The Big Lebowski: Love it, hate it or don't get it?

Eric wrote:

Wow that is really insightful.  I have never experienced this characterization of the rich before.

Please note that this is not my personal characterization; I'm only observing a theme among the wealthy characters in the movie.

eli poss wrote:

South Park is NOT trash. It's called comedy, and the satire is hilarious. 

South Park is the worst idiot trash out there

Jaren Watson wrote:

You lumped in the Coen Brothers with Brittney Spears. Discernment, it would seem, is not your strong suit.

I guess he just didn't get it. 

Jaren Watson wrote:

You lumped in the Coen Brothers with Brittney Spears. Discernment, it would seem, is not your strong suit.

It was a writing tactic to get the reader to come away with a negative feeling of the movie...see how the list goes from cultural icons we once loved that still aren't that horrendous to ending on someone who is a sick criminal. 

 

christoph benells wrote:

It was a writing tactic to get the reader to come away with a negative feeling of the movie...see how the list goes from cultural icons we once loved that still aren't that horrendous to ending on someone who is a sick criminal. 

 

Not a smooth criminal?

I love TBL but a good, informed critique - even if it arrived at your same conclusion - would be fun to read. That’s not what you have provided, unfortunately. It’s a no from me, dog.

Colonel Mustard wrote:

Not a smooth criminal?

I love TBL but a good, informed critique - even if it arrived at your same conclusion - would be fun to read. That’s not what you have provided, unfortunately. It’s a no from me, dog.

 Haha, you caught me, I'm just stirring the pot. Someone who cared more than I might be able to make it work. Maybe the person who does the Terra Icognita blog should give it a go?

mostly I am just sick of hearing all the damn Lebowski quotes over the last 15+ frikking years. 

christoph benells wrote:

 Maybe the person who does the Terra Icognita blog should give it a go?

Pretty sure we can just say "She who shall not be named" now

Ryan M Moore wrote: The Big Lebowski is the most overrated movie of all time. At least for worthless Gen-Xers who’s horrible aesthetics in music, clothing, cars, hair styles and politics are well documented...

Say what you want about the movie but leave my Widespread Panic and cargo pants out of this. Without gen x there would be no Old Navy. 

christoph benells wrote:I pity people who are still hanging onto that stuff. It's almost as if their brain stopped developing at 13 years old when they tried marijuana and alcohol for the first time...

Remind me not to invite this dude to the party. 

Here’s another quotable movie from the nineties. If you fall in the “I don’t get the Big Lebowski” crowd, you might not like it.  null

All right.....I'll bite.......I'm 29 which I believe puts me firmly in the millenial generation. Although, also old enough to grow up without the internet.

People gravitate towards this movie broadly because of The Dude's ethos. All kinds of strange shite keeps happening to him and he just keeps takin it easy. Who wouldn't relate to that ? He also exhibits almost no ambition which in an era of everybody going "oh look at me, I'm so great" feels especially refreshing today.

And, there's a big theme that pops out right at the end, when after all the crazy stuff is done, everything is back to the way it was. Walter and the Dude are bowling. The narrator even mentions that although Donnie died, there's a "little Lebowski" on the way...something about the universe perpetuatin itself....which is to say, all kinds of awful things can happen and if you just take it easy it'll be fine. Probably appealing to two generations (X and millenials) that got dealt a garbage hand....first threat of nuclear annihilation during Cold War, the war(s) in the Middle East, recessions, skyrocketing housing prices, student loan debt, confronting climate change.....you get it.........

Oh, I forgot to mention......it's funny as hell!! I only quote around other people that are into it too....one of my partners and I can basically quote the entire movie lol

bus driver wrote:

Say what you want about the movie but leave my Widespread Panic and cargo pants out of this. With gen x there would be no Old Navy. 

JNCO jeans ( the tail end of the gen xers but the zenith of the trend) were exactly I was going with the fashion statement. Don’t forget chokers and spiky hair with frosted tips...

I’m not saying the movie was bad, but it’s certainly not worth hearing quoted every damn day by certain people as if it were the most brilliant piece of film, literature or oratory in the history of man... 

Ryan M Moore wrote:

JNCO jeans ( the tail end of the gen xers but the zenith of the trend) were exactly I was going with the fashion statement. Don’t forget chokers and spiky hair with frosted tips...

I’m not saying the movie was bad, but it’s certainly not worth hearing quoted every damn day by certain people as if it were the most brilliant piece of film, literature or oratory in the history of man... 

The spiky hair was weird but the chokers are great. I love those things

It's a "thinking man's" movie. Which is a sad statement on what thinking entails. I don't know of anything developed since that comes close. Office Space came a year after. MP Holy Grail is my favorite, but it too can be a disjointed collection of set pieces. Though when it comes to a full length comedy film I'm not sure I care. It's 82% on Rotten Tomatoes so there are critiques out there. I'm not sure they add up to more than just saying "I didn't like it." I think Arrested Development is in a similar category. Both require attention and fundamentally knowledge of different members of society. I don't think AD would be funny if you didn't know a family of rich clueless people yourself. Or understand TBL if you don't know people who take a more nonchalant approach to life. Personally the first time I saw TBL I fell out of my chair laughing when he crashed his car. Might have to do with I was 18 and a few hours earlier I was in the backseat of a car full of college rugby players, we had been passing around a bowl and got pulled over. The cop took the driver out, driver came back and told us to give him the weed, guy gave him 1 of 2 bags (the small one), cop proceeded to empty it out on the side of the road and ended up saying "I suggest you boys find a legal way to get high" and giving us a 85 in 65 ticket. I was so scared I was pretending to read a newspaper in the backseat. Might be the wildest day of my life. I always think of that when people act like "white privilege" doesn't exist. We were a bunch of white college kids enjoying a smoke while driving back to St. Louis from a tournament. It still boggles my mind how easy we got off. Though the county in MO may have decriminalized marijuana, it was 03 or 04.

wait what ?

Colonel Mustard wrote: I love TBL but a good, informed critique - even if it arrived at your same conclusion - would be fun to read. That’s not what you have provided, unfortunately. It’s a no from me, dog.

Yes, exactly. Thank you, Colonel Mustard.

AndewB, good story and good points.

jt newgard wrote: All right.....I'll bite.......I'm 29 which I believe puts me firmly in the millenial generation. Although, also old enough to grow up without the internet.

Nope. The internet turned 30 years old on Monday of this week.

Some people condemn the almighty totem cam as being strongly vaginal, which bothers some climbers.  The word itself makes some climbers uncomfortable...Totem Cam.

It’s basically a stoned riff on “ The Big Sleep.” There’s the crippled father/husband, the nympho youngest daughter/trophy wife mixed up with a pornographer the fellow private eye snooping  and the femme fatale daughter who has her own plans for the private dick. But that’s the point of departure for the Coens. It’s got film geek in-jokes like when the Dude uses a pencil rubbing to discover Jackie Treehorns message and only gets a dick pic. That’s a nod to Cary Grant doing the same thing in North by Northwest. So I think a lot of the film was simply the brothers putting in things that made them laugh. But that’s just my opinion man

prob be pretty much better if Sanni was cryn in it-