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Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston ... see more see more... , Philip Seymour Hoffman , Peter Stormare , Flea , Leon Russom , Sam Elliott , Tara Reid , John Turturro , David Thewlis , Ben Gazzara , Aimee Mann , Dom Irrera , Jon Polito , Asia Carrera , Peter Siragusa , Christian Clemenson , Jack Kehler , Philip Moon , James G. Hoosier , Jimmie Dale Gilmore , Richard Gant , Mark Pellegrino , Paris Themmen , Torsten Voges

The plot of this Raymond Chandler-esque comedy crime caper from the Coen Brothers (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) pivots around a case of mistaken identity complicated by extortion, double-crosses, decepti... read more read more...on, embezzlement, sex, pot, and gallons of White Russians (made with fresh cream, please). In 1991, unemployed '60s refugee Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) grooves into his laid-back Los Angeles lifestyle. One of the laziest men in LA, he enjoys hanging with his bowling buddies, pompous security-store owner Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and mild-mannered ex-surfer Donny (Steve Buscemi). However, the Dude's life takes an alternate route the afternoon two goons break into his threadbare Venice, California, bungalow, rough him up, and urinate on his living room rug. Why? Because Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) is owed money by the wife of a certain Jeff Lebowski. However, the goons grabbed the wrong Jeff Lebowski. With the right info, they would have invaded the home of philanthropic Pasadena millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston). The Dude looks up his wealthy namesake, manages to get a replacement for his rug, and meets the millionaire's sexy young wife Bunny (Tara Reid). Later, Jeffrey ("The Big") Lebowski calls in the Dude to deliver a $1 million ransom for the return of his kidnapped wife. Fine -- except that Walter intrudes and botches the ransom drop. As events unravel, the Dude gets caught up in the schemes of Lebowski's daughter, erotic artist Maude (Julianne Moore), encounters both cops and bad guys, and drifts through an elaborate bowling fantasy sequence titled Gutterballs. The soundtrack includes Bob Dylan, Yma Sumac, Moondog, Captain Beefheart, and the Sons of the Pioneers. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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93% liked it

305,096 ratings

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80% liked it

84 critics

R, 1 hr. 58 min.

Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Asia Carrera, Ben Gazzara, Christian Clemenson, David Huddleston, David Thewlis, Flea, Jack Kehler, James G. Hoosier, Jeff Bridges, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, John Goodman, John Turturro, Jon Polito, Julianne Moore

Release Date: March 6, 1998

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DVD Release Date: October 27, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (31,823)

  • jmanard52
    August 27, 2011
    jmanard52
    The Dude abides. Not much else I can say but what a great movie this is. One of the all time great cult films.
  • MovieGeek13
    April 27, 2013
    MovieGeek13
    A cult phenomenon that seems to only get better with age, the Coen Brothers' absolutely hilarious comedy The Big Lebowski should keep winning fans over as it gets seen and rewatched by newbies and fans all over the world. Jeff Bridges' iconic performance as "The Dude" is one of h... read moreis all time best, while John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and John Tuturro as Jesus provide laugh after laugh after laugh. The film noir influenced plot is just the backdrop to the antics that The Dude and his bowling buddies are up to as they try to solve a kidnapping mystery involving a millionnaire named Jeff Lebowski and his young wife.
    The Big Lebowski is classic Coen Brothers. It isn't quite a masterpiece like Fargo or No Country for Old Men. but it is a worthy film to the hype that has surrounded it over the past decade.
  • paulsandberg
    October 1, 2012
    paulsandberg
    The Coen Bros. hot off their mega hit Fargo, created this off beat, yet off times brilliant piece where the actual storyline, while interesting enough on its own, is a mere backdrop to a much more meaningful dialog about.... Well, just about everything. That the Coen Bros. can p... read moreull this off with humor and pathos combined is the true mark of their expert storytelling, harkening back to their wonderful debut effort "Blood Simple".

    There are similarities to "Blood Simple" in the storyline, but here the story is merely a jumping off point where the Bros. expand and amaze; riffing on everything from anger management, war (Vietnam in particular), and the rise of the entire slacker mentality, so wonderfully portrayed by Jeff Bridges as "the Dude".

