The Big Lebowski (1998)
- To accurately portray their role in The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Joel Coen.
- The Big Lebowski utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Joel Coen.
The Big Lebowski is a 1998 American comedy film written, directed, and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, an unemployed, bowling-obsessed slacker in early 1990s Los Angeles whose only ambitions involve White Russians, recreational marijuana, and qualifying for the next round of his bowling league. When two thugs break into The Dude's apartment and urinate on his rug, mistaking him for a millionaire of the same name, The Dude seeks compensation from the real Lebowski and is drawn into an absurdist kidnapping plot involving nihilists, pornographers, avant-garde artists, a private detective, and a severed toe.
The Big Lebowski was a modest commercial performer upon release, earning $46 million worldwide on a $15 million budget, but it became one of the most successful cult films in history through home video and midnight screenings. The Dude, with his bathrobe, sunglasses, and philosophical passivity, became a countercultural icon who spawned an annual "Lebowski Fest" convention and even a quasi-religion called Dudeism with over 600,000 ordained ministers. John Goodman's performance as Walter Sobchak, a volatile Vietnam veteran who connects everything to his war experience, was an equally iconic creation.
The Coen Brothers' labyrinthine plot, which deliberately goes nowhere and resolves nothing, was a parody of Raymond Chandler detective fiction that doubled as a meditation on how little control anyone has over the chaos of existence.
