The Coen Brothers may have just enjoyed the greatest commercial, critical and Oscar success of their career with No Country for Old Men, but it will never be their most beloved movie. That would be the decidedly offbeat comedy released to general box office indifference ten years ago this month: The Big Lebowski.
As one of seven Americans to not only see Lebowski during its original theatrical run but to love it immediately, I've always been both baffled and delighted by the movie's ascension to the top of the "most quoted" heap, let alone its Star Trek-like success in the realm of fan conventions. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Dude-alike Clark Collins offers his own perspective of the cult of Lebowski. "Ten years ago, I too was an unmarried, beer-gutted, long-haired, crappy-car-owning, Bob Dylan-loving hippie type. Moreover, like the Dude, I wasn't technically employed… I didn't appreciate being compared to the Dude. I was not some feckless, zonked-out waster. I was writing a novel — or I would be, just as soon as I finished putting my Dylan records in chronological order. Moreover, and it almost physically hurts to admit this, I didn't think the film was very funny at the time. I thought it was kind of stupid. Many seemed to agree. Critical reaction to the The Big Lebowski was mixed, and the film grossed just $17 million domestically, significantly less than the Coens' previous movie Fargo."
Like so many others, however, Collins was won over by repeated viewings of Lebowski on DVD. Not everyone went as far as Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt, who launched the "1st Annual Big Lebowski What-Have-You Fest" in 2002, but as Collins notes, there can be unforeseen advantages to being intimately familiar with the Dude and his ways. "Knowledge of the movie can even help your employment prospects. One of my friends actually got hired for a job after noting that there seemed to be ‘a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous' involved in the position. (His interviewer turned out to be a fellow fan of the movie.)"
Those wishing to celebrate a decade of Dudeness have several options. You can pick up a copy of the book I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You, which Russell and Shuffit have written with Bill Green and Ben Peskoe. Los Angeles residents can catch an anniversary screening on March 29 at the Egyptian. And the Alamo Drafthouse will be screening the movie on March 28 at the Dart Bowl in Austin; admission gets you a free game, shoes and even a complimentary White Russian. (The 28th is a Friday, by the way, so no need to worry if you don't roll on Shabbos.)