RATINGS: IMDB ― 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes ― 99%, ME ― 95%
Walter Sobchak: I'm saying, I see what you're getting at, Dude, he kept the money. My point is, here we are, it's shabbas, the sabbath, which I'm allowed to break only if it's a matter of life or death...
The Dude: Will you come off it, Walter? You're not even fucking Jewish, man.
Walter Sobchak: What the fuck are you talkin' about?
The Dude: Man, you're fucking Polish Catholic...
Walter Sobchak What the fuck are you talking about? I converted when I married Cynthia! Come on, Dude!
The Dude: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
Walter Sobchak: And you know this!
The Dude: Yeah, and five fucking years ago you were divorced.
Walter Sobchak: So what are you saying? When you get divorced you turn in your library card? You get a new license? You stop being Jewish?
The Dude: It's all a part of your sick Cynthia thing, man. Taking care of her fucking dog. Going to her fucking synagogue. You're living in the fucking past.
Walter Sobchak: Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax..
[shouting]
Walter Sobchak: YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I'M LIVIN' IN THE FUCKIN' PAST!
John Goodman as Walter Sobchak and Jeff Bridges as The Dude
Trivia (From IMDB):
Before filming a scene, Jeff Bridges would frequently ask the Coen Brothers "Did the Dude burn one on the way over?" If they said he had, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before doing a take to make his eyes appear bloodshot.
The Dude says "man" 147 times in the movie, nearly 1.5 times a minute.
A lot of the Dude's clothes in the movie were Jeff Bridges's own clothes, including his Jellies sandals.
The Dude is in every scene of the movie. Even in the scene where the Nihilists are ordering pancakes you can see the van in which the Dude and Walter are driving. This is in keeping with the traditional film-noir, in which the protagonist is the narrator and acts as the audience's guide throughout the film.
In an early draft of the script, The Dude's source of income was revealed. He was an heir to the inventor of the Rubik's Cube. It was Joel Coen's idea to drop this and never say.
While being a member of the bowling team, the Dude is the only one never seen bowling throughout the movie.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, John Goodman stated that The Dude referring to The Big Lebowski as a "human paraquat" was one of the only improvised lines to make it into the final film. Virtually every other line, including every 'man' and 'dude,' was scripted.
John Goodman's favorite film of his own.
In a version that was edited for television broadcasts, the famous line "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!" was changed to "This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!", which is regularly cited as one of the most "creative" edits made for a film to be aired on TV.
The reason Steve Buscemi's character, Donny, is constantly being told to "Shut the fuck up!" by Walter (John Goodman), is because Buscemi's character in Fargo (1996) was such a mouthy chatterbox.
The Dude's line, "The Dude abides," is a reference to Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth abides forever." It is a reference to how the Dude, much like the Earth, can weather change and chaos around him, but still remain the same.
The screenplay was written with Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Sam Elliott in mind.
The F-word or a variation of the F-word is used 292 times.
The Dude has a habit of repeating phrases he hears from other characters. The George Bush speech "This aggression will not stand" is repeated by the Dude. Maude Lebowski uses the phrase "Parlance of our times" Dude repeats this one in the limo. The Big Lebowski says he "Will not abide another toe!" at the end of the movie "The Dude abides" and threatening Larry with castration like the nihilists did in his bathroom.
One of the inspirations for the character of Walter is the Coen Brothers' friend, writer-director John Milius, an infamously bombastic right-winger with an obsession with all things militaristic and an enthusiasm for guns. His girth, beard, hair style, and shades are also all reflected in Walter's physical appearance. The Coens had tried to cast Milius in the film Barton Fink (1991) in the part eventually played by Michael Lerner.
The Dude tells Maude he was a roadie for Metallica on their (fictional) "Speed of Sound" tour and refers to the band members as a "bunch of assholes." Metallica themselves were flattered to be referred to in a Coen Brothers movie, with guitarist Kirk Hammettonce noting in an interview that they'd tried to think of a way to incorporate that scene into their live shows.