    From the beginning where you get a scripted voice over that sounds like a country version of a Chandler Noir book, as the visuals show a tumbleweed blown by the Santa Ana winds from the desert to the City of Angels, and then out to sea, all while the song Tumbling Tumbleweed plays in the background, you have all the roadmap you really need. The Dude embodies that tumbleweed, as does the script which reminds us that a simple act leads to other acts that snowball on top of one another creating a bizarre, hilarious, and yet believable mountain of incidents, where the only unbelievable parts are the characters of the bit players - from the Nihlist gang to Julianne Moore's hilarious portrayal as the Big Lebowski's daughter; all played for laughs.

    But at the film's core you have Bridges and his bowling partner, a Vietnam vet with anger issues portrayed by John Goodman. The two are the solid core, and yet there are so many wonderful little pearls from the supporting cast - from the aforementioned role by Moore, to the fussy man servant portrayed by Phillip Seymore Hoffman, to an insane turn by John Turturro as the wacky bowling competitor Jesus (pronounced Jesus, not Heyzoos). Also in the mix is Steve Buschemi as the literal third wheel of the Dude's bowling team.

    The film includes some bizarre and oft times hilarious bits of imagination that occur while the Dude is knocked unconscious (which happens frequently). Included in those bits of subconscious meanderings is a terrific bit where the Dude, who has just been drugged, imagines himself in the middle of a porno film that includes a dance number with Moore as a Valkarie with bowling balls as her breast plate - as the Kenny Rogers and the First Edition performance of "Seeing What Condition My Condition Was In" plays in the background. If the idea of a porno film couched around bowling seems odd to you - well of course it is - and yet it works wonderfully well; especially since the film expounds a kind of zen of bowling motif throughout.

    And really, that last bit is all you really need to know about the film - offbeat, to be certain, and yet, at least for me, this all fit together into a wonderfully well thought out film where, unlike so many current films, the oddness has a meaning and a purpose - and isn't merely weird for weird's sake.
  • spielberg00
    September 1, 2012
    spielberg00
    Sometimes great minds do think alike. Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen can be defined by absolutely nothing but pure brilliance. By just scratching the surface in an analysis of their creative methods, we discover that the two of them are responsible for Fargo, a film that disproved ... read moreanybody and everybody who ever doubted the feasibility of a comedic thriller; O Brother, Where Art Thou?, an even more anomalous picture that twisted the plot from Homer's solemn epic poem The Odyssey, into an absurd, Southernized, Great Depression-set escapade; and True Grit, one of very few remakes that is applauded far more than the original 1969 work, perhaps due to an adventurous wit John Wayne could never have dreamed of delivering. I dare say that of what I've seen out of their filmography, The Big Lebowski is surprisingly lacking in both invention and innovation; I might go even further and express that more creativity can be excavated from its massive cultural impact, i.e. the inception and expansion of "Dudeism" by its many, many cult followers. Is it lacking in humor? No, not at all. Of course black comedies such as Fargo are easily more "cinepsychologically" identifiable, but when the massively side splitting chortles received in that film are weighed out beside those among The Big Lebowski, the scale evens out pretty smoothly...man.

    The less you know about the film, the more priceless entertainment you'll likely draw from the initial viewing. That's not a phrase I'd so much as expect myself to employ for something in the absurd caliber of The Big Lebowski, but it's an awfully bona fide statement. To reveal just a few more events that occur in the story's thirty-minute setup would make the effect of the eventuating climax seem predictable, slapdash, and simply boring. The Dude himself is what makes the story so hilarious, when nothing else does. He speaks like a seventh-grade jock trying to incorporate challenging vocabulary into his everyday speech. I suppose I should reveal just one more tidbit from the setup: Quoth the Dude, "Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not 'Mr. Lebowski'. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing." We are given the same misleading opening narration, on top of that, that made films like This Is Spinal Tap and the more recent Kung Fu Panda even more memorable (but contrary to the latter example, this is not a family movie). We are led to expect a film that sings the praises and triumphs of some sort of legendary victor that anyone in the film's universe has heard of. We're mislead so far, with first-person viewpoints that simply cannot be described by words like "oddball" or "psychedelic", we have to wonder if the narrating character was the Coens' former choice to preface a mockumentary glamorizing African poverty.

