this rash would have gone away a lot sooner. This film is fantastic and is
a must see, it was unfortunately ahead of its time and finally about 10 years later
getting the credit it deserves.
