What in God's holy name are you blathering about?!

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2002)

There's really only one good part of The Big Lebowski, but it's a REALLY good part. It's one of those scenes that you see in a movie and you tell your friends about it for years, you constantly spout off hilarious quotes from that scene that you remember laughing so hard about, you develop inside jokes about the scene with the friends who were lucky enough to be there to watch it with you, and you may even begin to regularly consume certain types of alcoholic beverages that you saw enjoyed by the main characters in that scene. The earth-quakingly memorable scene (indeed, as I said before, the only good scene in the entire film) is the one that begins immediately after the opening credits and ends approximately 117 minute later just before the screen fades and the end credits roll.
Not laughing? To hell with you, that's funny! And the movie's even funnier! Every character in The Big Lebowski is developed perfectly to serve the purpose of the story. These characters truly have personality, especially The Dude ('Who the f**k IS this guy?!'), Walter ('Donny, you're out of your league!'), and even Mr. Lebowski's geeky assistant, Brandt. They may occasionally be stereotypical characters, but they fit perfectly with the story, augmenting it even though it's already complex and interesting. This movie has an excellent plot line that is punctuated with endlessly hilarious dialogue ('Donny, you're outta your element!'), and peppered with well-developed and interesting characters. Jeff Bridges delivers a spectacular performance as the Dude, flawlessly capturing the slacker attitude and lazy lifestyle that that character lives. His love for White Russians has made that drink a staple at my house, and is now among my favorite alcoholic drinks.
Yeah, big accomplishment, but that's the kind of thing that makes a movie like this even better. As a college student, I can see the difference between the slacker life that I lived in high school, and the extremely busy one that I live now. The Dude has chosen to perpetuate that lifestyle, living his life on the couch and at the bowling alley, constantly dirt-poor but obviously perfectly content with himself. The only time he is even the slightest bit upset is when something disrupts that lifestyle and his rug gets ruined. Clearly, a nice rug is not something that a person in The Dude's line of work (i.e. unemployment) can easily replace. He is even almost completely calm when the guys break into his apartment at the beginning of the movie, and doesn't really seem to be too upset until one of them p****s on his rug.
The interactions between The Dude, Walter (John Goodman), Donny (Steve Buscemi), and, eventually, the Jesus combine to make some of the most amusing moments of the film, but it is enormously entertaining from beginning to end. There cannot possibly be enough praise given to this movie to do it justice. Watch this movie, you are sure to love it. And if you don't, watch it again, because you must have missed something. A true contemporary classic of modern comedy.