T Bone Burnett acted as music consultant for the movie, and helped Joel Coen andEthan Coen establish the Dude's taste in music. Burnett selected many of the existing songs in the movie, and also suggested the Dude's hatred towards The Eagles (Burnett himself is not a fan either). One of the band's member, Glenn Frey, was reportedly so dismayed about this that he once even angrily confronted Jeff Bridges when they met at a party.
As The Dude writes the 69 cent check at Ralph's, he watches George H.W. Bush give the "This aggression will not stand" press interview live on TV. President Bush gave the interview on the White House lawn on Sunday, August 5, 1990, 3 days after the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait. The Dude's check, however, is dated September 11, 1991, indicating that The Dude is so broke, that he had to post-date a 69 cent check by over one year.
When we're introduced to the Dude's (bowling) arch-nemesis Jesus, a flamenco version of The Eagles song "Hotel California" plays (and is portrayed as playing on the bowling alley's PA system). Later, we learn in the taxicab scene that the Dude "...hate[s] the fuckin' Eagles, man."
People mention peeing on the dude's rug 17 times. They also mention that the rug "really tied the room together" 5 times.
When John Turturro's character Jesus has to go door to door, sharing that he is a convicted sex offender, he has a large bulge in his tight pants. The bulge was formed by a bag of birdseed.
There are only two exchanges where the Dude speaks directly to Donny, as he largely ignores him. The first is in the bowling alley at the beginning, when Donny asks "What are we talking about?" twice, to which the Dude responds "My rug!" twice. The second is as the Dude is walking home from the bowling alley, Donny asks "Where you going, Dude?", to which he says "Home, Donny". Then Donny says, "Phone's ringin' Dude," and the Dude responds, "Thank you Donny."
The diner where Walter and the Dude have a cup of coffee during the toe scene is the same diner from the later scenes of American History X (1998). It is located at Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles. It's called Johnie's Coffee Shop and is only open for filming.
According to a local newspaper in Akron, Ohio, the "Medina Sod" bowling shirt the Dude wears in the movie is a real 1960s bowling shirt found in a thrift store in LA. It belonged to a man named Art Myers who was the foreman at Medina Sod in Medina, Ohio.
The Dude was based on independent film promoter Jeff Dowd (aka Jeff "The Dude" Dowd), who helped the Coen brothers secure distribution for their first feature, Blood Simple (1984). Like his fictional counterpart, Dowd was a member of the Seattle Seven and takes a casual approach to grooming and dress. The Port Huron Statement that The Dude refers to himself as being one of the original authors of, is a real document/statement written by The Students for a Democratic Society at a national convention meeting in, Michigan, June 11-15, 1962. Jeff Dowd was not one of those students, being not quite 13 years old, as he was born on November 20, 1949.
Of all the different personalized bowling shirts Donny wears throughout the film, none of them bears his name.
DaFino refers to himself as a "brother shamus," a term which confuses the Dude. This was a popular term for a private investigator during the inter-regnum years, whenRaymond Chandler wrote the stories on which this film is loosely based.
The Dude calls The Big Lebowski a "human paraquat." Paraquat is an herbicide. During the late 1970s, a controversial program sponsored by the US government sprayed paraquat on marijuana fields in Mexico.
The lawyers that The Dude mentions are William Kunstler and Ronald Kuby, who are radical attorneys noted for defending numerous controversial defendants, including suspected terrorist leaders and the daughter of Malcolm X.
When the Dude picks Walter up, just before the money drop, we learn that Walter works at his own company: Sobchak Security.
