Coen Bros: The Big Lebowski
“Your revolution is over! The bums lost!” images swiped from the excellent Coen resource “You Know, For Kids!”.
NOTE: I have gone over (not to be confused with “micturated upon”) the deeper meanings of The Big Lebowski once before — you may read my previous analysis here.
THE LITTLE GUY: The Dude is unique in the Coen universe in being a protagonist who is perfectly happy with his social standing. He does not seek money, betterment, achievement, a child, a mate, clean clothes or, really, anything besides a state of blissful intoxication. Anything he does he does because someone else is forcing him to do it. As the Stranger describes him, “he’s the laziest man in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the running for laziest worldwide.” He’s not particularly interested in saving the kidnapped girl, recovering the stolen fortune or even defending himself from hoodlums. Even his desire to reclaim his soiled rug is something that his bellicose friend Walter puts him up to — if it were up to The Dude, his peed-on rug would be worth it just for the story to tell his bowling buddies.
(It’s also worth noting that, for all the time The Dude spends hanging out in a bowling alley, listening to bowling games of the past and fantasizing about bowling scenarios, we never actually see him bowl.)
Many dismiss, or praise, The Big Lebowski as a “shaggy dog story.” These are people with not enough time on their hands. Lebowski is a movie positively overstuffed with meanings, far too many meanings to be gleaned from a single viewing.
WHERE’S THE MONEY, LEBOWSKI? Let’s start with Lebowski’s brilliance as a detective story. Lebowski presents us with a Big Sleep-style mystery: What Happened To The Kidnapped Heiress? But the kidnapping plot, we eventually find, is a gigantic red herring. The real mystery in The Big Lebowski is Where’s The Money? This is not anidle plot-point, it is a key subtext to understanding the importance of the movie. The kidnapped girl is a worthless idiot of importance to no one, but the money, ah, the money, as Mose in Hudsucker would say, “drives that ol’ global economy and keeps big Daddy Earth a-spinnin’ on ‘roun’.” The Big Lebowski is a social critique disguised as a mystery disguised as a stoner comedy.
The key to understanding the social dynamics of The Big Lebowski is to always follow the money. So where is “the money” in The Big Lebowski? (“Where’s the money, Lebowski?” is, in fact, the movie’s first line of dialogue.) The Dude doesn’t have it — he lives in a crappy Venice bungalow and is late on his rent. His friend Walter has his own business, but doesn’t have any appreciable amount of it. Jeffrey Lebowski, despite appearances, doesn’t have it, and his wife Bunny obviously doesn’t have it. The Nihilists don’t have it and neither does Larry Sellers, even though Walter is positive he has it.
The joke is, of course, that no one has it — “the money” belonged to the first Mrs. Lebowski, who is long dead. We don’t know how Mrs. Lebowski got her money — “Capital,” the source of “the money” in The Big Lebowski, is nebulous and taken for granted. “The Money” is like “The Gold” in Eric Von Stroheim’s Greed — it’s not something to be earned, it’s almost a natural resource, something that’s just sitting around waiting for someone to figure out how to get it.
Who has any money in The Big Lebowski? Maud Lebowski, Jeffrey’s daughter, the aggressively “feminist” artist, has some money, but even that is not hers, it’s her mother’s. She hasn’t earned it and seems to be frittering it away on ugly art and an inane lifestyle (the other artist presented in Lebowski is The Dude’s landlord, with his stupefying Greek Modern Dance routine — art doesn’t seem to count for much in the Lebowski universe). The only other wealthy personage in Lebowski is Jackie Treehorn, the pornographer. So: in the world of The Big Lebowski, “Money” is represented by an embezzler, an heir and a pornographer — as harsh a critique of American capitalism as I’ve ever heard.
