What makes a man?

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2008)

"The man in me will do, nearly any task." – Bob Dylan
A "noir plot" is really an impenetrable web of cosmic betrayal in which our hero is trapped, helplessly pushed around like a tumbleweed in the wind. Consider Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" - a film which "The Big Lebowski" homages - in which we the audience feel a bit like Humphrey Bogart, as we hack our way through Hawks' convoluted narrative.
The Coen brothers' "The Big Lebowski" is just as confusing as Hawks' film, filled with dead ends, double crosses, and confused characters who eventually learn that there was really no mystery at all. But what happens, the Coen's ask, when you take a stoner, a guy who just abides, and put him in a noir plot? What happens when you swap an active hero like Bogart, with a a passive slacker like Jeffery Lebowski?
Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski doesn't try to battle his way out of his noir plot. He doesn't fight fate. He simply says "f**k it!" and abides. As such, the film's tumbleweeds, bowling pins etc, are all metaphors for a highly deterministic universe. The tumbleweed itself, like The Dude, simply goes where the wind takes it. It's a reversal of our typical noir hero.
The issue of the femme fatale is also updated. Maude Lebowski, a feminist and artist, has The Dude checked by a doctor. She then sleeps with him simply to get herself pregnant. She's a woman who uses and discards men, using them purely as sexual objects. Throughout the film, The Dude even makes some subtle jabs at Maude's male replacement role ("Hey man, why don't you fking listen for a change?")
But what makes Muade choose Jeffery as the perfect mating partner? And why does the narrator deem the Dude worthy of such noble treatment? The film articulates these questions itself when the Big Lebowski asks the audience, "What makes a man?" With it's phallic imagery and its frequent threats of castration (scissors, ferret, dropped cigarette etc) and male rape ("f**k you up the ass!"), the film goes on to offer some answers.
Firstly, all the men in the film are weak. While the Big Lebowski is confined to a wheelchair, Smokey, the landlord, and Donny are all d*ckless. When talking about penises, Donny even says "What do you need that for, dude?". Then there's Jesus, who lusts for kids and Walter, who's so whipped by his ex that he still babysits her dog. Then there's Jackie Treehorn, the alpha male who, quote, "Treats objects like women, man!" The film's original script makes the themes of masculinity even more implicit. In the final scene, when The Big Lebowski is thrown from his chair, he yells: "Stay away from me! You and these women! You wont even leave a man his balls!"
But unlike everyone else in the film, The Dude (always in shorts, his legs wide apart) seems more in touch with his masculinity. By abiding and not refusing to be "tied down" to any one cultural identity, he is flexible and free ("Do you see a ring on this finger? Do I look like I'm fking married?").
All these themes have recently led to feminist writers discovering and falling in love with the film. In her writings, gender theorist Monique Wittig says that "woman" and "man" are merely political and economic categories. We create personas based on external forces. Wittig says that the rise of the individual and the liberation of desire require the abolition of gender categories. And that's just what the Dude is, freedom from desire and total individuality in the face of a world that wants him to conform.
These writers read The Dude as a noble individual who, because he refuses to adhere to the films ready made male stereotypes (castrated or alpha male), is a more whole character and thus more appealing to the female Other. But they fail to realise that The Dude, like the cowboy, is himself a heroic distortion of the male identity. To the Coens, he represents an idealised version of the "failed male". One who pleasures himself with constant buddy interactions, poses with cool solidarity (and nonconformity) and is always strictly heterosexual.
But the dude is really a bum and a failure, constantly playing with his balls in fear of castration. The appeal and popularity of the character is essentially down to males loving the carefree masculinity he projects, despite the world deeming him a failures as a man. In fact, the only truly "successful" man in the film, Jackie Treehorn, makes a living out of subjugating women, has a big d*ck, and seeks to develop machines to replace women so he can jack off with technology.
So war and female sexuality are both tied into the rug at the centre of the film. As such, the film treats the Persian Rug as a mini Persian War. A piece of territory which the female (Maude) eventually wins. The dude thinks he's a "man's man" who gets the woman and doesn't have to bother about rearing the kids, when in fact he's just abiding to the superiority of the Female Other.
But the Dude is unconcerned about all this. Unlike the pacifists (Donny, Landlord, Smokey), nihilists (Russians) and aggressors (Walter/Bush) in this war, the Dude is very much a non-interventionist. He has no real desires, avoids women, is happy and lives life without worry. He's the ultimate introvert, while the Big Lebowski is the ultimate extrovert. Ironically, both men really haven't accomplished anything on their own. When the Big L asks "Are you employed Mr Lebowski?", he's just covering up the fact that he's also useless and unemployed.
9.5/10 - Worth multiple viewings.