dear fans of "the big lebowski"

[rone]

What the fuck, over?  This movie is not funny, it is not memorable, and it is not enjoyable.  It's a story that reads like it was written by some pinhead with ADD who heavily self-medicates with marijuana; a ridiculous amount of random things happened for no damn discernible reason or even a more than tenuous connection between them.  I am a charter member of the Jeff Bridges Fan Club and the way he was wasted was nearly criminal, and the same goes for Steve Buscemi.  The movie needed a lot less John Goodman and a lot more John Turturro.  It feels like some film student decided to ape the Coen brothers.  If i hadn't rented this movie for free with a coupon, i would feel totally ripped off.  Something about the movie made me dodge it when it came out, and all the years since, but i finally decided to fill in a gap in my Coen brothers movie track, and now i'm sorry.  I blame all of you jerks.

Oh, by the way, since it seems that "watch it again another 10-40 times and you'll get it" is a really popular suggestion, i have two words for you: Stockholm syndrome.

Comments

And yet

[erikred.livejournal.com]

That rug really tied the room together, man.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Shut the fuck up, Donny.

Re: And yet

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

dude....

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Go see "No Country for Old Men." You'll feel *much* better.

[benchilada.livejournal.com]

DECLARATION OF AMEN!!!

[filthy-habit.livejournal.com]

"Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon...with nail polish."

I wasn't so hooked on it on my first viewing, but over time it wormed its way into my head. As I became more familiar with it, it grew on me. Now, I just laugh senselessly.

The inevitable truth is that everyone who knows me, especially my sisters who really know me, pegged me as The Dude.

I guess the litmus test for this film is whether or not it hits a chord and taps into your own life experience, despite the random insanity. For me, it did exactly that, so I was sucked in.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Similar effect but wrong litmus test, I think. The first time I saw it, I had the ineffable feeling that there was a level the entire rest of the world saw it on which I was Failing To Get. Second time, I was Enlightened.

Similarly, Steve recounts that he thought it weak the first time he saw it, but since then it's climbed in his estimation to a tie as his favorite Coen Brothers film

[brong.livejournal.com]

Give me another look, I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

[peglegpete.livejournal.com]

If you paid attention to anything other than character in this movie, I won't say that you missed the boat, but I will not that we were perhaps on ships passing in the night.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Even the characters stink. They're not fully developed, there's no rewarding interaction except between Brandt and the Dude... what's to like? Potheads, man. They'll disappoint you, every time.

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

i have something for you. dear god have i got sometthing for you.

and i tottaly aare with your enty. frick. i'm srundk.

[vatine]

But Peter Stormare as a nihilist German was, if naught else, excellent casting.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yes, great idea, but again, where the hell was the execution? A lot more nihilism, please.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

In a business where an untalented asstard like Keanu Reeves can get cast as Klaatu in an ill-advised remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," I can appreciate the fact that the Coens are at least trying to make films that break the mold.

That being said, I thought "Lebowski" was good for a few WTF laffs, and not much else.

tell me it isn't so....

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

Tell me you made the traditional silly sciFi mistake and confused Klaatu with the Robot that protects his space ship... I think it would be a stunningly brilliant use of Keanu to have the role of the robot GORT!!!!

Yeah, that would soooo rock....

[opadit.livejournal.com]

I've never seen The Big Lebowski through, because I can't watch it without falling asleep.

Same goes for Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I started fast forwarding through the boring parts, because I was about to fall asleep. And I wanted to stay up till midnight to see in the New Year.

Needless to say, I did not enjoy the movie any more than ronebofh did.

Maybe it's because I grew up with a bunch of pot heads. I just don't find their way of reacting to the world very funny. I find it pathetic and infuriating.

The sad thing is, the Dude does abide.

[arian1.livejournal.com]

The dude does...not abide?

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Next time you play bowling on Wii Sports, look in the crowd of cartoonish figures behind the seats.

The Dude is there, bobbing up and down like a toy duck in choppy water every time you throw a spare. Somebody in Japan likes 'The Big Lebowski' even if you don't.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you. I tried to watch it once; I just couldn't force myself to finish it. Miller's Crossing still rules though, so it's okay that the Coen's made a flick I don't care for.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

See, now, Miller's Crossing is one of the Coens that has not improved on subsequent viewings for me.

But that is seriously one of the things I love about them. Ask six Coen fans what their favorite movie is and you'll get ten opinions.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

FWIW:

I love the Coen bros. with a white sweet unnatural love. I also missed The Big Lebowski when it appeared, and when I eventually caught it on video a few years later I was puzzled, disappointed and really annoyed. Everything you said went double for me.

Of course, I kept hearing about it on and off for years afterward, so a couple of years later I gave it another shot, and all of a sudden I found it clever, complex, fascinating and really, really funny.