    read the rest at themoviefreakblog.com, man
  • samoriley
    August 21, 2012
    samoriley
    A truely clever and very funny movie. Featuring superb performances from Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Julianne Moore. With plenty of one liners, they are superb for quoting while playing bowling. Once you have watch this, you may not be able to stop quoting lines or remembering... read more that 'The Dude abides'.
  • edfilmreviews
    August 16, 2012
    edfilmreviews
    "The Big Lebowski" is hilarious. I'm not a diehard fan of the film (besides owning a couple of t-shirts) but I do understand why it's so popular. The characters are great and the situations they end up in are memorable. With that said, I think the plot is a little hectic and coul... read mored have flowed better. Definitely a quotable movie, that's for sure.
  • paulkoh110
    August 8, 2012
    paulkoh110
    After multiple viewings, the film feels like a well aged wine. The deadpan comedy is great and the acting from Bridges and Goodman are a riot. It truly is a film about nothing and the faster a viewer realizes this, the faster he/she will appreciate this gem.
  • MrMarakai
    May 23, 2012
    MrMarakai
    This film has such a massive cult following that it has even spawned a traveling, annual festival called "The Lebowski Fest", at which fans congregate dressed as their favourite characters. It has also amassed a new belief system called "Dudeism" of which you can be ordained as a... read more Dudeist priest. Now, this might be going a bit far but it's all in the name of fun, of which, this Coen brothers tale supplies plenty of.
    Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is a cannabis smoking throwback from the seventies. He minds his own business, enjoying "bowling, driving around and the occasional acid flashback". One day, two thugs break into his home and urinate on his rug - "which really tied the room together". As he looks for answers, he finds that he has been mistaken for his namesake Jeffrey Lebowski, the Passadena millionaire (David Huddleston). Otherwise referred to as "The Big Lebowski. Looking for compensation for his rug, he pays the millionaire a visit and finds that his absent, trophy wife Bunny (Tara Reid) owes money all over town - including known pornographer Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazarra), who sent the thugs (to the wrong house) to collect on the debt. But the thugs aren't the only ones who have gotten their Lebowski's mixed up. A trio of Nihilists threaten "The Dude" for a ransom of $1 million, claiming they will kill his wife. Reluctantly, "The Dude" gets involved, with his crazed Vietnam veteran buddy Walter (John Goodman), in trying to get the bottom of all the confusion. Does this make sense? Don't worry, "The Dude" doesn't get it either.
    Trying to even give a synopsis of the plot in this complex tale, is hard enough, but that's to the Coens' credit in concocting this elaborate modern day private detective story. In the past, the Coens payed homage to crime writer Dashiell Hammett with "Miller's Crossing" and here, they pay homage to Hammett's contemporary Raymond Chandler. It has all the elements of a classic private-eye yarn but masquerades as a zany comedy. It's so much more than that. It's a film that relies heavily on consistently sharp dialogue and each word, pause and stammer are delivered perfectly by an exceptionally brilliant cast; Bridges is a very fine actor but this is his moment of glory, in a role that is perfectly suited. He has received numerous plaudits throughout his career - for his more serious roles - but this is his most iconic. Coens regular John Goodman is also at his maniacal best as his loyal buddy, Walter. Sam Elliott is wonderfully endearing, as "The Stranger", in cowboy attire, that's narrates the whole wacky tale and a scene-stealing John Turturro is simply unforgettable as Jesus Quintana, a latino, sex-offending bowler. In fact, it's very difficult to single out a specific performance, there are so many great appearances: from the likes of Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, David Thewlis, Ben Gazzara, Jon Polito and the always marvellous Philip Seymour Hoffman. The entire cast are just sublime and deliver their, razor sharp, dialogue under the most creative guidance from the Coens. It's not just the performances that stand out though; usual Coens cinematographer Roger Deakins works with a rich and colourful pallet and the choice of music throughout, accompanies the scenes perfectly.
    I could go on and pick out every perfect detail of this classic but then I'd just be ruining it for you, even if you've already seen it. It'll do no harm to see it again - with a spliff and a beverage - and allow your "casualness to run deep".
    I have tried to find the words that do this film justice but I still don't think I have. Rest assured though, this is the most enjoyable Coens movie to date and an instant cult classic that wll take one hell of a film to topple it from my #1 spot.
  • 366weirdmovies
    May 21, 2012
    366weirdmovies
    When thugs urinate on his carpet in a case of mistaken identity, 60s burnout "the Dude" is drawn into a complicated caper involving a millionaire's kidnapped porn-star wife---in the middle of his bowling league playoffs! This quirky Coen brothers gem is, almost without a doubt, t... read morehe greatest acid-flashback bowling-noir comedy ever made.
  • fb100001581602053
    May 12, 2012
    fb100001581602053
    A perfect 10. That's a bowling joke. And a double meaning. This movie is a perfect 10. If this movie was a woman, I'd be kind of grossed out.... But a little attracted. But this movie is a movie, not a woman.

