The Dude abides

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

It might just be my opinion, man, but The Big Lebowski could, quite possibly, be the perfect movie. If not, it is certainly among the most quotable.

The Panida Theater will screen the Coen brothers’ cult classic for just $5 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Saturday, March 30. Not into it? You’re in for a world of pain.

If you haven’t seen The Big Lebowski, you’re being very un-Dude, Dude. Put down this newspaper, roll it up tightly and whack yourself a few times upside the head with it. Now, you’re ready to take a flying leap into the complex, yet ingenious humor perfected by the Coen brothers. 

Known for such iconic films as Fargo, No Country For Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and True Grit, the Coen brothers are good men… and thorough. Their filmmaking transcends mere mortals and lives in a realm occupied by people who get it. Unlike Donny, who’s out of his element.

The Big Lebowski follows Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, who is the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. The Dude, or His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing, is played to slovenly perfection by Jeff Bridges. When two hired thugs break into The Dude’s Los Angeles apartment, rough him up and piss on his rug — which really ties the room together — The Dude seeks restitution. 

It turns out the thugs mistook his identity for “The Big Lebowski,” a man also named Jeffrey Lebowski but who is a wheelchair-bound wannabe business magnate whose young trophy wife Bunny was purportedly kidnapped and held for ransom. 

It’s a complicated story. There’s a lot of ins, a lot of outs, lotta what-have-yous. Along the way to trying to get his rug back, The Dude and his two loser buddies (histrionic Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak, played by John Goodman, and Donny the master of good-natured confusion, played by Steve Buscemi) take a job from The Big Lebowski to track down his wife, bumble their way through a harebrained effort to solve the kidnapping, get the rug back, eat at the In-and-Out Burger near Radford, then go bowling. But not on Saturday, because Sobchak doesn’t roll on Shabbos. Shomer Shabbos!

The 1998 film is filled to the brim with quotable lines that live rent free in your head for years afterward, unless you’re a human paraquat. With quirky characters that show up swinging for the fences scene after scene, The Big Lebowski is what happens when great writing and exceptional acting and casting meet head on. 

The screening will hit a bit different than most movies at the Panida. There will be a costume contest, with the winner receiving a pair of tickets to an upcoming MarchFourth concert, as well as White Russian specials, because there’s a beverage here! 

The whole shebang is only $5 thanks to a sponsorship by Ting Internet. Now I’ve just got to go find a cash machine.

Note: If you just finished reading this article and have no idea what I’ve been talking about, obviously you’re not a golfer.