I was talking about my rug...

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2000)

I'm going to be daring. I shall court with controversy. I have a terrible feeling that I will not escape with my artistic integrity (such as it is) intact. The Big Lebowski is the Coens finest achievement. There. I've said it - and will now wait for the inevitable aftermath. But Why?

The Lebowski is, and always will be, a sublimely irrelivent film of the most absurd and brilliant kind. It allows a perfectly cast Bridges, with a similarly brilliant Goodman, to expose the characters in full. The Dude, one of the most enduring and sypathetic characters in film history, becomes involved with a series of events that lead him to the dark under world (strangly enough, for a guy who just wants his rug) of the porn industry. This quest for the rug is aided and (mostly) abeited by Walter in a series of intermingled story lines that are started, concluded, but mostly just forgotten about by the Dude in the Coen's superlative writing.

The Dudes goals, as with the films pretentions, are modest enough: All the Dude ever wanted was his rug back, and the Coens simply show that life, is life - involving both "strikes and gutters."
A special mention has to be made for John Tuttorro, the explosive Jesus (with a record) who, in a few minutes of screen time makes an impression comparable to Brando in Apocalypse Now(almost). Combined with the brilliant music, beautiful cinematography and the Weirdest acid flashbacks you've ever seen, this films a winner. Did I mention it really tied the room together?