Wednesday, February 17, 2010

#54 The Big Lebowski: Uh, I'm just gonna go find a cash machine...

1998. dir. Joel Coen, starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Peter Stormare.

Seen it before? Many times.

Way out west there was this fella. Fella I wanna tell you about. Jeff Lebowski, aka the Dude (Jeff bridges) is a slacker living in L.A. I won't say he's a hero, cause, what's a hero? Two thugs break into his house and micturate on his rug - turns out they were looking for money from a different Jeff Lebowski (David Huddleston). At the urging of The Dude's foul-mouthed Vietnam veteran friend Walter (John Goodman), he goes to visit Lebowski to ask for compensation, but is rudely rebuffed. Later he gets involved in a kidnapping scheme involving Lebowski's trophy wife (Tara Reid). The plot defies description... there's some weird dream sequences, and lots of bowling. It all totally makes sense if you think about it (everything The Dude says to Lebowski in their last scene together is correct).

This is one of the funniest movies ever made. It takes at least two or three viewings to really get all of it. I like IMDB's Memorable Quotes page for this movie. I estimate that it contains 80% of the screenplay. I find myself quoting it quite a lot. This one is particularly handy at work:
The Dude: "That's a great plan, Walter. That's fuckin' ingenious, if I understand it correctly. It's a Swiss fuckin' watch."
Position on the list: 140
F-Bombs: 292

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