The Dude Abides!

When I was invited to join this blog I must admit I was at a loss what to write about, I do love film and myself and Crash have spent many an hour discussing film amongst many things. If I'm honest though literature is my true love and I favour American writers writing about nothing in particular (No exciting plots, no submarines, no wizards-just ordinary people doing ordinary things-the stories of Raymond Carver a case in point.) Now I read recently that the Coen Brothers "Big Lewbowski" is a film about nothing, now I'm going to disabuse that immediately. Whilst it is picaresque and meandering (to put it mildly) it is a film ultimately about friendship. Particularly the relationship between male friends of a certain age. We all know a Walter (John Goodman), a Donnie (Steve Buscemi) and even a Dude (Jeff Bridges). You can't explain why you are friends with people like this, and there are times when this friendship is a bind rather than a boon (particularly the scene when Goodman draws a pistol in the bowling alley) but these bonds are strong, inexplicable and eternal. The Coen's superbly demonstrate these qualities, why else would the Dude allow Walter to ride shotgun when delivering the ransom? Why else would The Dude allow Walter to join him in locating the missing money (resulting in Walter smashing the wrong car whilst shouting "This is what happens when you fuck a guy in the ass....") because they are friends and the relationship is so believable that you don't doubt it for one second(and if it isn't about friendship then why do I find myself welling up every time the guys bungle spreading Donny's ashes...that's real and touching in Hollywood his ashes would drift upwards in a shower of doves) but I get ahead of myself- The plot as it is, involves a case of mistaken identity- The Dude (aka Jeffrey Lebowski) is mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, from there it all becomes a bit confusing...rugs used as a toilet, fake(?) kidnappings, nihilists ("we believe in nothing Lebowski"), porn barons, Dope addled Busby Berkley sequences, White Russians and Jesus. No not the religious fella, but one of the great pointless movie characters. Jesus Quintana (John Tuturro) has no bearing on the film, he is a bowling rival of our heroes, and only appears twice but those two scenes are utter highlights. We meet him extravagantly drying his hands, and prowling the bowling alley as "Hotel California" (Not the hoary old Eagles version but an exotic Gypsy Kings version) plays. Quintana is a preening Lilac clad Latino bowling champ in a hairnet, who Walter insists is a "fucking pederast man" (This leads to an excellent cut to scene of Tuturro anxiously knocking a door as ordered by the court to declare his proclivities to the neighbourhood- we're not told if this is actually true but it makes for a great scene). The second scene is even funnier, Quintana's team are due to play The Dude et al on a Saturday but the suddenly devout Jew Walter refuses to play on a Saturday, "I don't roll on a fucking Saturday man) initially Tuturro seems annoyed at this change but eventually declares it doesn't matter because "it's easy for Jesus" as he humps the air. Now don't get me wrong it has nothing to do with anything, but it's genius in it's simplicity. The fact you don't even find out the result of the match (in a Hollywood film it would be the obvious climax, with a rollicking rock soundtrack) gives the whole film the feel of a shaggy dog story, or a rambling anecdote. So treatise on male friendship, shaggy dog story and life philosophy....yes that's right Life Philosophy (and the capital L, capital P are entirely justified). The Narrator (Sam Elliot, who randomly is a cowboy and has no part in the film) bookends the film, in his final speech the Dude says "the Dude Abides" and Elliot says "It makes you feel better doesn't it, knowing someone is out there abiding" and you know it does....