Movies I Love (and so can you): The Big Lebowski (1998) [*Spoilers*]

An attempt to explain the greatness of his Dudeness.
I tweet -- @callme_yosh
I tumble -- joshwbradley.tumblr.com
As requested, sources:
www.indiewire.com/article/the_...
ndsmcobserver.com/2009/02/the-...
Songs:
"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" - Kenny Rogers and The First Edition
"Love Theme" (from soundtrack for Chinatown) - Jerry Goldsmith

[@EduMenaT]

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

[@alexeikazakov4806]

My favourite explanation of the Big Lebowski is "it's a movie where none of the characters can agree on which genre the movie is". So the Dude thinks it's a stoner comedy, Walter thinks it's a Rambo-type war flick, Bunny thinks it's a porno, Maude thinks it's an avant-garde art film... etc.

[@michelmusik]

+Alexei Kazakov This is great!

[@elOuzerino]

If I don't watch The big Lebowski at least once a month, I'm just not myself...

[@elOuzerino]

Yeah well, the Dude abides:D

[@brigbjones]

@ 5:10 "i can't think of a single character in this movie that isn't memorable."

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

Yes yes, back when I first posted this, the lovely people of the internet were nice enough to point out how stupid that sounds. You got me.

[@RoboSonic876]

I think you missed something really important; The soundtrack. I personally think its one of the best things in the whole movie. There are many points in the movie where the music helps set the mood; an example being Tumbling Tumbleweeds in the intro, or both of the dream sequences (after the dude was knocked out and after he was drugged).

[@jessehcreative]

There’s barely any background instrumentals, it’s all just popular music and diagetic music.

[@alecpinon5067]

youre very good at making me like movies i was on the fence about

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

That makes you part of my target audience. Thanks for watching!

[@danielkeizer4174]

@@MoviesILoveandsocanyou might i suggest a movie for you? The Menu...it'll be up your alley.

[@1tyrant100]

Where has this channel been all my life

[@LOLFLUSHDRAW]

you hit the nail on the head on all of these reviews. please keep doing them!

[@jessehcreative]

My favorite movie of all time. Each rewatch yields more laughter and story beats

[@CSM100MK2]

New Subscriber her e after your BR2049 video. So impressed to see you've had good content for over 7 years, and just kept getting better. Excited to go back and watch everything! Thanks for the great work.

[@JeremyWhy]

Dude I stumbled upon your channel because I was looking for a In Bruges review. DAMN! These videos are AMAZING! I pray you do more. SUBSCRIBED!

[@ArnarHugiBirkisson]

You have earned my subscription. Great vid, keep it up. Really enjoyed watching this.

[@Trenchard7]

Great job, keep making these!

[@Erudash]

I really enjoyed what you have done, great stuff.

[@autocon93]

These are beautiful. You have to keep doing them.

[@R2ro030896]

Your videos are great, I wish you upload them more often. Fantastic job, mate. :)

[@jugheadmcanus]

Dude, I just came across your vids from Reddit...you HAVE to keep doing these. I've really enjoyed what you've done so far.

[@SuperSparv]

Great review! The editing, commentary.. Subbed :)

[@CrystalJupiter]

I've only seen this one and a half times, and I appreciated the humor more than the story. The humor is great. lol I need to watch it again to fully appreciate it.

[@LightoYagasamiSan]

Great analysis man. Love that movie.

[@imfa-cinema257]

You're out of your element bradley.

[@sirusagi1]

Which others are you planning on doing? These first two have been fantastic. Keep em coming please.

[@davydevilution3483]

Donnie, who loved bowling..

[@KaleLikesWaffles]

Ebert put it fantastically "It's a movie about attitude, not a story"

[@samifolio950]

brilliant analysis

[@waltviviers]

Simply the best.

[@renocool1558]

My 1st impression of what makes this film great was it's ability to present lives of very simple people as extraordinary, stylish and fun. Makes one want to live. Liam and Jesus cleaning their balls is a great scene to that end.

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

I really I appreciate that. I plan to, but they just take a while.

