Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

The Big Screen: "The Big Lebowski"

Next Sunday when Kate Winslet gets up on that big stage to hand out the award for Best Lead Actor she will without a doubt announce Jeremy Renner for, oops, I mean announce Jeff Bridges for his performance of an aged country singer in "Crazy Heart." It's the kind of Oscar win that the Academy loves. An old school actor, been nominated four times before, an award could revitalize an already distinct career. Oscar predictions practically write themselves.

So in honor of Bridges, let's talk about his greatest cinematic performance, as "The Dude" in the Joel and Ethan Coens' 1998 cult hit "The Big Lebowski." A Sophie's Choice of sorts for Bridges, the dude has come to define Bridges as an actor.

The Coen Brothers' open their movie with a news clip of George Bush Sr. announcing the first strike against Iraq. But this isn't a serious movie, it's a movie about the triviality of life. We are introduced to the dude, once a radical political activist, in the middle of his life he drifts around Los Angeles - drinking white russians, smoking joints, and bowling, in that order - he's unemployed, lazy, just coasting along in life.

The plot of the film quickly throws him into something much greater, it all begins with a soiled rug, which eventually involves the dude in a kidnapping. He meets two femme fatales, a shady old businessman and a group of nihilists. The plot is complicated and richly detailed, as is typical of a Coen Brothers film, but the dude moves along whimsically, meeting a strange casts of characters along the way.

If anything this is a film that showcases some great independent actors of the 1990s. There is Julianne Moore as a feminist artist Maude, Steve Buscemi as a consummate third wheel, Philip Seymour Hoffman as an ambiguously gay royal suckup, Tara Reid as a young pornstar turned trophy wife, and of course John Torturo as the purple jumpsuit wearing, bowling champion and pedophile Jesus. There is also John Goodman in a memorable role as Walter, a Vietnam veteran and converted Jew, who plays Holmes to the dude's Sherlock.

Probably the most distinctive of the Coen Brothers' films, it is a distinguished and richly detailed exploration of strange characters and stranger circumstances. But unlike other films, "Burn After Reading" for example, we really care about the dude and his friends, we want life to go on whimsically, we want the dude to move along without a care in the world, because although there are always serious things going on around the globe, sometimes it's nice to say "screw it, let's just go bowling."