Outdoor Movie in Fort Collins, Colorado: A Review of 'The Big Lebowski'
On Sept. 25, a special outdoor film screening of "The Big Lebowski" was shown in Fort Collins, Colorado, as part of a memorial service. Rebecca Allen, a young member of the Fort Collins community, was killed in an auto-bike accident. New Belgium Brewery, a popular bicycling hang-out, presented her favorite film as an outdoor movie memorial. "The Big Lebowski" has been critically acclaimed as one of the best Coen Brother's films, and the following is a review of the art-house movie. You can read the original blog post about the outdoor movie screening here.
Fargo was always going to be a hard act to follow, but the Coen brothers succeeded with this off-the-wall bowling comedy-turned-kidnap-thriller.
Jeff 'The Dude' Lebowski (Bridges), an LA bum who lives for bowling, knows it's going to be a bad day when two hoods break in demanding money owed by his wife, ("Does this place look like I'm fucking married? The toilet seat's up, man!"), rough him up and piss on his rug ("That rug really tied the room together").
The Dude has been mixed up with Jeff 'The Big Lebowski' Lebowski (Huddleston) and goes to the millionaire's house seeking compensation for his ruined rug. Instead, The Dude learns that his namesake's wife Bunny (Reid) has been kidnapped and he ends up being asked to be bagman for the ransom. From then things go down hill, as The Dude meets The Big Lebowski's daughter from his first marriage, Maude (Moore), who paints using her naked body, and encounters a nihilist German techno-rock group who were involved in the kidnap.
Supporting The Dude are damaged 'Nam vet and late convert to Judaism Walter (Goodman), who lives in a present constructed around his experiences in Vietnam, and Donny (Buscemi) who lives in a present constructed around mental vacuity. Then there's the bowling league to worry about, where The Dude's due to play Jesus Quintana (Turturro), a paedophile in a lilac jumpsuit.
With some frighteningly weird stuff going on, from lavish dream sequences to Moore naked on a trapeze, this is bizarre but brilliant Coen territory. There is terrific support from Goodman, while Buscemi is cast brilliantly against type as their silent friend. As for Turturro, he positively heists the movie.
Source: Channel 4 Film. Read full review at: http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=101128.