The appeal of ‘The Big Lebowski’ is now so well established that it hardly seems surprising it should be one of the films chosen to kick off a new series of canon-defining BFI Classics (along with studies of ‘City Lights’, and – cover your mouth when yawning – ‘Lawrence of Arabia’). This isn’t even the only book on ‘…Lebowski’ out this month. The founders of Lebowskifest – a bowling- based, fancy dress-wearing, Creedence-grooving, White Russian-quaffing celebration of all things Dude – have written ‘I’m A Lebowski, You’re A Lebowski’ (Canongate, £12.99), a fan’s guide to the film filled with trivia, interviews and anecdotes. Read it and learn that somebody really did confront a schoolkid with homework discovered in the back of a stolen car; the authors have tracked down both the self-styled PI and the errant schoolboy.
Tyree and Walters’ is a more scholarly treatise. The danger you face with a BFI Classic is that given the prospect of filling 25,000 words rather than their usual 800, critics will make statements of increasing stupidity and chin-stroking contrariness in a bid to justify their existence. Walters, Time Out’s deputy film editor, and Tyree, avoid such dangers by identifying the two key quotes in the film – ‘What makes a man?’ and ‘Fuck it, Dude. Let’s go bowling’ – and honing their exposition around these twin themes of (Hollywood) notions of masculinity and a philosophical prioritisiation in favour of fun. It’s the latter, they conclude, that makes ‘…Lebowski’ such a joy; few pastiches are so devoid of cynicism as the Coen brothers ‘work backwards through irony… to real emotional content’. They locate the film within a literary comedic tradition that includes Laurence Sterne, Mark Twain and Henry Fielding.
The authors also focus on the ghost bonds between ‘…Lebowski’ and its spiritual cinematic grandfather ‘The Big Sleep’, illustrating their smart observations with a great selection of stills from both films that really tie the book together. It’s a pity that there’s little room here to discuss the third key film in this unofficial LA trilogy, Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’, a Marlowe homage/pastiche that anticipated, informed and adds depth to much of what the Coens did with ‘…Lebowski’. Other minor, fanboy quibbles aside – an overtuned gaydar for The Stranger; a misreading of Walter’s streetfighting style; a ‘Madame Bovary’ for a ‘Modesty Blaise’ – this is terrific stuff, intellectually engaging, visually appealing and shot through with wit and insight. Mark it eight.
