By Jesse Kornbluth
Founder, HeadButler.com
Someone who has seen "The Big Lebowski" a lot -- and there are quite a few people who have seen the movie more than a hundred times -- says that it's a retelling of the Buddha's story.
You see, Jeff Bridges -- as Jeff Lebowski (aka "The Dude") -- has a gut in this movie, and so did the Buddha ... Bridges bowls, which is nothing but a stab at perfection ... He has a carpet stolen, which is the lesson about material objects ...
You get the idea, so I'll stop there. Bottom line: For those who love it, "The Big Lebowski" is one deep movie.
And they're not entirely goofy on this point. The movie was written by Ethan and Joel Coen, and it's just like the brothers to hide a spiritual classic inside a stoner comedy -- after all, wasn't "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" their retelling of Homer's "Odyssey"?
But "The Big Lebowski," you must understand, is not a stoner movie like "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." The Dude lacks Harold and Kumar's energy and ambition. Once, long ago, he went to college, but as he says, "I spent most of my time occupying various administration buildings, smoking a lot of Thai stick, heckling the ROTC, and bowling. Tell you the truth, I don't remember most of it ..."
Now he bowls. And drinks White Russians. And smokes: "I've been adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber."
It's a full life. Pleasantly uneventful. Until there's a tragic misunderstanding: Some thugs mistake him for another, wealthier Lebowski. They threaten him. Bob his head like an apple in his toilet. And make off with his living room rug.
Bridges is bereft: "I really loved that carpet, man! It really tied the room together!"
Thus motivated, Bridges sets out to recover his carpet and solve the mystery. (As another Lebowski addict has pointed out, he's Humphrey Bogart in a very silly version of "The Big Sleep.") Along the way, he has help from the hapless Steve Buscemi and from John Goodman, a Jewish Vietnam vet who's seething with Marxist rage, generally directed toward the czars of the bowling league.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the courtly assistant to the real Lebowski. Julianne Moore does a turn as an avant-garde artist with a keen interest in oddball sex. Tara Reid is the bored wife of the richer Lebowski. And there is a miraculous, hysterically funny cameo by John Turturro as Jesus Quintana, a megalomaniac bowler whose language isn't even fit for the Internet.
Such craziness is too much for one movie, and, as is often the case, you may get tired of laughing and find the second half a bit slow. Not to worry. The language will keep you awake. As a Lebowski scholar reports, the "F word" (and variants) "is said 281 times, putting it at No. 12 on the list of films in which that word appears. The word 'man' is said 174 times during the film. 'Dude' is said 139 times, including variations."
If someone says to you, "This aggression will not stand" (it's a quote from the first George Bush, on Saddam Hussein), know that she or he is a Lebowski fan. Ditto "The Dude abides." And half a dozen other snappy phrases.
But why be an outsider? Get your hands on this movie today. Next thing you know, you'll be at the Lebowski Fest, the annual get-together of the film's devotees. And marking on your wall how many times you've seen the film. Because, as a wise person once said about something else, when you come across a movie like this, once is not enough.
Jesse Kornbluth is a New York-based journalist and founder of Head Butler.com, a cultural concierge site and free daily e-mail featuring information on new and classic books, movies and music.
Like Kornbluth's column? Then you'll love his reviews of The Number and Hunting With Hemingway.
