The Big Lebowski

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J.M. Tyree (Nonfiction Editor, New England Review, USA) Ben Walters (Writer, Critic & Programmer, London, UK)

The Big Lebowski

J.M. Tyree (Nonfiction Editor, New England Review, USA), Ben Walters (Writer, Critic & Programmer, London, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
03 September 2020

Film theory & criticism

Series: BFI Film Classics

Ethan and Joel Coen's The Big Lebowski was released in 1998 to general bafflement. A decade on, it had become a cult classic and remains so over 20 years later, inspiring a thriving circuit of 'Lebowski Fests' during which costumed devotees gather at bowling alleys and guzzle White Russians. Beyond its superabundance of deliciously quotable lines, how has the movie inspired such remarkable affection? And why does its critical stock continue to rise? The film's unlikely anchor is Jeff Bridges' career-best performance as Jeffrey Lebowski, a fully-baked 1960s radical turned Venice Beach drop-out known to his friends as 'the Dude'. Mistaken for an identically-named grandee whose young trophy wife is in trouble, the Dude finds himself embroiled in an impossibly convoluted kidnap plot involving pornographers, nihilists and threats to his 'johnson'. Worst of all, it conflicts with his bowling commitments.

In part an irreverent pastiche of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (as filmed by Howard Hawks), The Big Lebowski is also a jukebox of film history, littered with playful references

to everything from Hitchcock and Altman to Busby Berkeley. This riot of addled quotations reflects the film's Los Angeles setting, a discombobulated world inhabited by flakes, phonies and poseurs with put-on identities.

Like many Coen films, the movie plays havoc with the conventions of the crime genre and the absurdities of classical American 'heroism'. But it's also that rare thing: a comedy that gets richer, funnier and more affecting with each viewing. Beneath its breakneck pacing and foul-mouthed ribaldry, the Dude's story offers disarmingly humane lessons in the value of simple things: friendship, laughter and bowling.

In their foreword to this new edition, the authors reflect on Lebowski's cult status and its contemporary resonances as a film about gentle non-conformity and friendship in an increasingly polarized world. The new edition also includes an interview with the Coens, revealing the origins of the name 'Jeffrey Lebowski'.

By: J.M. Tyree (Nonfiction Editor New England Review USA), Ben Walters (Writer, Critic & Programmer, London, UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions: Height: 190mm, Width: 135mm,
Weight: 230g
ISBN: 9781838719609
ISBN 10: 1838719601
Series: BFI Film Classics
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 03 September 2020
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements Foreword to the 2020 edition Introduction 1. The Mix-tape Movie 2. Out of the Past 3. What Makes a Man? 4. The Religion of Laughter Notes Credits Bibliography

J.M. Tyree is non-fiction editor of New England Review and author of Vanishing Streets: Journeys in London (2016) and of the BFI Film Classic on Salesman (2012). Ben Walters is a writer, producer, programmer and critic based in London, UK.

Reviews for The Big Lebowski

Terrific stuff, intellectually engaging, visually appealing, and shot through with wit and insight. Beautifully lucid. Compact and deliciously readable. Is it an important book? That depends. Do you think The Big Lebowski is an important film? If the answer is an unhesitating 'yes,' run, don't walk.

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The Big Lebowski

J.M. Tyree (Nonfiction Editor, New England Review, USA), Ben Walters (Writer, Critic & Programmer, London, UK)

$26.99

Paperback

Reviews for The Big Lebowski

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