Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Movie Review

The Dude abides. . .but does this Blu-ray?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 28, 2011

In the cookie cutter copycat world of the film industry, you have to give Joel and Ethan Coen credit for one thing: they are individuals, obviously unafraid to pursue their artistic vision and instincts wherever those instincts lead them. Even a cursory review of the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre reveals a startling variety of subject matter, approaches and styles: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man and last year’s remake of True Grit. Taking even one of these disparate properties can be a lesson in idiosyncratic filmmaking technique, one which eschews the Syd Field screenwriting dicta and tried and true directorial tropes and often throws caution to the wind with bracing results. But taken together as a whole, this series of films is simply an amazing achievement, certainly one of the most singular in contemporary film, and one which has made the Coen Brothers objects of both lavish praise and more than occasional disparaging scorn. How dare they? seems to be the mantra when the Coens don’t toe the line as they’re expected to (though one would think by this time The Establishment would have figured out the Coens aren’t about to be toeing many lines). And it can’t be argued that several of their films are at least partial misfires. And so where does The Big Lebowski fall (no pun intended, considering a couple of dreams Jeff Bridges’ Dude character has in the film)? Lebowski was snuggled in between Fargo, arguably the Coen’s most successful film in terms of audience appeal and critical praise, and O Brother Where Art Thou?, another incredibly original production which also generated significant box office and critical approval. And the consensus at the time of Lebowski’s release is that it wasn’t just a misfire, it was writing, directorial and production excess of such an extreme as to be largely unwatchable, despite an appealing cast and several at least fitfully amusing sequences. But something Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque happened along the way, and The Big Lebowski somehow attained a cult status perhaps unmatched in the Coen Brothers canon in the decade plus since its initial theatrical exhibition. The cult contingent insists Lebowski is the Coens’ masterwork, a finely detailed and expertly crafted skewering of all sorts of conventions and one which may have a piquant political subtext. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. It can be stated quite positively that The Big Lebowski is certainly unlike any other film in recent (and maybe much more than recent) memory, an odd concatenation of a quasi-detective mystery and an indisputably bizarre character study. On the other hand, it also can’t be denied that the Coens seem to be throwing everything they can think of at the screen in the hopes that something will stick, and that gives the film an at times overwhelming ambience that some may find off-putting.

Some semblance of the reassessment of The Big Lebowski can be gleaned from the fact that in the week this review is posted a major news story appearing on most major portals’ news sites is that the funky bungalow in which The Dude (Jeff Bridges) resides has been put up for sale. It’s rather unusual to see a news story of this type unless it’s something as iconic as Dorothy’s ruby slippers or the recent gargantuant Debbie Reynolds auction of Golden Age costumes and props (including Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch dress which fetched a cool multi-million, more or less the same price being asked for the bungalow). But is this now vaunted “cool factor” really warranted? Well, yes and no. The Big Lebowski plays a bit like the Coen Brothers’ Greatest Hits, at least up to its 1998 release date. The kidnapping subplot has elements of Raising Arizona, Julianne Moore’s character speaks in a clipped, Katharine Hepburn 1930’s style that is a mirror image of the Jennifer Jason Leigh character in The Hudsucker Proxy. We have the inept criminals that skirt around the edges of Blood Simple (and perhaps even Miller’s Crossing), there’s the labyrinthine plotting and multi- character interplay of Fargo and the hyperintellectualism of Barton Fink. But do all of these ingredients add up to a cohesive whole?

Part of what gives The Big Lebowski its undeniably slapdash feeling is that its lead character is a slacker stoner type who is just as apt to suffer from Busby Berkeley-esque hallucinations as he is to actually amble through anything approaching “normal” reality (this being a Coen Brothers film, normal is a decidedly relative term). The Dude’s given name is Jeffrey Lebowski, a moniker he shares with a local tycoon (David Huddleston), and in a mix-up which sends the film’s cartwheeling plot into full gear, some thugs bent on collecting a debt show up at The Dude’s cottage by mistake, thinking it belongs to the rich Lebowski. Without giving away too much of this film’s incredibly convoluted plot, The Dude is soon caught up in a kidnapping plot involving the tycoon’s trophy wife Bunny (Tara Reid), as well as various sidebars including the tycoon’s daughter (Julianne Moore) by his first wife, The Dude’s manic depressive Nam veteran bowling league buddy Walter (John Goodman), their tag along moron Donny (Steve Buscemi) and, just for good measure, a competing league manned by a purple clad, sexually deviant John Turturro, as well as a trio of German nihilists (is there any other kind of German?) who are caught up in the kidnapping angle. Complex enough for you?

It’s probably best when approaching a film as patently odd as The Big Lebowski to follow The Dude’s lead and simply “go with the flow,” enjoying the film for its odd assortment of characters and its twisty-turny plot machinations, without worrying too much about the details. Several revisionists have insisted the film is actually a thinly veiled critique of neo-Conservatism, and while there are certainly pointers in that direction (the repeated allusions to Saddam and the first Iraq war, as well as David Huddleston’s weirdly similar appearance to Dick Cheney), that insistence may in fact be looking too hard to find meaning where there is none. What might be a more salient, generalized message to take away from The Big Lebowski is a much simpler one: there are those who drift through their lives, more or less happily dealing with the manifold trials and tribulations with which they’re faced (and which they at least in part bring upon themselves), and there are those who try to mold fate to their own designs, usually failing spectacularly.

This is a film with probably a very narrow allure for the public at large. It doesn’t have the mass appeal hooks of several bigger, more successful Coen Brothers outings, and it may in fact simply be too quirky for its own good. But in the cookie cutter copycat world of the film industry, sometimes a noble, completely original attempt is far, far better than the Xerox copies which seem to pop out of other filmmakers’ cameras with depressing regularity.

