A Film that really ties the room together

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2002)

When the world ends, and the world council are deciding which films are to be taken into space for preservation, this will surely be one of them. The Coen brothers truly are blessed with a talent so rare- the ability to make film after film, and have everyone be different.Try watching Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Millers Crossing in a row and try to find any clues that they are made by the same people.This though, is while probably not the best film they have ever made (that accolade falling on either Millers crossing or Fargo) it is surely the funniest and most entertaining.The great characters that the Coens seem to be able to pluck out of thin air are here in abundance, and even characters who have less than ten minutes screen time seem to be wonderfully fleshed out (most notably John Turturro's hilarious Jesus.)Jeff Bridges is The Dude, a man who has never achieved anything (apart from a brief stint as road manager for the Grateful Dead-who are apparently a bunch of assholes) because he's never tried. Happy to drift through life as a nobody, with only two friends in the whole world and a predilection for smoking grass.He is completely harmless, and so when he is suddenly thrown into a chandler-esque tale of kidnapping, carpet p***ing, nihilism, pornography and bowling, it is a mark of the Coens genius that they can stop it from being completely ludicrous and make this the first ever farce where the audience cares deeply about the man, The Dude.Jeff Bridges proves that he is either one of the greatest actors of his time, or a great raving pothead.The sense of confusion that comes from him is so real, he appears to be so helpless, that it is heartbreaking and side-splitting at the same time.He obviously needs help, needs to be guided through this, by a friend who comes in the shape of Walter Sobchek (John Goodman) the most inept, bumbling war veteran ever.Best summed up by The Dude himself (One of these days your'e going to have to accept that your'e a goddamn moron)Walter despite his best intentions ends up hurting the Dude more than he ever helps him, inadvertently dragging his friend deeper into the hole (I could have just been sitting here with p*** stains on my rug).With a plethora of other great oddball characters (Donnie, Maude, the titular Big Lebowski,the wonderful Jesus Quintana)the film merely reinforces the Coen brothers as truly great american film makers, who have made nine films and never a bad one, long may they rule.