Everyone else is barely scraping by or actively losing money hand over fist. The indignities heaped upon The Dude in this narrative are great: his house is repeatedly broken into (“Hey, Man, this is a private residence” he lazily chides a trio of armed thugs), his possessions are smashed until nothing is left of them, his car is shot at, crashed, stolen, crashed again, peed in, bashed and finally set fire to. He is punched unconscious, drugged and hit with a coffee mug. The Rich in Lebowski get richer by soaking the Poor, and every transaction between social unequals is a heartbeat away from physical violence. Even Maud, who only wants her rug back, can’t resist using force upon The Dude in order to get what she wants.
(The other thing Maud wants, of course, is to conceive a child. This is a succinct reversal of the argument of Raising Arizona. In the earlier movie, Ed reasoned that the Arizonas [The Rich] deserved to lose a child so that she [The Poor] could have one. In Lebowski, Maud [The Rich] assumes that it is her right to use The Dude [The Poor] as a method to get her own child — in both movies, children are merely another expression of capital [or, as the Dude complains about pornographer Jackie Treehorn, “he treats objects as people, man.”)
THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND: “Aggression” is a big word in Lebowski. The Dude is, of course, the least aggressive person in the story, yet he invites aggression at every turn, from his friends, his bowling rivals, his various contacts in the mystery. The parallel is drawn to the Gulf War, and if there is a coherent critique of the Gulf War to be found in Lebowski (and I’m not sure there is) it could be better applied to our present situation in Iraq: in Lebowski, aggression is met with violent retribution — but it always falls on the wrong person. Jackie Treehorn wants his money, but his goons beat up the wrong Lebowski. The Dude’s rug is peed on, so he demands retribution from a complete stranger. Jeffrey Lebowski sends The Dude to identify the kidnappers as Jackie Treehorn’s thugs (he won’t take responsibility for The Dude’s rug, but insists that The Dude take responsibility for his missing wife), but finds they are completely different people (and gets his car shot up for his trouble). The Nihilists demand a ransom for Bunny, but cut off the toes of one of their own to prove their seriousness. Walter exacts violent retribution on Little Larry Sellers, but ends up bashing the car of a complete stranger.
This, I think, is the meaning of poor Donny’s death. In times of war, wealthy, powerful men make up their minds to be aggressive (Saddam against Kuwait, Bush against Saddam), but the people affected are always the poor and powerless, people who die without ever understanding what the true cause of the aggression was. In the case of the Gulf War, it was the Iraqi soldiers and civilians who sided with the US, only to be abandoned, in the case of Lebowski it’s poor Donny, who’s salient quality is that he never knows what the hell is going on and who dies, absurdly, of a heart attack during an attack by the Nihilists.
(This is also, I think why Walter compares Donny’s death to the troops lost in Vietnam, although Walter, to be fair, tends to compare everything to Vietnam. He compares Bunny’s kidnapping to Vietnam, he finds service in diners lacking due to his experiences in Vietnam. The Dude chides Walter for this habit, but Walter, I think, is on to something. Bunny’s “kidnapping” can be compared to Vietnam, insofar as it’s a mysterious act of aggression perpetrated by a wealthy man scheming to steal a ton of money and make a poor man pay for it.)
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: The Big Lebowski presents the widest view of law enforcement in the Coen canon. While not as warm or good as the police in Fargo, the police in Lebowski could at least be described as cheerfully unhelpful. They laugh at The Dude’s problems for the most part, but they don’t actively seek to harm him and they are not shown to be in direct employ of the forces of evil.
That’s LA’s cops, obviously. Malibu is a different story — the sheriff in Malibu is a reactionary hothead, the fascist boot protecting the rights of a pornographer.
Jeffrey Lebowski lives, of course, in Pasadena — but we manage to get in and out of his community without a run-in with the police.