Nearly all of the visible symbols in The Dude's second dream sequence are taken from earlier scenes: - the black and white tile is seen earlier in the Big Lebowski's entry way when The Dude walks with Brandt and again at the end - the tool belt and workman outfit The Dude is seen wearing is identical to the one worn by Karl Hungus in Logjammin' - Saddam Hussein is mentioned briefly by Walter in the car outside the bowling alley; in the opening credits, we see a man looking a bit similar to Saddam spraying the bowling shoes at the alley - Maude's gold bowling ball bra cups are taken from bowling balls seen on the rack behind Walter in an earlier scene at the bowling alley - the scissors wielded by the red-clad Nihilists are seen in a painting with a red background on Maude's wall - the red-on-black bowling ball is the same as the one in the earlier dream sequence and is also visible on the rack behind Walter and The Dude at the bowling alley. - The initial scene of The Dude's exaggerated walking in while casting a big shadow is similar to his landlord's shadow dance to "Pictures at an Exhibition." - Maude Lebowski's trident is from a statue at The Big Lebowski's home.
Recipe for making a White Russian: 2 parts vodka, 1 part coffee liqueur (such as Kahlúa) and 1 part cream. Served with ice in a low ball glass.
The private detective that's following Lebowski says that Bunny's family is from a farm "outside Moorhead, Minnesota". Moorhead is the home town of Jeff Bridges' wife and is located directly across the state line from Fargo, ND. (Fargo (1996) was the title of the Coen brothers' previous film). Bunny's high school cheer-leading photo shows her wearing orange and black, the real school colors of Moorhead.
Almost all the music on the soundtrack is revealed to be playing on a radio at some point - the official term for this concept is "diegesis". Examples: "The Man in Me" in the first dream sequence fades out after The Dude wakes up, but we still hear it, tinny and distant on his Walkman. "Hotel California" plays through out the entire scene with Jesus at the bowling alley, and even during the brief flashback, apparently as a song playing on the alley's PA system. The big band music that plays as The Dude leaves his house fades and is heard playing on Da Fino's car radio as they talk. Additionally, at the beginning of the film, the opening song, "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds", fades into a muzak version of itself as the Dude shops for his creamer in the grocery store; when it cuts to the Dude outside the store, the song has faded back into its original version.
Norwegian posters and video cassettes carried the text "anbefales av norsk bowling forbund" (recommended by the Norwegian Bowling Association).
The word "dude" is used around 161 times in the movie. 160 spoken and once in text in the credits for "Gutterballs" the second dream sequence.
The license plate of Bunny's red convertible spells "LAPIN", French translation of rabbit (bunny).
Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers plays a character in a band called Autobahn, which is a jab at the German band Kraftwerk (Kraftwerk had a single called "Autobahn"). The two bands have played venues together in the 80's.
The second time we see Treehorn's thugs, they've swapped clothing!
In the Dude's first dream sequence, the person who throws the giant bowling ball, seen out of focus and upside down as the ball rolls down the lane, is Maude.
The man shown bowling in the picture on The Dude's wall is President Richard Nixon. Nixon was an avid bowler; the picture in the movie is a well-publicized shot of Nixon in the bowling alley underneath the White House.
In Maude's nude scene a fake butt is used, as Julianne Moore refused to do nudity. Originally a body double was going to shoot the scene but quit just before filming the scene due to a post credit promise that was not going to happen, so Moore agreed to shoot the scene, but only with a prosthetic ass.
The bowling alley scenes were filmed at the former Holly Star Lanes near Santa Monica and the 101 Freeway exit ramp. The bowling alley has since been torn down and a new elementary school stands in its place.
The Dude's car is a 4-door 1973 Ford Torino. Two vehicles were used in filming: one was destroyed during the filming, the other was destroyed in the filming of The X-Files: Salvage (2001).
The fast-food restaurant In & Out Burger is referred to during the movie, for which John Goodman once did a commercial.
While urinating on the Dude's rug, the Threehorn thug says "Ever thus to deadbeats, Lebowski!" This is a play on the Latin phrase "Sic semper tyrannis!" (Thus always to tyrants!), which was allegedly spoken by the murderers of Gaio Giulio Cesare andAbraham Lincoln during the assassinations.
