The Dude Was Very UnDude: Another Take on "The Big Lebowski"

 

I do not like "The Big Lebowski."

The film is boring, pretentious, irritating. The Coen Brothers swung and missed with this movie. What really puzzles me is that such a strong cult following surrounds this movie, even a neo-religion and wannabe-hip philosphy.

To me, all you've got is a hollow movie with a bunch of directionless slackers and weirdos, plus a rich guy who shares the same name as the title character, and therefore the "The Dude" gets into trouble on account of the richer Lebowski.

Someone tell me why this is funny.

And someone please explain to me why we should throw out all conventions of reality to accept this very flimsy premise? Deus Ex Machina, anyone?

Besides, who wants to watch a bunch of self-absorbed jerks bowling, anyway?

Still, I wanted to take a closer look at "The Dude," played by Jeff Bridges. What is it that just sets me off about this movie?

Famed film critic Gene Siskel rightly criticized that the character was too self-important, and had no heart.

That made me think of Eric Edson's analysis in The Story Solution on why characters are or are not likeable, and how likeability is an essential aspect to good story-telling.

A main character has to have at least five of the nine traits listed below in order to be likeable:

1. Courage
2. Unfair Injury
3. Skill
4. Funny
5. Just Plain Nice
6. In Danger
7. Loved By Friends And Family
8. Hard Working
9. Obsessed

Reviewing "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski, it's pretty clear that he doesn't have a majority of these character traits.

1. He is not courageous. He doesn't really stand up for anything or anyone. He just cares about his dirty carpet, and he doesn't really care how other people may feel about it. One of his sidekicks, the Vietnam Vet played by John Goodman, has courage, since he's not afraid to bust out his bowling ball to take on some potential kidnappers.

2. The notion of fairness doesn't really come into play with The Dude. He just goes through life, doesn't work, yet somehow manages to survive. He pretty much has everything handed to him, and there is nothing debilitating holding him back. He's like a rich, spoiled teenager in an adult body, and nothing really impacts him, and the things that do bother him or slight, minimal, or just ridiculous for their insignifance.

3. He has no skills. He doesn't accomplish anything. Even his ability, if any, does not stand out when it comes to bowling. You know what? I will give the Dude a point for some skill as a bowler. Let's give him a break.

4. Was Jeff Lebowski funny? Sometimes, but it was not consistent. He didn't really carry the film with any sense or sense of humor. Frankly, he was kind of boring and even a bit irritating. When he engaged in the nomenclature debate with the rich Jeff Lebowski, he states: "You are Mr. Lebowski, and I am The Dude, or his Dudeness, or El Dooderino ..." I didn't think his slacker routine was funny. I also didn't find it funny that he would freak out and his lose his peace over the stupidest stuff, all while the movie was trying to give the impression that he was a loose and listless slacker.

5. He was a decent guy, I suppose, but there were enough scenes were he acts like a selfish jerk that I can't really give His Dudeness any credit on this front.

6. Yes, he faced danger. He was embroiled in the whole kidnapping scenario, and some goons tried to kill him. But even in the face of imminent danger, he generally has this empty nonchalance about him. And that lack of tension really harms the film. You don't care about the stuff that's happening to him, because he doesn't care, and he sure acts like it doesn't matter.

7. He is loved by friends, but he has no family. I will give him a point on this one, since his friends, played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, are pretty tight with him.

8. This guy is the archetype of the Professional Slacker. He brags about being unemployed. 

9. He is obsessed with getting his carpet cleaned. He has a focus on something so unimportant, it is still a focus, so I will give him that.

Tallying up the possible traits in the Dude's favor, he only scores only three points: skilled, friends, obsessed. That's it.

The Dude is very Undude. The Big Lebowski is a big bust, in large part because the main character is just undude for all of his Dudeness pretensions.

"Mr. Destiny" -- A Different Take

A Different Take

The first time I formed a real set of views about a movie, I was surprised to learn that many people had arrived at a different conclusion, or interpretation, of the film entirely.

I felt kind of proud about having a different point of view about something compared to the older people who commented on the movie in commercials,  endorsing the film for others to see it.