THE MELTING POT: Race and national origin always plays a significant role in the Coens movies, and Lebowski emphasizes this more than ever. Oddly, all the main characters are Polish-American. Donny is Greek, Brandt I’m going to say is a WASP, Bunny is Swedish, the Nihilists are German (as is the administrator for The Dude’s bowling league), Jesus Quintana is Hispanic (and a pedarast), the cops are racially mixed (as are Jackie Treehorn’s goons, and the casts of his porn movies), Maud’s friends are European (one might say “Eurotrash”), the poor owner of the Ferrari is Hispanic, the detective shadowing The Dude is Italian (as is Maud’s chauffeur, although Jeffrey Lebowski’s chauffeur is French). Maud’s doctor is Iranian, and The Dude gets thrown out of a cab driven by an African-American man who likes the Eagles. The only Jew visible is, of course, Walter, who isn’t really Jewish. I wonder if it means anything that the only character identified as Jewish (that is, Walter’s ex-wife) is out of town for the duration of the narrative?
What is the point of this rainbow coalition of characters? Is it merely a comment on the diversity of LA, or is the city in Lebowski meant to symbolize something bigger, the whole of the US, or even the whole of the world? Is Jesus’s florid aggression toward our heroes meant to be an analogue to Saddam’s aggression against Kuwait?
PANCAKES: Nihilist Uli Kunkel favors pancakes for a meal, just as Gaere did in Fargo. I can see no significance here except that “pancake” is a funny word. In The Ladykillers the protagonist favors waffles, which I think explains that movie’s miserable death at the box office.
Also see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU2ZgaQ_H-Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EGwDEbTzoE&feature=related
Gotta love the Melting Pot.
“… and The Dude gets thrown out of a cab driven by an African-American man who likes the Eagles.“
Hey, a brother’s allowed to dig Hotel California.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8NQfGufrzpQ
(Strangely enough, I found several reggae covers of that song on Youtube, but haven’t found the version I originally heard a few years ago. There may be more Rasta Disciples of Henley than I could have imagined. It’s a beautifully strange world . . .)
Re: Gotta love the Melting Pot.
Lebowski, of course, also includes a Spanish version of “Hotel California” as Jesus’s theme song.
Re: Gotta love the Melting Pot.
So is there any “outsider music” in this movie, if all cultures can take the same song/band and make it their own?
Re: Gotta love the Melting Pot.
You know, there was so much to pay attention to in this movie I forgot to keep track of the music. But, upon reflection, it seems there are as many different strands of music heard in Lebowski as there are characters. The Dude listens to (of course) sixties rock (and, strangely, Elvis Costello in one scene), while Jeffrey Lebowski listens to doom-laden classical. Both Jesus and the black taxi driver favor the Eagles (in different incarnations). The Nihilists identify themselves with seventies Kraut-rock, while Maud listens to eighties New York Avant-garde. Jackie Treehorn likes 50s kitsch icon Yma Sumac. I can’t easily identify an “outsider” music exactly — it’s more that the music reflects the same melting-pot idea as the casting.
I have nothing substantive to offer, other than to say I regret having missed the Toe Donator in concert last night.
Shoot. I was working on a theory for a minute that the Coens were doing one movies per state, but I guess that doesn’t work out.
John Turturro has been saying in a bunch of interviews (most notably in the book I read, I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski, the book written about the cult of the movie by the guys who started the LebowskiFest) that the Coens and him are planning to make a Jesus spin-off movie. Whether or not that is actually happening or it’s just Turturro’s wishful thinking is yet to be seen.
Nobody fucks with the Jesus.
I merely wanted to use this icon.
A noble reason, sir.
I so wanted to say that! lol
Possibly John Turturros best cameo ever
I think his part as the dog in Summer of Sam edges it out, but only slightly.
Do you see what happens when you f___ a stranger in the A___?