View All The Big Lebowski Reviews

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy
November 7, 2007
Todd McCarthy, Variety

Adds up to considerably less than the sum of its often scintillating parts. Full Review

Andrew Sarris
April 27, 2007
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

The result is a lot of laughs and a feeling of awe toward the craftsmanship involved. I doubt that there'll be anything else like it the rest of this year. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Far from being shallow pastiche, it's actually about something: what it means to be a man, to be a friend, and to be a 'hero' for a particular time and place. Full Review

Rick Groen
April 25, 2003
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

A typical Coen brothers film is like no film you've ever seen. Full Review

Kenneth Turan
February 14, 2001
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

As tempting as it is to completely dismiss The Big Lebowski, it's hard to do because the Coens are able to create wickedly funny eccentrics and possess the ability to energize certain actors to inhabi... Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The Big Lebowski is a mess. But what a glorious, wonderfully-entertaining mess it is. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 1, 2000
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

The Dude and Sobchak begin as caricatures too, but they're allowed to grow into something deeper, if only because the humanist economy of the Coens' surrealist vaudeville allows for a couple of human ... Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It's weirdly engaging, like its hero. Full Review

Edward Guthmann
January 1, 2000
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

There are more ideas here, more wacko side characters and plot curlicues than the film can support, and inevitably it deflates from having to shoulder so much. Full Review

Andrew O'Hehir
January 1, 2000
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

A genial spoof about life on the unhinged margins of L.A. that's a lot more carefully constructed than it pretends to be. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Walter Sobchak: Am I the only one who gives a shit about the rules?
    • Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
    • The Dude: No.
    • Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
    • The Dude: No, you're not wrong Walter, you're just an asshole.
    • Walter Sobchak: Okay then.
    • Private Snoop: You see what happens Lebowski?
    • The Dude: Nobody calls me :ebowski, you got the wrong guy, I'm the Dude, man.
    • Private Snoop: Your name's Lebowski, Lebowski. Your wife is Bunny.
    • The Dude: My wife? Bunny? Do you see a wedding ring on my finger? Does this place look like I'm fuckin married? The toilet seat's up man!
    • The Dude: Yeah man. it really tied the room together.
    • Donny: What tied the room together dude?
    • The Dude: My rug.
    • Walter Sobchak: Were you listening to the Dude's story, Donny?
    • Donny: I was bowling.
    • Walter Sobchak: So then you have no frame of reference here, Donny, You're like a child who wonders in the middle of movie.
    • The Dude: She probably kidnapped herself.
    • Donny: What do you mean dude?
    • The Dude: Rug Peers did not do this. look at it. A young trophy wife, marries this guy for his money, she figures he hasn't given her enough, she owes money all over town,
    • Walter Sobchak: That fuckin bitch.
    • Walter Sobchak: Forget it, Donny, you're out of your element!
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The Big Lebowski Trivia

  • Who has starred in the following movies? - Resevoir Dogs - Con Air - Armageddon - The Big Lebowski - Fargo  Answer »
  • In The Big Lebowski, what classic rock group does the Dude hate?  Answer »
  • What Character was played by Tara Ried in The Big Lebowski?  Answer »
  • From which film is the following quote taken from? "You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways"  Answer »
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