The film that comes to mind when I think about this unique discrepancy is "Mr. Destiny", starring James Belushi and co-starring Michael Caine.

The film starts out with Belushi, playing a middle-aged manager named Larry Joseph Burrows, who in  many ways is buried in problems. He has a bad 35th Birthday, to start out. No breakfast to start off. The contractor working on the front of his home refuses to get anything done. Yet he still ends up writing the guy a check.

Then he gets to work, where he discovers that his boss is engaged in some compromising, illicit activities. Instead of getting any kudos for finding out what happened, he gets fired. Last of all, his car breaks down, a piece of junk which barely starts then gets nowhere fast.

He ends up at a corner bar, where he meets Mike, or Mr. Destiny, played by Michael Caine.

Burrows settles down to complain about the nasty turns which his life has taken. If only he had made that home run when he as a kid playing in a local little league game, his life would have turned out much differently, or so he thinks.

Little does Burrows realize, but the bartender puts together a "magical drink", one which lets him go back in time, hit the homerun, get ushered off the field in praise, then move on in the world to becoming the head of the very company he was working for as a middling manager.

So, Burrows experiences a totally new life, one which based on having hit that one homerun in little league that changes his life into wealth, health, and all kinds of success.

The bartender, Mike, now tags along from time to time, like a guardian angel of sorts, outlining for him the major transformations which have taken place in his life. He finds that he is  married to the elderly CEO's  daughter, too, not the wife whom he had left at home the day before, when he was just a middling manager.

So, he is rich, he has everything that he could want -- yet he is not happy. Even though he is married to the boss' daughter and looks to inherit the company, he falls in love all over again with the woman he had first marrried.

He reaches out to her again, has fun with her at the same old haunts. His liaisons with a different woman, however, sets off the ire of rich wife whom he has married in this alternative. Then another employee, the same man who as the boss in Burrow's previous life. This man ends up killing the CEO of the company, yet implicates Burrows in the death. The police go to arrest him, but the main character runs for help.

Frantic to get away from this life, Burrows drives back to the same bar. He scurries around to find Mike the bartender, yet when he cannot find the guy, he starts mixing a drink for himself, trying to find the same  concoction which blasted him into this alternative universe.

Instead of police, a tow-truck man appears at the door. Burrows is back in his old life as a middling manager, and he is grateful. Later than evening, he returns home, giving up his junkie car to the tow-truck man. Just as he walks in, "Suprise!" all of his co-workers, plus his lovely wife, throw him a big birthday party. The son of the elderly CEO arrives in time to give him a big present -- Burrows is offered the job which belonged to his boss, the same man who had fired him because he was engaging in illicit activities on the job.

The day ends pretty well for Mr. Burrows.

After I saw that movie, I was really surprised by how many people took the film as an aggrandizing invitation for people to pursue their dreams, that whatever people wanted in life, that the could go out and get it for themselves.

I did not get that message from this movie. James Belushi's character did have all of his dreams come true, he did get what he wanted, he got to go back in time and fix the "mistake" which he thought had ruined his life. Yet for all of those changes, it did not make his life any better. He missed his wife, even though in his "better life" he was married to the CEO's daughter. He faced immense pressures as a major leader in a company that he did not want to be in.

The message which I gathered from this film, which I hope that more people would have taken, is that no matter how bad your life circumstances may seem, it is not going to stay that way. Wishing that certain things had not happened in the past will do nothing to create a peace for the present or prosperity in the future.

Instead of a change in his life, Burrows received a change in his attitude, choosing not to feel bad that he had stood up to his boss, even if he ended up losing his job. Just because he had a bad day did not mean that he was destined to have a bad life. Just because he missed out on an important play in the past, just because he made a set of bad choices earlier in his life, that did not mean that he was doomed to having absolutely nothing to look forward to.

It's not so much that our dreams have to come true as that we see better than our dreams taking place in our lives. When we refuse to get down on ourselves because of our circumstances, when we resist the nasty challenges of the present and ignore the blunders of the past, then and only then do we receive the grace to win and reign in life, and we witness the worst-cases scenarios turn into blessed certainties in our lives.

Our dreams do not depend on our past, our failures do not dictate our future. This is the message that more people need to receive in their lives.