I found out this fun fact from the IMdb: ‘When Comedy Central was attempting to edit the scene where Walter is destroying the car which he thinks belongs to Larry Sellars, they didn’t know how to cut Walter saying “Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass” without having to do severe editing which would ruin any flow in the scene. To solve this they decided just to re-dub it, and the phrase they chose? “Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?”‘
For me The Big Lebowski improved enormously on subsequent viewings, because I knew to expect the anticlimaxes. For instance, Jon Turturro’s ‘Jesus’ gets such a great comedic introduction, he becomes an instantly unforgettable character, and yet after his first scene, he only makes one brief subsequent appearance. We don’t even get to see The Dude and Walter compete with him in the play-offs. I think you’re onto something when you suggest that the meaning of film lies in its portrait of meaninglessness.
Some of you may enjoy The Bear Lebowski: The Golden Compass vs. The Big Lebowski.
Great
Great piece. Your Coen Bros series is superb.
Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
One thing that I find amusing:
The original DVD release of The Big Lebowski lists the running time as 98 minutes, which is well short of the actual running time of 117 minutes. The amusing thing to me is the story actually appears to wrap up around the 98-minute mark with the revelation that Jeffrey Lebowski duped the Dude and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
So why does the film then continue for another 19 minutes (including credits)? The answer is simple: after all the abuse that has been heaped on The Dude’s car, the film could not come full circle until it was completely destroyed.
Re: Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.
Not to mention that Donny had to die for our sins. Also, I always thought the “98 minutes” was something of an homage to those Chandleresque film noirs that always seem ot be about that long. Maybe not, but that’s my impression.
It’s late, so forgive me for tossing this out without much research, but it seems to me that most Middle Eastern conflicts are predicated (in speeches of dictators, if not reality) on conflict with the existence of Israel.
Israel is always a thorn in the plot, and like the Operation Desert Storm war, Israel is always a presence even when it isn’t involved, as I believe Israel was asked to keep out of the coalition to keep one “x” element out of the psychology of the situation. So, partly due to the U.S. responsibility to Israel, Isarael is kept out of town.
It seems important, also, this theme of responsibility. The Big Lebowski makes The Dude responsible for Bunny while assuming no responsibility for the rug, Walter is responsible for his wife’s dog (not to claim that Israel is the U.S.’s lap dog. Israel has left the dog with Walter (a more vocal stand-in for the US you won’t find) while checking out of the mess.
The nihlists claim no responsibilty for their actions. It seems much to call them jihadists, but certainly there’s a strain of “leader” that would very much exist in the middle east and expect no repercussions for their actions.
The police – the UN? The embodiment of moral code? Laughing in exhaustion at the situation of the world? Perhaps I’m getting a bit out there… but Jesus needs to take responsibility for what he did to kids (or didn’t. Was he really a prophet or just a guy?), for violating law.
Another embodiment of an idea – religious law (Jesus), law of man (the cops), and a world that holds no responsibility for its actions can work on no principle. So the laws wash their hands of the world and cheerfully try to get along, unhelpfully.
It passed me by that Jesus is forced to claim responsibility for his actions, even to the point where he must apologize to people who weren’t even asking him to. A zionist would say that’s Israel right there — a nation that is forced to continually apologize for its very right to exist. Jesus representing Israel would also explain his militant attitude toward Walter’s aggression.
You know, your original dissection of The Big Lebowski was already excellent, you didn’t have to go and make it better. But I’m glad you did.
Empire movie Magazine has done a piece on every Coens movie as part of their Jan 2008 issue. Not as detailed as your pieces, but do include breakdowns of common Coen themes for each movie, inlcuding – Screamers, Fatties, Fatties Screaming, Vomit, Bizarre Names, and Crazy Hair amongst others.
Its a great read 🙂
Is Todd listed under Screamers or Fatties Screaming?
lol. You know they dont mention it! However it does list:
Scream: – The secretary at the sight of the blue letter; Buzz screams as Norville fires him
Fatties: – The gargantuan Mr Greer; Two fat ladies; The large secretary; reading a comic in Norvilles office
Fatties Screaming: – as Hudsucker hits the sidewalk