The photo that the Private Eye shows the Dude of Bunny Lebowski's farm is the same one shown in Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood". Oddly enough,the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played Brandt, also went on to famously portray the eponymous author in 2005's Capote (2005), and 'Mark Pellegrino' who plays Blond Treehorn Thug, plays Dick Hickock (one of the murderers of that farm's inhabitants) in Capote (2005).
The fictional German techno-pop band in the movie, Autobahn, is a parody of (or homage to) the legendary electronic band Kraftwerk. The Autobahn album cover is stylistically similar to the cover of the Kraftwerk album "The Man-Machine," and the group name Autobahn is the name of a Kraftwerk song. The title of Autobahn's album "Nagelbett" is German for "nail bed". In Swedish, Peter Stormare's native tongue, it means "nail bite".
When being interviewed for "Inside the Actors Studio", Jeff Bridges met with the Coen brothers after reading the script and asked them "Did you guys hang out with me in high school?" referring to the Dude's easygoing surfer persona.
When The Dude and Walter are bowling after the botched ransom drop off, Walter says "Eitz chaim hi, Dude, as the ex used to say." This is the first half of a Hebrew verse, which means "It is a tree of life" (the second half of the verse is "lamachazikim ba", which means "to those who take hold of it") and it refers to the Old Testament.
Charlize Theron was considered for the role of Bunny Lebowski.
Song titles on the "Autobahn" LP "Nagelbett" are: Saturation, Faking It, Hit and Run, No Way Out, Violate U-Blue, Beg me, Take It In, Edelweiss (Club mix).
With their characteristic mix of fact and fiction, the Coen Brothers's blend mention of the real-life 1960s TV series Branded (1965) with the name of the show's supposed writer, the (fictional) character in the iron lung, Arthur Digby Sellers (whose name does not correspond to that of any actual major contributor of the short-lived "Branded" series). Meanwhile, elsewhere in the movie, when The Dude is drunk in the back of a Malibu police car, he sings the series's theme song.
Jeff Bridges, in his second career as a musician, sometimes tours with a backing band called "The Abiders" - a reference to the repeated line "the Dude abides" from this movie.
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
The Dude drinks nine White Russians during the course of the movie. (He drops one of them at Jackie Treehorn's mansion.)
The Dude meets a lot of new people throughout the story, outside his "tribe". But only three, Brandt, Jackie Treehorn and The Stranger (Sam Elliott) show enough "respect" for him to call him "Dude".
Unusual for an American movie, a bad guy wields a cricket bat rather than a baseball bat.
The house in which The Dude meets with Jackie Treehorn was designed by architect John Lautner. The movie makes it look as though it sits on the beach, when in actuality, it rests on the side of a hill overlooking the city of Los Angeles.
The Dude's gait in the opening shot to the "Gutterballs" sequence resembles the gait used by the characters in Robert Crumb's famous "Keep on Truckin'" cartoon.
After having been cast in the film, Jeff Bridges, no stranger to working on films that would have constant script rewrites, called John Goodman to ask when they'd get the rewrites. Goodman, a longtime collaborator of the Coens, had told Bridges that this film was Coen territory and they didn't rewrite their own material.
In a 2013 interview with Terry Gross, Joel Coen told a story about having recently been at a movie theater in San Francisco, where they saw a booth displaying Lebowski posters. Ethan asked the teenage girl there what was going on, and she proceeded to tell him about the theater's nightly screenings of the movie. She said that people come dressed in costumes, "and you should come and you'll like it, it's fun." She had no idea that the two men had made the movie.
The Little Lebowski Shop, is a store devoted exclusively to the film that's in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The store sells merchandise related to the film such as memorabilia and t-shirts of the characters.
The name on the Dude's last shirt is "Art".
According to the plaque on the dog carrier, the Pomeranian's name is Thurston.
In addition to Nagelbett by the fictitious group "Autobahn" and Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream and Other Delights, other albums are visible in Maude's vinyl collection: Stereotomy by The Alan Parsons Project, At Home With The Barry Sisters, and Blue River by Eric Andersen.
