Join a Bowling League

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2016)

I had a professor in college that used to always tell us, "the world needs more bowling leagues." It was a strange thing to say, I thought, in an Intro to American Politics class. This professor gave us the example of when he was in graduate school he and his wife joined a bowling league in their town. He said that it was a great way to meet new people whom you may have never otherwise thought of spending time with. He said that our society needed to relearn those social skills. After every viewing of "The Big Lebowski" I think back to this professor's recommendation to join a bowling league.
"The Big Lebowski" was always one of those films that was recommended to me to be included on my list of movies that I should see before I die. While I had already seen a fair number of Coen Brothers films, I was still a little hesitant to watch this one. I finally gave it a chance one rainy afternoon. I have to admit, the first time I watched it I thought to myself, "what did I just watch?" I laughed a lot, yes, but I couldn't wrap my head around it. As with many films I watch, I let it simmer in my brain for a while.
A few months later I gave the movie a second chance. This time, at the end of the movie, I realized that I had just seen a piece of art. Every subsequent viewing I find that I like it more and more. In my opinion, it is the best performance by Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, and Steve Buscemi of their entire careers. While I don't usually describe it as my all-time favorite movie, I have recently been coming back to this movie when in conversations with friends about truly great movies. I tell people to have patience with it. Don't expect to be satisfied with the ending...right away, at least. "The Big Lebowski" has aged extremely well, too. I feel it is even better now than when it was first released. In our era of instant gratification and social media, we need a movie like this. We need to join more bowling leagues.