Directed by: Joel Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, David Huddleston
Made by the Coen Brothers when they were flush with the success of their Oscar-lauded Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski seems to bear out Orson Welles’ distressed contention from Michael Winner’s I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Isname (1967), “Give artists money these days and all they do is ... spend it.” This wigged-out comedy became an immediate cult favorite, but wasn’t exactly Oscar material and was hardly a big box-office success. Centered on Jeff Bridges’ laid-back embodiment of The Dude—the ultimate slacker/stoner—the film was simply too disjointed, too weird and too Coenesque to cut it with mainstream viewers. A lot of people were simply perplexed by its rambling plot (so incoherent that even Sam Elliott, who narrates the film, can’t follow it) and its cinematic playfulness.
Who was ready for a film-noir spoof that has The Dude standing in for Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (1944)? And even if they were, were they ready for this ersatz Marlowe to be bludgeoned into a comatose state and fantasize a Busby Berkeley-styled musical number in a bowling alley? Even granting this unlikely possibility, this is, after all, ultimately a story about a man seeking recompense for a rug (one that “really tied the room together”) that was urinated on by gangland goons who mistook him for another Lebowski. It takes a certain type of person to appreciate that—and you know who you are (or aren’t). For myself, well, if nothing else, the Dude speaks for me when appraises the music of the Eagles.
Walk-in Theatre is presented by Orbit DVD and the merchants of the Bledsoe Building, in the parking lot behind the Bledsoe Building in West Asheville at dark on Friday, July 13. Free.
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This is the greatest movie of all time. |
 Jul 12, 2007 at |
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Well, maybe not the greatest, but certainly perfect for walk-in theater. It doesn’t matter if you miss part of it while you get a beer, it makes just as much sense. |
Ezekiel Jul 12, 2007 |
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I’d rather not go to the walk-in theater. Imagine me with the likes of you people. I feel icky. |
Jul 12, 2007 at |
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Talk about leaving yourself open for a remark… |
Jul 12, 2007 |
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You quit talking about my openings in such a public forum. |
Jul 12, 2007 at |
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I thought you were still out selecting fruit (which presumably has nothing to do with your openings). |
Jul 12, 2007 |
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That was so last week’s Xpress, Hanke. |
Jul 12, 2007 at |
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Openings are forbidden at the Walk In Theater. We have an adult room that you can visit after the movie. |
Orbit DVD Jul 12, 2007 |
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Yeah, I guess the shelf life of your jokes is kind of limited. |
Jul 13, 2007 |
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The only thing limited around here is my tolerance of you people. |
Jul 13, 2007 at |
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I liked Mr. Bugg better when he was called Francis the Talking Mule. |
Jul 13, 2007 |
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I liked Ken Hanke better when he was known as Gene Siskel’s rotting corpse. Just kidding, Mr. Hanke. Actually you are much funnier as the movie critic. Although your stint as Cocoa Kemosabe, the 6’5” black drag queen who turned my heart into mush all those years ago was quite memorable also. |
Jul 13, 2007 at |
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Those heels were murder, too. |
Jul 14, 2007 |
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Ken Hanke ladies and gentlemen. |
Jul 16, 2007 at |
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You’d been so quiet, I thought some evil had befallen you. |
Jul 16, 2007 |
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Say, that reminds me… What was the meaning of the Red Cardinal Tattoo on Nicolas Cage and the Leonard Smalls (Randall Tex Cobb) character’s arms in “Raising Arizona?” |
Whiskey T. Foxtrot Jul 24, 2007 |