The check that The Dude writes in the beginning of the movie, for only $0.69, is post-dated. He clearly writes the date as 9/11/91 and when he speaks to his landlord later in the movie the landlord reminds him that "Tomorrow is the tenth."
To develop the lazy, out of shape character of the Dude, Jeff Bridges let himself go physically.
When The Dude is thumbing through Maude's albums and pulls out the fictional "Autobahn" album, the album directly behind it is Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream & Other Delights", an actual album.
The phone Dude carries around is a Motorola 4500X.
The gun that Walter pulls in the bowling alley is a Colt model 1911 .45 caliber semi automatic handgun.
The initials for Walter Sobchak's security company (Sobchak Security) are "SS". The Jewish Walter's company shares the same initials as the Schutzstaffel, or SS. The Schutzstaffel were arguably the most demonic force of Nazi Germany. The Nuremberg Trials attributed most of the Holocaust atrocities to this group.
As the first President Bush remarks "This aggression will not stand" at the beginning of the movie, the Dude makes out a check dated 9-11-1991, exactly ten years before the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. As the film was released in 1998, this is obviously just a grim coincidence.
Nagelbett, the name of the Autobahn album, means (roughly) "bed of nails" in German. The photograph on the cover shows a bed of nails.
The Dude and Walter are never actually seen bowling
John Goodman only takes off his glasses in one scene.
As the Dude writes the $0.69 check for his half & half, you can see a phone number in the upper half of his checkbook: 537-3375.
Although John Goodman denies it, Jeff Bridges claims that he and John ad-libbed most of they're dialogue. This may be true, due to the fact that they often interrupt they're own lines in the film.
Cameo ―
Asia Carrera: the girl appearing opposite Bunny Lebowski and the nihilist in the porno movie that Maude shows The Dude is an actual porn star.
Aimee Mann: The musician is the nine-toed Nihilist woman who we see briefly at the diner.
Charlie Kaufman: in the audience during the interpretive dance scene. Kaufman's own script, Being John Malkovich (1999), also contains an interpretive dance sequence.
Spoilers ―
Everything that Walter theorizes about Bunny's kidnapping comes true: the fake kidnapping, the fake severed toe, the lack of ransom money and Bunny eventually returning home to Lebowski's mansion (presumably because she got bored while hanging out in Las Vegas where she'd run off to).
These are also spoilers for Miller's Crossing (1990) and Fargo (1996):] After Steve Buscemi's character has died and is being remembered, all that remains of him are his ashes which blow all over The Dude when Walter scatters them at the ocean. This is part of a three-movie running gag where the visible remains of Buschemi's characters get smaller and smaller. In "Miller's Crossing", Buscemi is last seen as a whole dead body on the ground, and in "Fargo" all that remains of him is a severed leg being fed into a wood chipper by his killer (played by Peter Stormare who also portrays one of the Nihilists here.)
The Coen Brothers were inspired by several sources and stories. Possibly the leading source was their friend Peter Exline, who coined the phrase "It really tied the room together" to describe one of his own rugs. Pete and a friend of his "Big" Lew Abernathy (a private detective who the Coens didn't know) are considered to be the partial basis for the character Walter. Pete, a Vietnam veteran and college professor, once jokingly tried to scare his students by exclaiming "First Vietnam, now this?!" while hitting a chair, similar to the way Walter (non-jokingly) inappropriately compares everything to Vietnam. Pete also told the Coens about a story where his car was stolen and Abernathy helped him investigate. They found the homework of a 14-year-old and, instead of telling the police, they put the homework in a plastic bag and drove out to the kid's home to confront him (though unlike the movie, the kid did not actually steal the car and Abernathy did not end the confrontation by bashing a car outside the kid's house). Another story related by Pete was the time that Abernathy was arraigned by a Santa Monica sheriff who, as in the movie, insulted him and told him to "stay out of my beach community!"
The only time Donny doesn't get a strike is before they fight the Nihilists at the end of the movie.
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