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December 28, 2005
Some Joel and Ethan Cohen films finally came in from Homestart over Xmas.They are good independent American filmmakers who avoid the holier than thou ' indie' ethos that rejects the Hollywood studio system and often degenerates into poor craft and self-expression. I watched The Big Lebowski (1998) last night. I have yet to see Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy.
The Big Lebowski is an absurdist comedy based on a particularised, crazy Los Angeles artistic, business and unemployed communities, that is constructed around a stoned slacker with counterculture roots (a '70s throwback), a ruined rug, bowling, nihilists, pornographers, kidnapping, money gone astray, music (Bob Dylan's and Creedence Clearwater Revival) and mistaken identities. Virtually ignored by critics and audiences when it first hit the cinemas in 1998, it has become a cult classic.
Like the brillant Fargo, it also depicts a world of chaos that flows, bleak foolishness, things going wrong--ie., not going to plan---and the offbeat humour amidst disasters. It has a (parody of a) Busby Berkeley-style dream sequence. It--- the narrative doesn't go anywhere-- and yet it somehow hangs together as a story. In this film the narrative is tied together by a voice -over-narrative that reflects on the significance of the events of the central character (the ex-radical pot smoking Dude) drifting along, not part of the life around him. Tis around the 1990s, the time of the first Iraqi war, but the narrative disintegrates into forgetfulness. The events are so chaotic that those living it cannot explain the story to anyone.
Things, events, characters, ocome and go without having a reason to be.
The centre of the film is the bowling alley. The bowling alleys are more than a refuge -- a place where losers, dreamers, and blowhards form a little community and find peace in a competition. They are the centerpiece of the film, with some stunning cinematography (eg., a bowling ball traveling down the lane from inside one of the holes), wth this world of rules and regulations standing in contrast to chaos swirling all around. Bowling maybe life but the big bowling match never eventuates.
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Gary, I saw the film when it came out. It was thoroughly entertaining. Did you notice that the thugs in one scene had a cricket bat?