Reviewer: Harry Davenport
Rated: 18 (UK)
Release Date: 22nd August, 2011 (UK)
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman , Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro
The Big Lebowski, one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, has now got the Blu Ray treatment. With its vibrant colours and wonderful cinematography it is well worth upgrading to and if you don’t own any version it is a must own.
In this classic Jeff Lebowski, known as the Dude gets involved in a Raymond Chandleresque intrigue tale of kidnap and mystery. While the plot is interesting, it is the characters that make this such an entertaining and mesmerising experience. Every scene has dialogue and visual touches that are funny and unique. The film is hilarious from start to finish and is constantly enthralling.
The Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, is one of the cult movie characters of the nineties. Bridges is at his best as the pothead layabout whose little energy seems to be only spent bowling. It is the funniest part he has ever played and the character is so iconic that there is a religion based on him called ‘Dudism’ with around 50,000 ‘Dudeist Priests’. There are Big Lebowski festivals all around the world and the character deserves this sort of status for he is wonderfully written and brilliantly performed. There have been many potheads in film but this is by far the greatest one and it took the Coen brothers and Bridges to create him.
Supporting Bridges is John Goodman as his friend Walter, who is a Vietnam veteran with serious anger issues. The Coen Brothers have given Goodman so many great characters in the past to play with Raising Arizona, Barton Fink and O Brother Where Art Thou, and in The Big Lebowski they have given Goodman his funniest role. Walter means well but he brings chaos to everything he touches and acts as a catalyst for most of the sequences. Goodman is unbelievably funny and every time he appears the scenes come more to life.
Supporting these two is an astonishing cast of actors, who are all at the top of their game. Steve Buscemi is given a character who is the opposite of his Fargo criminal and hardly speaks; and when he does is regularly told by Goodman to “Shut the f**k up”. He is endearing as their rather dim lost bowling colleague. Julianne Moore is great giving a cold yet hilarious performance as a feminist artist. John Turturro is memorable as Jesus, an irritating, charismatic, paedophile bowler. Playing a German, nihilist, elctro musician porn star, Peter Stormare is a great villain. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who the same year gave an unbeatable performance in Happiness, gives a funny, awkward performance in a small role. Sam Elliot plays the Stranger, a cowboy character who serves as the films bookends narrating the beginning and speaking to the camera directly at the end, giving the film a great sense of gravitas. These are just some of the brilliant performances: there is no weak link in the cast. One of the other stars is LA itself. Few films capture just how strange the city is, and The Big Lebowski does it by taking us on a journey with the Dude as he meets the odd inhabitants of the city.
Having served as cinematographer for eleven of the Coen Brothers films, Roger Deakins does another flawless job with The Big Lebowski. He makes the bowling alleys look gorgeous and the two dream sequences look beautiful and are imaginative and memorable. The Big Lebowski is perfect for Blu Ray.
The single disc comes with a 24 page colour booklet which is quite interesting, and the disc has a few little documentaries and interactive features that are entertaining but a little brief. A commentary track would be nice, as would be a longer ‘making of feature’ and not just one the one of VHS quality that was made back in 1998.
The Big Lebowski is a true classic. It is a film where a lot of the joy is in the detail and so the Blu Ray is the perfect format for it.
The Dude Abides: The Big Lebowski Ten Years Later
Flying Carpets and Bowling Pin Dreams: The dream sequences of the Dude
Interactive Map
Jeff Bridges Photo Book
Exclusive Introduction
Making of The Big Lebowski
The Lebowski Fest: An Achiever’s Story
Photo Gallery
Scene Companion PIP
U-Control: The Music of The Big Lebowski
Mark it, Dude PIP
extras Rating 3/5
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