Review: The Big Lebowski (no spoilers)
Oct. 21st, 2004 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerA woman is kidnapped, a ransom demand made to her husband, a detective is brought in to get her back. But is her husband hiding something? Why was she really kidnapped? Who does the ransom money really belong to? And what _is_ steve Buscemi doing?
This is the plot to the Coen brother's masterpiece "Fargo". But it's also the plot to one of their other movies - The Big Lebowski.
The Big Lebowski is a Chandleresque detective movie with a stoned layabout bowler wandering through it, pretending he knows what he's doing in order to somehow make some money out of the situation, or at least get his rug back. He goes to all the right places and asks all the right questions, but clearly has no idea what's going on, who any of the players are or how to actually deal with anyone at all.
At one point he questions someone who may know what's going on, with no real success - they leave him alone for a moment, along with a pad they've been drawing on (minus the top page). The Dude (as Lebowski is known) does what any classic detective would do - he takes the tip of a pencil and scratches it across the next sheet down, revealing the work of the possible kidnapper. He finds an obscene drawing, leaving him even more baffled than before.
Because he's not a detective, and no matter what he does, he's not going to be able to actually think his way out of this detective story. But he is going to blunder through it, causing chaos everywhere he goes, and greatly amusing the audience.
One for fans of detective movies and the Coen brothers' askew take on the world.
8/10
ObQuote: Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.
This is the plot to the Coen brother's masterpiece "Fargo". But it's also the plot to one of their other movies - The Big Lebowski.
The Big Lebowski is a Chandleresque detective movie with a stoned layabout bowler wandering through it, pretending he knows what he's doing in order to somehow make some money out of the situation, or at least get his rug back. He goes to all the right places and asks all the right questions, but clearly has no idea what's going on, who any of the players are or how to actually deal with anyone at all.
At one point he questions someone who may know what's going on, with no real success - they leave him alone for a moment, along with a pad they've been drawing on (minus the top page). The Dude (as Lebowski is known) does what any classic detective would do - he takes the tip of a pencil and scratches it across the next sheet down, revealing the work of the possible kidnapper. He finds an obscene drawing, leaving him even more baffled than before.
Because he's not a detective, and no matter what he does, he's not going to be able to actually think his way out of this detective story. But he is going to blunder through it, causing chaos everywhere he goes, and greatly amusing the audience.
One for fans of detective movies and the Coen brothers' askew take on the world.
8/10
ObQuote: Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.
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