After their Academy Award winning Fargo surprised a lot of moviegoers in 1996, the Coen brothers hoped for similar results with its successor. Considering the adoration their follow up, The Big Lebowski, has these days, it didn’t receive a lot of critical or financial love when it was first released in 1998.
This is likely because it was an interesting sell. Obviously it was marketed a follow up to Fargo, however, the movie was nothing like its predecessor. Instead it seemed to be a stoner comedy for adults, at a time when most adults hid the fact they were stoners.
But while the movie didn’t catch on in theaters, it has endured and not only has become a cult classic, but a bonafide classic overall. It’s frequently quoted, it’s cited by plenty of fans as one of their top five movies, and at least one had been playing it once a week. Whether you’re a new fan, or a devoted overachiever, here are 10 things you didn’t know about The Big Lebowski.
The Big Sleep
The movie’s convoluted plot is about The Dude, aka Jeff Lebowski, being tasked with getting back the kidnapped wife of Jeffrey Lebowski (no relation), aka the Big Lebowski. Did Bunny actually get kidnapped by Nihilists or is all part of one big scheme? The Dude just wanted his rug back.
The Coen Brothers lifted the episodic nature of the investigation from the Howard Hawks directed, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall starring classic noir, The Big Sleep.
Lebowski Fest
Conventions have been all the rage for the past decade or so, thanks to all of the big stars descending on them. In 2002, some diehard fans in Louisville, Kentucky started a festival around their love of The Big Lebowski.
Aptly titled Lebowski Fest, fans of the film flocked to Louisville in their favorite character’s costumes to go bowling, drink, watch the movie and abide by one another. Plenty of the movie’s stars have shown up to the festival over the years as well.
Another Movie-Based Religion
There are plenty fans of Star Wars or The Matrix, or any other movie that some sort of religion has sprouted up through that actively follow the tenets of their movie’s chosen religion. For fans of The Big Lebowski, your moment of Zen is here too.
As of 2017, The Church Of The Latter Day Dude has over 400K members, and some have officiated weddings. The church has put out several books over the years, perhaps its most important was co-authored by The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges and titled The Dude And The Zen Master.
Marlon Brando And Charlize Theron
In the movie, David Huddleston and Tara Reid played the Big Lebowski and his wife, Bunny respectively. While the Coen Brothers were casting, one of the wildest names they pitched to try and get as the Big Lebowski was Marlon Brando.
Supposedly, they’d quote Lebowski’s lines in Brando’s voice. As for Bunny, future Oscar winner, Charlize Theron was almost cast to have the honor of propositioning The Dude.
The Dude Never Rolls
While the Dude’s friend Walter doesn’t bowl on Saturday for Shabbat reasons (and was very serious about it!), El Duderino frankly doesn’t roll at all, not even once in the movie.
He likes hanging around his friends in the Alley, stretching in the Alley, and getting drinks in the Alley. He just doesn’t do a lot of bowling in the Bowling Alley. Even during one of the movie’s big dream sequences, he’s helping Maude bowl, but he doesn’t have his hands on the ball.
Was The Dude High?
Sure, The Big Lebowski is considered one of the best Stoner movies ever (and it’s pretty funny to non-stoners too) and the Dude does like to partake in the sweet leaf. But he wasn’t stoned all the time.
To help him determine what scenes he should act far out or not, Jeff Bridges would ask the Coen’s prior to filming each scene if the Dude smoked before or not. If he had, Bridges would rub his eyes to make them red. Sounds like a new White Russian drinking game - figure out which scenes the Dude’s actually baked for.
The Dude’s Really Real Man
A lot of writers will advise you to write what you know about. The Coens knew about The Dude. Their friend and partner was the real life Dude!
Jeffrey Dowd was actually a member of “The Seattle Seven,” that The Dude mentions to Maude in the film. Later on in life, he became a film producer and helped the Coen Brothers with their first film, Blood Simple. Dowd also produced films like Zebrahead and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest.
A Very Tight Script
After seeing the movie and hearing the off-the-cuff profanity and habitual use of words like “man,” it’s easy to think that a lot of The Big Lebowski was improvised. But the Coen Brothers are known for having very tight scripts.
Every instance of profanity and / or variations of Dude was completely in the script. They seldom use improvised lines, either. But they let one go in this movie. While The Dude is getting angry, he calls the Big Lebowski “a human paraquat.”
No Re-Writes
To piggy-back off of the Coen Brothers tight and taut script, Jeff Bridges wasn’t used to working with the Coens. Thankfully, he had several members of the Coen’s acting troupe on set to work with and help him out.
As a veteran actor, he was used to working directors and writers that might give him all kinds of script rewrites, sometimes daily. One occasion, he came on set looking for his rewrites for the day. Co-star John Goodman reassured him that the Brothers worked out all of the kinks in their script before shooting began.
The Jesus Rolls In 2020
John Turturro had played Jesus Quintana in the film. Despite only appearing in two scenes, not only Quintana a memorable character in the film, he’s one of Turturro’s most memorable roles, period!
Maybe that’s why Turturro has been dreaming up wild stories surrounding his creepy, but hilarious character. Supposedly next year, fans will be treated to a side-story to the original movie when The Jesus Rolls hits theaters in 2020.
Next: The Big Lebowski: The Dude’s Funniest Quotes