Weird experience. I think that in between those two I also saw The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, and that almost certainly helped give me a different perspective on Lebowski.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

That is very nearly exactly what I wanted to say. I do think it's worth watching, but it's a second- or third-time kind of thing for me.
I still don't love it as well as some of their other work, but I can see a lot more in there. See also (http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/19382.html).

[nothings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't get it, and there are a ton of us out there that don't get it.

Look at the last entry here: http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49630/2

[reverendluke.livejournal.com]

That's just, like, you know, your opinion, man...

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

The first and only time I watched that movie, it was after I'd wined myself to such an excess as to very nearly vomit on my hosts' carpet, and to briefly raise concerns in onlookers about my possibly aspirating said vomit, and was lying semi-insensate on a couch. This may have been the optimal frame of mind in which to watch it.

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

When the movie first came out, I didn't feel like seeing it. It sounded like it was a movie about potheads, and I wasn't all that interested. People kept telling me it was a great movie, for years, and I still had my doubts. I didn't pay much attention to who directed/wrote it, though, and when I later started to realize I liked Fargo and loved O Brother Where Art Thou?, and this was by the same people, I finally decided to give it a chance.

I found several parts, like the mysterious cowboy, nonessential. Some jokes seemed like kind of throwaway humor. I think the dream sequence where he's dancing should be cut. In short, I don't think it's as great a movie as people make it out to be. But I did like it, a bit. Like wisn, I think the key to the movie is that the story is about three buddies trying to make it to bowling league's semi-finals and beat Jesus, except two of them are kind of fighting with each and fighting for The Dude's attention, and The Dude has to be the peacemaker. The joke is that all the other stuff that seems like the "real" story, the noir stuff, isn't the story at all, it's the complication. Once The Dude's friend dies and he refocuses on what's important in his life, all that other stuff gets ignored.

I think they could have done a lot better job on this. It's clever, but sometimes it's too obviously clever and not controlled enough. But I understand what's going on and like the movie a little bit.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I found several parts, like the mysterious cowboy, nonessential.

During an interview with the Coens, they related that Sam Elliot came to them during the filming and asked "Why the fuck am I even in this movie?". They explained to him that he was the narrator of a movie that didn't need much narration, and besides, they thought he was cool.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Amen. Just fucking amen. I still regret that I kept watching through that entire fucking movie, waiting for the moment when the funny was going to kick in.

People keep telling me that I need to see it stoned, but I can think of about 20 other things I'd usually rather do while stoned than watch a movie that I loathed while I was sober.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I like it because it as a girl's naked foot pressing a car's accelerator.

Also, the soundtrack was one I found to be pleasant, though the Sons of the Pioneers are conspicuously absent from it. Boo!

Is THAT where

[notr.livejournal.com]

the whole Internet pedal pumping fetish thing comes from? I honestly still can't figure out if it's for real or the longest-running troll since the green golf ball joke.

Not for Everyone

[venividi.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should read the other comments before I post, but that would not be in the spirit of Lebowski.

There's nothing wrong with not getting the Big L. It's not meant to be understood by everyone. Everything in it, after the initial name confusion, does happen for a discernible reason, but Lebowski is a pinhead with ADD who self-medicates with marijuana, so it's not obvious from his view point what the reason is.

Goodman's character works for me, because I knew guys who came back from 'nam like that.

I won't tell you to see it N more times. If Big L doesn't work for someone on the first run, then it's not for them.

Even the most die-hard Coen brothers fan has a film they don't like. Barton Fink bored me, and Miller's Crossing tried too hard to be a Lynch film.

No disputing taste and all that.

Re: Not for Everyone

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

Dunno. I was bored and annoyed the first time I saw it; the second time (not sure why I watched it a second time - I was unaware of the cult at the time) I found it screamingly funny.

You God Hating America Bashing Whore Of Left Wing Liberal Effemete Elitists.

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

First off you need to start by reviewing the films of Busby Berkley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busby_Berkley) so that you will readily and easily be able to locate and understand the deep inner symbolism of the BerkleyEsque Moments that occur throughout the film, in their Homage not only to that Berkley, but to Locke, Berkley And Hume, and the progression of the early Empiricists in the grand Homage to our full on american way of life as we transition from the 18th Century Epistemologies to the current post-post-modernist epistemologies of our new and more improved american way of life.

This is where you cultural myopia has dragged you down, and your failure to embrace the deep inner post meaningful symbolisms.

[vampyrecat.livejournal.com]

I found it mostly "meh" but I did like the bowling scenes and the section dealing with trying to get stuff from the kid by acting like mobsters.

[dpk.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the randomness. But I also enjoy Family Guy and Robot Chicken.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What you enjoy is making the baby Jesus cry, mister.