The Big Lebowski

In 1991, Jeff Bridges's Jeffrey Lebowski, known to everyone as The Dude, is a man of simple pleasures: bowling, White Russians, and a rug that really ties his apartment together. When a pair of thugs mistake him for a wealthy namesake and urinate on that rug, the Dude's placid life spirals into a labyrinth of mistaken identity, ransom drops, and nihilists. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, this 1998 comedy-crime film unspools as a shaggy-dog detective story set against the sun-baked sprawl of Los Angeles.

John Goodman plays Walter Sobchak, the Dude's bowling partner and a Vietnam vet with a hair-trigger temper and a rigid moral code. Julianne Moore is Maude Lebowski, the eccentric artist daughter of the real big Lebowski, while Steve Buscemi rounds out the trio as the sweet-natured Donny, perpetually silenced by Walter's outbursts. Shot on a $15 million budget by cinematographer Roger Deakins, the film earned over $47 million worldwide. Its loose structure, quotable dialogue, and celebration of slacker philosophy turned it into a cult phenomenon, earning a 7.8 rating from over 12,000 votes on IMDb and a spot in the National Film Registry in 2014. [edit]

Jeffrey Lebowski, a man who prefers to be called The Dude, lives a quiet life in Venice Beach, California, circa 1991. His routine consists of smoking marijuana, drinking White Russians, and bowling with his friends Walter Sobchak and Donny Kerabatsos at Hollywood Star Lanes. That peace shatters when two thugs break into his apartment, mistake him for a millionaire of the same name, rough him up, and urinate on his rug. The rug, as the Dude later explains, really tied the room together.

Seeking restitution, the Dude visits the real Jeffrey Lebowski, a wealthy, wheelchair-bound philanthropist, at his sprawling Pasadena mansion. There he meets Brandt, the Big Lebowski's sycophantic assistant, and learns that the millionaire's young wife, Bunny, has been kidnapped by a group of German nihilists demanding $1 million in ransom. The Big Lebowski offers the Dude a simple job: deliver the ransom money to the kidnappers. Walter, convinced that this is their chance to stick it to the rich, pushes the Dude to accept.

The Dude also meets Maude Lebowski, the Big Lebowski's avant-garde artist daughter, who paints by hurling herself onto canvases suspended from the ceiling. Maude suspects her father staged the kidnapping to embezzle money from a charitable foundation established by his late wife. She offers the Dude $100,000 if he can recover the funds. Meanwhile, the Dude finds himself entangled with Jackie Treehorn, a pornographer and Bunny's former employer, who sends thugs to intimidate him.

The Dude's journey takes him through a series of increasingly absurd misadventures: his car is stolen, he's drugged and experiences a surreal Busby Berkeley-style musical hallucination, and he's repeatedly beaten by various parties seeking information he doesn't have. Walter's plan to intercept the ransom drop goes catastrophically wrong, he insists on using a fake briefcase and brandishes a gun, leaving the money stolen and the nihilists furious. Throughout it all, the Dude, Walter, and Donny must also prepare for their upcoming bowling tournament, which serves as a grounding counterpoint to the escalating chaos. The central mystery remains: who has the money, and was the kidnapping real or a fraud?[edit]