[@milan9034]

If you love it as well, i'd be happy to see something about Fargo which i even more love than the Big Lebowski! Anyway, keep up the good work!

[@arbaaz9992]

"he treats objects like women, man" is the greatest dialogue in the history of cinema 😂

[@korganrocks3995]

I think that was my biggest laugh of the movie, alongside the chair-scene!

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

Thanks, I really appreciate it. And yes, I'm going to try!

[@Oscaraquino]

huge fan of your videos, are there any other movies you could recommend? watched rushmore for the first time because of your video and now wes anderson is one of my favorite directors.

[@karadan100]

I'm honored to say i saw this movie the night it came out in the UK, and i've fucking loved it ever since that first glorious night.

[@1PheaMike]

You do a great job with your reviews, so you have won another subscriber. My initial reaction to TBL was it rather accurately depicted a wide variety of fruits, nuts, and just weird, but very believable characters who reside in L.A. The film couldn't have been set in Omaha and still made any sense. L.A. Story also did a good job in this regard, but TBL did it without blatantly pointing it out in every other scene.

[@JAYAYE617]

One of the funniest hidden gems ive ever see 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😊😊

[@sgroebi]

great!!

[@Ev1tageN]

I hated that movie, because it reminded me of many of my friends, who had the same attitude towards life as the Dude. I was just so tired of this kind of personality, it just overshadowed everything else. Now I watch it and the humor is just out of this earth! :D

[@user-ci8qs2oc1b]

gotta watch the big lebowski 4 or 5 times before you really start to love it

[@icarus432hz9]

do one on the wrestler, love your channel btw.

[@XprPrentice]

I think I had a similar experience - first time I watched it, I had no clue what was going on, didn't find it particularly funny. But on subsequent viewings (tho I prob haven't reached 20), I've come to love it. Every Cohen Bros film has been like this for me, though I don't reach "love" with all of them.

[@Furtivo95]

He’s overthinking it.

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

I'm not sure I understand your criticism. Could you explain it further?

[@Joe27248]

My conclusion after watching this video essay is that I need to go and watch The big Lebowski, for the 6th time.

[@kalvinhobbes5879]

I heard about a theory that The Big Lebowsiki is an allegory for castration(and the loss of being a man). That's why the characters represent gender roles and why the narrator doesn't understand Lebowski. But you probably already know about that interpretation and were just focusing on explaining the movie to those that don't have a basic comprehension of it.

[@hilzarealive]

Hey, man I love your analysis it's great. Do you think you could reference your sources in the description? That'd be very cool.

[@MoviesILoveandsocanyou]

Sure! I put them in the description but here they are for you. (I think this is all I used... I made this a while ago) www.indiewire.com/article/the_coens_speak_reluctantly www.ndsmcobserver.com/2.2755/the-dude-abides-1.256341#.UoODD_lwpfA

[@hilzarealive]

MarcusHalberstram88 Thanks! Keep up the great work, man.

[@shrimpflea]

I saw it on opening night and loved it right away. I got the feeling most people in the theater didn't get it. One guy in front of me even said, "why didn't he just get the rug cleaned?" However, to say that the audience is too stupid to get that plot clue is a bit presumptuous....man.

[@charlbroekman4050]

That's fucking interesting man

[@JustAwesomeT]

Did I just find another Renegade Cut fan?

[@barebone2]

"You can like this movie as much as me if you watch these other movies."

[@stealthyjun]

how much pot do you smoke?

[@hhhhhh134t5]

I don't think it necessarily intends to portray gender stereotypes so much as falls prey to them, with an array of different types of male characters and only two examples of female ones

[@234dragoman]

Sorry yourself

[@ninjaswordtothehead]

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

[@Kombaiyashii]

Great review. I disagree with you when you said The Dude wasn't a hero. I felt that his character represents the biggest opposition to a totalitarian government. Given the subplot being that the American people are being used as pawns in wars (such as desert storm & 'nam) and The Dude is also being used as a pawn from The Big Lebowski (Dick Chaney), Maude and the Nihilists, he overcomes them all and has time to go bowling in between.

