with the exception of their surrealistic satire barton fink , the films of joel and ethan coen fit into two broad categories : quirky and sometimes darkly humorous takes on the " film noir " genre in which crime schemes go wrong and spin increasingly out of control ( fargo , miller's crossing , blood simple ) , and off-the-wall comedies centered around an eccentric , scatter-brained lead character ( raising arizona , the hudsucker proxy ) . 
their latest offering , the big lebowski , falls within the latter category , though there are elements of the crime-gone-wrong theme and even a touch of satire to be found in this film . 
the main difference , however , is that while the protagonists of raising arizona and the hudsucker proxy had lofty aspirations and ideals but didn't quite have the brains to get it all together , the main character of the big lebowski seems like a fairly intelligent guy who's wise to the world , but he doesn't really want to do much of anything besides go bowling , smoke pot , and generally relax . 
that main character is jeffrey " the dude " lebowski ( jeff bridges ) , introduced by the film's rambling narrator ( sam elliott ) as " quite possibly the laziest man in los angeles county . " 
the dude is unemployed , needless to say , and spends most of his time at the bowling alley with his two best friends , walter ( john goodman ) , a borderline-psychotic who's in the habit of pulling a gun when he thinks somebody's cheating in a bowling match ( " has the whole world gone crazy ? ! " he shouts at a suspected cheater ) , and donny ( steve buscemi ) , who's always a few steps behind the conversation and is constantly berated by walter for it ( " donny , you have no frame of reference here ! " ) . 
these three seem to more or less live for bowling tournaments , and as the film begins they are anticipating an important match with rival bowler jesus quintana ( john turturro ) , who , when we first meet him , is doing a dance in the bowling lane to accompany a spanish version of " hotel california " and , if it's possible , seems to be even more of a head case than walter . 
if that doesn't give you a good idea of this film's absurdist tone , then perhaps this will : the entire scenario which drives the story is set in motion by two thugs mistakenly urinating on the dude's rug . 
they've mistaken him for a millionaire of the same name who is also known as the " big " lebowski ( david huddleston ) and whose nymphomaniac wife bunny ( tara reid ) owes money to porn producer jackie treehorn ( ben gazzara ) . 
the dude goes to the big lebowski seeking compensation for his ruined rug ; he doesn't have any luck , but when bunny is apparently kidnapped , the elder lebowski asks him to deliver the $1 million ransom . 
unfortunately , walter gets involved and fouls up the drop-off , and before they can try again to get the money to the supposed kidnappers , the dude's car gets stolen , along with the briefcase containing the money . 
soon , the dude is being harassed not only by the big lebowski himself but also by treehorn and by a group of german " nihilists " who demand the ransom money even though they may not have been involved in the kidnapping in the first place ; the dude and walter suspect that bunny may well have kidnapped herself in order to extort money from her husband to repay her debts to treehorn . 
meanwhile , the big lebowski's daughter maude ( julianne moore ) , a feminist avant-garde artist who likes to make grand entrances swinging through the air naked , wants to recover the money for her family . 
the plot , however , is really just a vehicle for all these bizarre characters to run wild and wreak their own unique forms of havoc . 
the previews for the big lebowski feature creedence clearwater revival's " run through the jungle , " and it fits : the coens see los angeles as a veritable jungle of oddballs and nutcases , with the sometimes bewildered dude left to run through it and try to avoid any more trouble ( usually unsuccessfully ) . 
the film doesn't feature quite as many one-liners and sight gags as the coens' other comedies ( though there are a few hilarious moments of visual humor , particularly in the dude's dream sequences and acid flashbacks ) , but it more than makes up for it with the sheer fun of watching these strange characters interact . 
the film sometimes seems a little disjointed as a result - you get the feeling that the coens have not only set their characters loose in this " jungle " but are also themselves running crazy through the jungle of their own twisted imaginations - but for the most part the characterizations are interesting enough to overcome the shaky plotting and what turns out to be a somewhat anticlimactic resolution . 
there's also a noticeable ( but not too heavy-handed ) thread of social commentary in the big lebowski , which , incidentally , takes place just as the gulf war is about to begin ; at the beginning , we see george bush on television making his " this aggression will not stand " speech . 
the coens take aim at just about every elite l . a . subculture in the book : the egotistical wealthy businessman ( " the bums will always lose ! " 
shouts the big lebowski at one point ) , the porn industry , the overbearing malibu policeman who berates the dude for disturbing their " peaceful beach community , " and so on . 
by the end , we really start to admire the dude , who almost certainly harbors the least " aggression " of anyone in this story ; his passive resistance ( emphasis on " passive , " albeit ) to the elite emerges as something more than just another quirky characterization in a film overflowing with quirky characters . 
he also turns out to have a pretty well-functioning brain in his head , even if he doesn't like to use it very much ; his sarcasm towards treehorn and the malibu policeman shows that he knows when he's getting a run around , and he does manage to unravel the kidnapping mystery by the end . 
the coens certainly poke fun at the dude for his laziness , but they don't just treat him as fodder for cheap shots either . 
i think that , more than anything , is what makes the big lebowski a standout comedy : it manages to approach characters like the dude and , to some extent , walter , with genuine affection while still acknowledging that they are pretty scatter-brained . 
audience members may find themselves surprised at how much they like the un-dynamic duo by the end of the movie , given that they seemed like nothing more than the butts of an extended joke at first . 
 " it's good knowin' he's out there , the dude , takin' it easy , " posits the narrator towards the end . 
i dare say that truer words have seldom been spoken .