The Dude as a cultural phenom.
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 movie, “The Big Lebowski,” which stars Jeff Bridges as a beatific, pot-smoking, bowling-obsessed slacker known as the Dude, snuck up on the English-speaking world during the ’00s: it became, stealthily, the decade’s most venerated cult film. It’s got that elusive and addictive quality that a great midnight movie has to have: it blissfully widens and expands in your mind upon repeat viewings.
“The Big Lebowski” has spawned its own shaggy, fervid world: drinking games, Halloween costumes, bumper stickers (“This aggression will not stand, man”) and a drunken annual festival that took root in Louisville, Ky., and has spread to other cities. The movie is also the subject of an expanding shelf of books, including “The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers” and the forthcoming “The Tao of the Dude.”
Of course, it should have been the John Goodman character in the background, as we all know that ‘Donny’ had a heart attack and his ashes were ‘thrown’ off the cliff in northern San Diego county.
I know this movie by heart. Seems like every time you watch it you catch something you missed. John Goodman had two matter-of-fact lines that took me a bit to notice. The first was something like, “I dabbled in pacifism at one time, not in Nam of course.” The other was when the Dude explained nihilism to Walter and he marvels that that believe in nothing and then says ” I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
LOL, ahhh.
And for those who are not familiar with the movie, the saying on the shirt that this aggression will not stand is a quote from George Bush, senior. The Dude sees Bush on TV at a supermarket checkout counter in the opening scenes while writing a $0.69 check to pay for a carton of milk.
I still have my original VHS copy on the shelf (yes I have spare VCRs in the electronics closet). Another movie that should be on the same list is Bullworth. There are others…but I’ve got 7000 +/- movies on the shelves and too many to list!!
The extreme irony of this statement from HWbush was that he was talking about the Iraqi dictator that the US armed, funded, and put in office with a CIA-backed coup who then was pushed to invade Iran by the US government that supplied Weapons of Mass Destruction (chemicals/gassed). HW was buddies with dictators…we know this!
Over a million Iranians died. But Iraq still lost, so Saddam turned his sights on the invented privately-owned country of Kuwait that used to be Iraq’s access to the sea…and he ASKED the US if it would be okay.
But his son Wbush had the family revenge well in hand after the lies that the 911 terrorists were supported by Iraq, didn’t he?
I mean, one can’t make this stuff up!!!
So I’m not sure this quote is viable because it was used by a son raised by a Nazi sympathizer who’s Wall St. Bank was closed in Oct. 1942 for trading with the enemy-Nazi Germany. It just…feels so wrong! But Dude’s use of it was far more appropriate.
sealintheSelkirks
But then there is this going on and the US ultra-right wing/Fascist Heritage Foundation is ‘hosting’ it. Republican lawmakers in DC were meeting behind closed doors at a Heritage Foundation event with representatives of Hungary’s strongman president Viktor Orbán. It got almost no press coverage at all, other than The Guardian.
Republicans to meet allies of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán on ending Ukraine aid
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/10/hungary-viktor-orban-republicans-ukraine-aid
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Hunh! You guys have enticed me! :-) I guess I was maybe living abroad at the time (1998), so this film, altho I am big Coen bros fan, is not in my lexicon. Def gonna put it on my list…
The first time I watched it, I was not impressed. For some reason, I watched it again, I think someone told me you had to watch it more than once. Then, it hooked me big time. One of the many funny scenes is when The Dude recovers his stolen car and ask the police officer if they have any leads yet. The cop’s reaction cracks me up every time. The Coen’s are writing geniuses.
Yep, same here. I’ve watched it…oh maybe 8 times or so since it came out, and I end up getting something new every dang time that I missed. Some of it is very subtle. It’s one of those ‘rainy day’ movies like Bulworth or Dr. Strangelove…
I’m assuming there’s a dvd out since so many people don’t have VCRs anymore? Get one, RB!
sealintheSelkirks
Last week, I parked next to surfer van at dog beach that had a bumper sticker that cracked me up: “Calmer than you are, dude.” I can’t imagine how many frantic motorist on our congested freeways have stared into that little rectangle and either laughed or screamed.
I saw the guy at his van when we were leaving and complimented him on his good taste. He then excitedly told me it was from the Big Lebowski. I was impressed such a funny line from a movie I know so well went unrecognized. What a gem.
I remember that line. They were sitting in the car outside the bowling alley right after Walter brandished a pistol inside as the police were rolling up to the building. Seems like every time you watch this movie, something jumps out at you. Watch the backgrounds too. The Dude has a picture of Nixon bowling on his wall.
“I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?” There wouldn’t have been a movie if he had just taken it to a cleaner, but thankfully he didn’t.
(And if anyone were so inclined, I’d gratefully accept this in XL as an Xmas gift: https://www.amazon.com/Pendleton-Original-Westerley-Cardigan-Sweater/dp/B004L63R9A)