The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski was written by the Coen brothers and directed by Joel Coen. The Big Lebowski follows the life of Jeffery “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), an LA slacker who enjoys bowling with his friends Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi) and smoking marijuana. A couple of thugs assault him in his home one night, thinking that he is a different, richer Jeffrey Lebowski. Once they realize their mistake, the thugs pee on The Dude’s rug and leave. The Dude tries to get a new rug, and a complicated, unusual series of events follows. The movie picks on many movie clichés and stereotypes, which makes it an avant-garde film. For example, the movie centers around a pretty normal guy living an uneventful life, as do a lot of other movies. In the other movies, the hero is thrust into action by the plot. The Dude is also thrust into action, but in The Big Lebowski, it just seems ridiculous.
The movie starts off with a western sounding song in the background with a “cowboy” narrator talking about The Dude and making him sound like a big hero who does amazing things. Even though the movie is setting the audience up to think that this is a Western movie, the narrator suddenly declares that The Dude lives in Los Angeles. A “normal” movie would be showing so-called “important” things happening to the main character, but when we first see The Dude, he is picking out half-and-half at a grocery store. That scene doesn’t really even have a point. The half-and-half isn’t a major factor in the story. The narrator keeps talking about The Dude, saying random things that don’t really have any merit before finally admitting that he lost his train of thought. The audience then doesn’t hear from the narrator until about halfway through the movie, when the narrator shows up in person at The Dude’s bowling alley and strikes up conversation with him. This defies all typical storylines for movies that use narrators; the main character never meets the person narrating their life. The Dude not only meets the narrator, but the narrator asks Dude if all his swearing is really necessary and tells him he digs his style. The two meet again near the end of the film and talk for a while before The Dude goes back to bowling. After The Dude leaves, the narrator turns to the camera and addresses the audience yet again.