The Big Lebowski

Who else thinks this is the Coen brothers best movie?

The movie is one of the funniest ever in my opinion. The cast is perfect, the dream sequences are amazing, the dialogue is pure gold and The Dude is one of the coolest characters ever. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sam Elliot all deliver exceptional performances and who can forget John Turturro as the scene stealing Jesus Quintana?

Also, this movie definitely needs a special edition DVD.

Discuss! Appreciate!

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"You smell that? Do you smell that?... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."

I don't think it is Joel & Ethan's best movie (I'd put Miller's Crossing in that slot), but it is great and among their very best. Yes.


And a R1 Special Edition will be in stores by the end of the year, though no details have been announced yet (you can find a "coming soon" advertisement for it on recent Universal DVDs).

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And by the by, some of the Coen Brothers threads already in existence you could have added your post to can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.

I hope the special edition contains a cast commentary

Since there are so many Coen threads already in existence, I'll go ahead and close this one. If anyone has anything they want to add, go ahead and choose one of the links Holden provided.

EDIT: My mistake. There's no thread exclusive to The Big Lebowski, so I reopened it.

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This movie has so many great one-liners.

Love it

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I've really gotta see this flick, along with Millers Crossing as well. I have a slight Coen defficiency.

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That's exactly what I was going to mention, I did a search and couldn't specifically find The Big Lebowski

Anyway, what in your opinion, makes Miller's Crossing a better film Holden?

I love The Big Lebowski, but would have to list Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink as their best films. Miller's Crossing is just so classy, well-shot, well played, and has some of the mopst memorable scenes of any of their films. I am sure Holden would mention it, ut, the Danny Boy assassination scene is simply fantastic, and I find myself replaying that scene over and over to study the pacing of the editing etc. I would say it is close to being a perfect film. Barton Fink is brilliant with it's metaphor, and I love the minimalist style used in it;s set design, plot, and performance.

Still, I love Lebowski too! I just can't put it above those other films.... It's tough put their films in any sort of order for me, I guess it would depend on the day...

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I love The Big Lebowski. At first I found it confusing, but after my second viewing I just fell in love with it. Now I can watch it over and over and never get bored. The music's perfect, the cast is perfect, the writing's perfect and the direction's perfect (the only Coen bros. movie directed solely by Joel).

When comparing the film to Miller's Crossing, I tend to favour Lebowski. Miller's is their more serious and 'classy' film, but frankly I just like Lebowski better. I enjoy it, it entertains me. Every character in Lebowski is great, and after seeing it as many times as I have I almost feel like I know them. I love watching the story unfold, I love seeing these hysterical and larger-than-life characters inter-mingle. As I said, the dialouge is perfect, and the deliveries of the lines are just spot-on.

Miller's is a great film too. It has some great moments, and even some funny scenes (and when I say funny, I mean really funny). And it's cinematography is fantastic, but the cast and the story fall under Lebowski's for me. The cast is still great, but Lebowski's is superb.

Shut the f*ck up, Donnie.

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The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite comedies (along with Super Troopers )

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Pulp Fiction - Reservoir Dogs - Kill Bill 1/2 - From Dusk Till Dawn - Meet Joe Black - 21 Grams - Snatch - Sin City - Ocean's Eleven - Fight Club - Lost in Translation - Once Upon A Time In Mexico - Hero (英雄version) - Super Troopers - The Big Lebowski - Dazed and Confused - Rolling Kansas - Made - The Rounders - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I love how the dialogue and actions of the characters are repeated to the point that you feel like you know the characters personally and see them say/do these things all the time. My favorite scene is one of the most subtle in the movie. However, I don't know how to mark spoilers so I'll put it this way: when Walter tips over the coffee can to let you-know-what go, he lets it all out, then pats the bottom of the can to make sure it's empty. As though it were a bottle of mustard. This scene is funny, even a bit touching, and that one little detail seals the deal. I love how they snuck it in so that it's barely noticeable among the mostly not-so-subtle jokes in the film.

Plus the cast is all hilarious, without any of the boring typical comedy casting (Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, any former SNL star).

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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."

Yeah lots of people miss all the subtle humour. One thing that really made me laugh was the Ralph's card as the Dudes only form of identification. The movie has a special feel about it, a little quirky but extremely funny characters that could almost be real.

I like Millers Crossing but to me The Big Lebowski is something special.

I love this movie one of my favorite comedys. i definitly think its the COen brothers best movie but i haven't seen Miller's Crossing so that might change


Nobody F**ks with jesus

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"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission and the babysitter were worth it."
- Alfred Hitchcock

funniest movie ever.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Vicky & Nebs, finally saw the movie (just like I promised)

Loved it.. Coens best?? I think not..
Dialogues & the characters were the best part of the movie...
Funniest movie ever? wasn't for me, I have seen a lot funnier ones.
There are 2 or 3 Scenes that made me laugh out loud, the rest of the movie I smiled my way through it.

This was like a Stoner Comedy for the literates.. I noticed many of the slang were used by various different characters in almost similar way..
Eg:- The Police Chief of Malibu & Walter Sobchak uses the word goldbricking almost the similar way.

Great film, I can see why it's really popular.. But Pulp Fiction it isn't!!



EDIT: Oh Yeah!! Walter Sobchak has to be one of the best characters I have seen... He'd give Travis Bickle a tough competition IMO.

I actually agree with the rating. Like the movie plenty, but I've never loved it as much as many others. I think it all depends on how you respond to the insanity. There are films whose craziness becomes infectious and all feels strangely cohesive, and others were it still feels kinda random. The Big Lebowski kinda leans towards the latter, for me, which is why I think it's very good and not great. But it's not hard to put understand how someone could be "along for the ride" a bit more than I was, and love it more as a result.

I havn't seen all the Coen Brother's movies yet but so far The Big Lebowski is my favourite.

Gotta love Donny!

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"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."

One of my all time favourite movies. Love it. Can watch over and over again. Brilliant.

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I'd call it my favourite Coen brothers film, but definitely not the best.