(originally viewed 8/17/11)
I wasn't going to write about it, but it recently came up that I didn't enjoy The Big Lebowski. So, how did BL fail me?
On cursory examination, you might think the film stands noir on its head, but noir is essentially all about slackers who, through some otherwise minor event, get dragged way over their heads into grander schemes than they can imagine, but manage to muddle through and unravel the seeming mysteries that motivate the puppet masters, and finally come through in the end. We just haven't seen a noir protagonist quite like The Dude before.
Since nothing really new in the way of plot is being offered, the script needs to excel in the characters and dialogue. Unfortunately the dialogue, especially and at times excruciatingly in the scenes at the bowling alley, is not up to snuff**. The Dude, Maude, and the "real" Lebowski all come off well, but Walter, Donny, and the nihilists just don't work, even now that I know that Walter is a direct poke at John Milius. I realize that not everyone lives in a Noel Coward play, but I personally think Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as modern comedic noir has a lot more going for it than Lebowski***.
There are flashes of a great movie that lies somewhere in the concept of The Big Lebowski, but that movie never manages to reveal itself, and I guess it's that failure to reach its potential that is ultimately disappointing. The Dude, and apparently the Coen brothers, would have a clear conscience about that.
** I felt much the same way about Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Ladykillers remake, only the problems are more pronounced in those films. I wasn't crazy about No Country for Old Men. Needless to say, I'm really worried that I won't like Fargo if I watch it again.
*** full disclosure: I'm a Val Kilmer homer, but also a Jeff Bridges homer, so neither movie is getting too big an advantage from my actor preferences, right?
I liked tBL thinking about it later, but wasn't a big fan of it while I was watching it. I did like the idea of taking a typical noir and making the protagonist terrible at solving mysteries and unmotivated to try, but it suffered from an anthropic-like principle: because this is a movie about aimless people, it becomes an aimless movie at times.
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