Film
Cinema Rediscovered: The Big Lebowski
- Director
- Joel Coen
- Certificate
- 18
- Running Time
- 113 mins
Imagine the pitch: it’s Kingpin meets The Big Sleep, directed by the Coen brothers. Except that if the Coens had ever been obliged to pitch their movies this way, they’d never has got as far as ‘Blood Simple’. How do you summarise a plot in which a befuddled old pothead (Jeff Bridges) is mistaken for his tycoon namesake and, together with his psychotic ‘nam veteran bowling pal (John Goodman) becomes drawn into a twisted reworking of Chandler’s classic, populated by carpet pissers, pornographers, deranged synth-playing German nihilists armed with a menacing marmot, a mincing Hispanic pederast (John Turturro), and a hugely pretentious bohemian artist/love interest (Julianne Moore), narrated by Sam Elliott in enigmatic cowboy mode against the backdrop of the Gulf War? And that’s without even mentioning the bowling-themed Busby Berkeley-style song and dance routine choreographed to the psychedelic sounds of the First Edition’s Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) in which Saddam Hussein dispenses bowling shoes, or David Thewlis’s cameo as a shaven-headed man who giggles a lot.
The Coens’ cultiest cult film succeeds on all levels, from the beautifully scripted interaction between Bridges, Goodman and their dimwitted buddy Steve Buscemi to those big fantasy set-pieces. The performances are terrific too: Bridges wears his role as the lovable, bumbling Dude like an old tie-dyed T-shirt, while Goodman is magnificent as Walter – one part Hank Hill to three parts Travis Bickle – whose catchphrases “You are about to enter a world of pain” and “Am I wrong?” are delivered with maximum menace. This screening is part of the Restored and Rediscovered strand of Cinema Rediscovered.
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