[@aaroninky]

no one cares what stephen fry the dilettante has to say. stephen fry also uses received pronunciation, you should note.

[@bryggreen77]

Like your video dude but you're over analyzing it. It is my personal favorite. Ben to numerous fests etc. Just enjoy it and relax man.

[@tomascanevaro4292]

i dont understand how its so hard for the general audience to enjoy this movie. I mean yes, it has deeper meanings, but you can still have a blast with this movie, its characters and its humor without knowing what the hell is going on, as long as you like dark comedy

[@JohnLee-ue6gy]

I wish I could put my finger on it, but there is something about the movie that require acclimatization. I am perhaps no bigger fan of anything in the creative arts, than I am of a Coen Brothers movie. I'll nearly take the 'worst' Coen Brothers movie over the best of the rest. But the first 2-3 times I watched it, I thought they'd put out a dud. I don't know if it's expectations of movies, or expectations of the Brothers, but it subverts all of them. It's like the things that turn out enduringly funny you completely miss trying to find the humor in the parts that aren't intended to be funny. Or over time, quality dialog makes the transition from movie dialog to relatable naturalistic dialog. I honestly don't think even the most attuned mind can grasp all of what it going on the first few times around. And that's not a judgment on intelligence or knowledge. As I stated at the outset, it's a matter of acclimatization. It's kind of like coming to the realization how relaxing a sauna can be. On first experience, it is unpleasant and offputting, but when you know what to expect, the enjoyment follows.

[@HYLOBRO]

I feel like analysis of The Big Lebowski is just as arbitrary as the movie itself, and dissecting it is against the whole "don't worry about shit" attitude. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the video. But this movie(along with many Coen brothers films) is convoluted and ambiguous, the way life is convoluted and ambiguous. Which warrants the question, should it really be taken apart and studied the way it has been since its following amassed?

[@HYLOBRO]

***** YAY SOMEONE CARES ABOUT MY THOUGHTS

[@michaeldigennaro5755]

almost every coen brothers movie is essentially the same: take a character (or characters) and put them in a situation where everyone around them is constantly two steps ahead. in No Country For Old Men it's Ed Tom Bell, in Big Lebowski it's the Dude and Walter, in Fargo it's Marge and Jerry. the list goes on.

[@aaroninky]

it's "noir". film "noir". nuh-wah-yre. not "noore". it's french.

[@REN7LUCKY7]

0:18 0:20

[@FingerinUrDaughter]

i never watched it. all the previews for the movie made it seem like some stupid fucking movie about 3-4 dudes in a bowling competition. i still havent watched it because of exactly that. after reading up on it and how the plot is meaningless and its just a bunch of pointless shit, i want to watch it even less.

[@korganrocks3995]

All comedy plots are basically meaningless. By that metric you could discard all the Monty Python movie plots as just a framework to hang sketches on, call every Jim Carrey movie plot an excuse to let Jim Carrey make goofy faces, dismiss Airplane as "just a rehash of an old B-movie" etc etc. I'm not even saying you should watch The Big Lebowski, I'd suggest watching a different Coen Brothers movie, and if you like it you might like the rest of their stuff. Except Ladykillers, I don't know anyone who enjoyed that one...

[@FingerinUrDaughter]

@@korganrocks3995 i do discard everything by monty python and jim carrey, so im not sure where youre going with this. and honestly, i tend to avoid coen brother shit too, because its always pure and utter shit. all style, no substance. asshats like the coens are the reason why the movie industry is a fucking joke, and weve had fucking 14 years of copy/pasted super hero movies, and before that it was zombies and vampires, etc.

[@justmeeagainn]

Complex story? Are you serious? There’s hardly a story at all. That’s the point of the movie. Simple attempt at I’m embezzling which fools nobody.

[@bloodredblaze9794]

There's no such thing an intelligent or a mature feminist...

[@gps9715]

I was mostly with the content creator until he had to devote half the video to the pointless BS his college told him he had to examine. It's a caricaturizing of certain male and female tropes. Almost every movie does it, I didn't need the narrator trying to over explain this point.