A bizarre, superb, disturbing, hilarious cult classic

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2001)

My friends and I have seen this several times and we agree that it is a dark comedy up there with Dr. Strangelove. It has elements of greatness on so many levels that are not apparent at first. The bad box office turn-outs were easily overshadowed by its popularity in rental and VHS/DVD sales, very similar to what happened to a lot of great movies, such as "Blade Runner".
Essentially this film, in a nutshell, is about a slacker in the early nineties whom, in the first several minutes, is beaten up by two thugs in his own home, one of which soils his rug, then realizing that they kicked the proverbial 'crap' out of the wrong guy, they leave. This slacker (Lebowski), goes on an odyssey to find the men who saturated his carpet, which ultimately gets him mixed up in a kidnapping case involving German nihilists trying to cut off his genitalia, including a late night bathroom attack by a trained attack marmot.
Lots of memorable scenes, characters (Such as Jesus, the perverted bowler), and very twisted humor, some of which may be considered offensive, seeing as a scant several scenes features brief nudity.
It's symbolic for society, some might say, as the Big Lebowski is a very 'achieved' man, where as, the hero, the Little Lebowski, is a foulmouthed slacker, but in the end, through confusion, the Little Lebowski turns out to have been taken advantage of.
A four star comedy.