The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I frankly never saw the HD-DVD release of The Big Lebowski, but I have to wonder whether this is the same transfer, due to the VC-1 encode (in 1080p and 1.85:1). The film is not overly pretty, despite having been lensed by the magnificent cinematographer Roger Deakins (Kundun). Colors are bright, just this side of lurid a lot of the time (especially within the confines of the bowling alley), but are lifelike and suitably robust. Sharpness is certainly much better than the DVD, though there is attendant edge enhancement and some minor artifacting issues, including transitory aliasing, as well as some fairly noticeable crush in the nighttime scenes and Universal's typical DNR. Fine detail is quite good a lot of the time, again especially in the brightly lit bowling alley sequences, where everything from Turturro's plush velour purple jumpsuit to the shiny ambience of the bowling balls themselves are delivered with clarity and precision. Some of the film still looks relatively soft, as it always has, but on the whole fans of The Big Lebowski shouldn't have too much to complain about with this new Blu-ray.

The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's no denying the nice, if subtle, sonic upgrade afforded to The Big Lebowski, courtesy of a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. While this is obviously a dialogue driven film, there's quite a bit of attention paid to its overall sound design, and the film features several wonderful moments of immersion as well as a slew of great (and sometimes rather funny) sound effects (listen for example to the kind of champagne cork-popping sound the bowling balls make as they exit the return mechanism). The film is filled to the brim with source cues, all of which sound excellent, and several of the more bombastic sequences benefit from this new lossless track. Especially impressive are quick but effective moments like the "handoff" sequence where The Dude and Walter are supposedly going to give the kidnappers their ransom (or are they?), leading to a car crash and then the roar of three motorcycles zooming off into the distance. LFE is wonderfully robust in this sequence and the panning effect is also very well handled. Fidelity is great throughout the track, and dynamic range is also very good.

The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Exclusive Introduction (SD; 4:40). Well not exactly exclusive, since it was released in previous editions, but still a spot on primer to the Coen Brothers' drier than dry brand of humor. This faux featurette offers a supposed elderly film restorer named Mortimer Young, head honcho of Forever Young Films, who is presenting The Big Lebowski to its alleged adoring public. If you're new to the Coens' completely skewed sense of humor, this is a wonderful place to start.
• Jeff Bridges Photo Book (HD; 17:30). This is a really interesting and great looking piece centering around the book of photos Bridges took and then presented to the cast after the film had wrapped. Bridges is on hand to discuss the photos, which are really amazing looking.
• U-Control, Universal's proprietary supplemental technology, has three options on this Blu-ray:
  Scene Companion offers PIP commentary and background, including cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage;
  Mark it Dude is kind of a silly text based extra that ticks off the various profanities and other "Dude-isms" throughout the film;
  The Music of 'The Big Lebowski' is another text based entry identifying the many source cues utilized in the film. Universal has supposedly upped the ante this time, at least according to the accompanying press sheet included with this review copy, by allowing the viewer to do custom playlists and also purchase the songs from iTunes, though I couldn't see how to do that (no BD-Live functionality was operational with this disc which might have something to do with it).
• Worthy Adversaries: What's My Line Trivia. One of the first clues that The Big Lebowski had attained Rocky Horror Picture Show status was at a late night screening some years after the film's initial release when large swaths of the audience started shouting out lines of dialogue as the film played. This silly but kind of enjoyable game allows the viewer to be either The Dude or Walter, as either a solo player or in two-player mode, attempting to complete various lines from the movie.
• The Dude's Life (HD; 10:08) is a retrospective set of reminiscences from Bridges, Goodman, Moore, Buscemi and Turturro.
• The Dude Abides: The Big Lebowski Ten Years Later (HD; 10:27) is another retrospective set of reminiscences from the cast, with some assessment of how the film's cultural impact increased over the years since its original release.
• The Lebowski Fest: An Achiever's Story (SD; 13:53) is an excerpt from the documentary The Achievers, and takes a look at the Lebowski Festival (yes, there is a Lebowski Festival), a kind of Comic-Con for Lebowski fanatics.
• Flying Carpets and Bowling Pin Dreams: The Dream Sequences of The Dude (HD; 4:20). This is a really interesting little featurette which takes a nice look at one of the more head-scratching aspects of the film.
• The Making of The Big Lebowski (SD; 24:35). While it's fun to see the often reclusive Coens actually discussing their work, this is pretty standard EPK fare in the long run.
• Photo Gallery (SD; 3:25) is a short compendium of Bridges' photography.
• Interactive Map takes a look at many of the locations utilized in the film, and how they've changed since the film was released. Each location is accompanied by a brief clip from the film and some explanatory narration about the filming.
• BD-Live and pocketBLU enabled. It should be noted that no BD-Live functionality was up and running with this review disc, including no ticker and no ability to connect to BD-Live.

The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's no denying the fact that The Big Lebowski has become something of a cult sensation in the decade plus since its release. There's also no denying the fact that at least some of that acclaim has no doubt come from brothers-in-arms of The Dude, those who shall we say may be slightly herbally enhanced as they watch the film. Those without "assistance" (so to speak) may find The Big Lebowski simply too outré to be tolerated, but for a certain few (even those who haven't "enhanced" themselves), the film is wacky, weird and at least occasionally wonderful. This is definitely not the film to start with if you're new to the Coen Brothers (I'd recommend Fargo for that), but if you do have experience with Joel and Ethan's often discursive way with plot and character, as well as their completely idiosyncratic sense of humor, you'll most likely find a lot to love in this appealingly disheveled outing. One way or the other, it's pretty much guaranteed you've never seen anything quite like The Big Lebowski. Highly recommended.