Review for The Big Lebowski (Special Edition)

Introduction

Today I climb a ladder and reach up to the “Dear God! Stop buying discs and start watching them for Pete’s Sake! What’s wrong with you?!” pile and pull out The Big Lebowski, Special Edition as I had some semblance of patience and waited for some extra features. This disc is noteworthy as the first DVD I bought after I got my Blu-ray player, opting for a £3 DVD instead of a £20 Blu-ray. If I’d known it would take me this long to get around to watching it, I would have waited to buy it in HD after all. This is a recent one. Way down in the mists surrounding the bottom of the pile lie some titles I haven’t seen in 15 years.


Jeffrey Lebowski is The Dude. Only The Dude isn’t Jeffrey Lebowski. Jeffrey Lebowski is a rich philanthropist who lives in an ornate mansion surrounded by the trophies of his philanthropic works, with his trophy wife Bunnie. The Dude is the The Dude, which is how everyone knows him, and he lives a hippy lifestyle fuelled by weed and bowling that has somehow sustained decades past the summer of love. You can see how this might be confusing, especially for the heavies who kick down the door, demanding money from Jeffrey Lebowski, and pee on The Dude’s rug to make a point. The Dude’s bowling buddy, Vietnam vet Walter points out that the value of his rug should be compensated for by the actual Jeffrey Lebowski, who obviously failed to pay his debts. The actual Jeffrey Lebowski isn’t impressed with The Dude, until his trophy wife Bunnie is kidnapped, and then hires him to pay off the ransom. Walter’s there with some sage advice, suggesting that keeping the million dollar ransom would be more profitable. Then the real Jeff Lebowski gets Bunnie’s toe in the mail... But what about the rug?

The Disc

The case promises an ‘All new digitally remastered picture’, but I haven’t seen the original barebones release to compare. The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is agreeable enough, clear and sharp throughout, presenting the film’s bold colour palette without issue, and with a consistent level of un-intrusive film grain. It’s a nice atmospheric transfer that brings the film across well. Audio wise you have the choice between DD 5.1 Surround English, Spanish, French and German, with subtitles in those languages, as well as Dutch, Portuguese and Arabic. It’s not an excessively surround intensive film, but has a nice bit of presence to it. What does impress is the eclectic music soundtrack, perfectly chosen tunes that really enhance the film, much the same way as Tarantino’s films do. The all-important dialogue is clear throughout.


After a ‘you wouldn’t spank a monkey’ anti-piracy ad (remember those), the disc loads up an animated menu based on the film’s most iconic scene. On the disc you’ll find a 5-minute comedic intro to the film by Mortimer Young, a 3 minute slideshow of Jeff Bridges photography, a 25-minute making of documentary with interviews with the cast and Coen brothers, and 8 pages of production notes.

Conclusion

It’s such a weird idea, make a film noir style detective thriller, but with a slacker in the main role. It shouldn’t work, but it somehow makes The Big Lebowsksi one of my favourite comedies. It’s the rare film that has me actually laughing out loud these days, especially when I watch them by myself, but The Big Lebowski is hilarious. The Dude is an amazing, unlikely hero, provoked by peer pressure into trying to get compensation for his defiled rug, and winding up in the middle of a Chandler-esque mystery as a result.


The joy of the film is in its characters, so richly painted and larger than life, and a cast that brings those characters alive in such engaging ways. The Dude and Walter are an unlikely pair of friends, the hippy and the war veteran, with The Dude’s easygoing nature always shredded by the sheer bull-headed idiocy of Walter, yet somehow always going along with his half-baked plans and over the top rhetoric anyway. Steve Buscemi is almost cast against type as the third member of their bowling team Donny, who can never get a word in edgeways. But it’s John Goodman who fills the screen as Walter, every utterance eminently quotable. It’s probably the bowling theme, but I can’t help seeing this as an R-Rated Flintstones, Fred and Barney to the extreme.


The Dude goes on a journey in this film, starting off with his desire to see justice for his rug, and then getting pulled further and further into the Bunnie Lebowski kidnapping mystery, which reveals all manner of colourful characters invested in the case. Whether it’s the wheelchair bound Jeffrey Lebowski and his sycophantic assistant Brandt, Lebowski’s bohemian daughter Maude, rival bowling ace and pederast Jesus Quintana, the German nihilists, the adult entertainment mogul, and of course you can’t have a film noir without a guy in an iron lung! Every scene is a delight, every moment delivering unexpected laughs. And of course you have the most incongruous Western narration from The Stranger, but which turns out to be wholly appropriate to the film.


The Big Lebowski is a film perfect for re-watching, a film that epitomises the creativity and adventure there was in cinema during the 1990s which seems somehow to have diminished in recent Hollywood output. It’s the unlikeliest feel-good movie you’d expect, but it does make you feel good, knowing that The Dude is out there, somewhere.