The Coen brothers, undated
I feel a little foolish admitting this, but I honestly have no idea what I just read. This script seemed to have no point whatsoever. I don't actually know what was the primary conflict, and what was the climax, and why it resolved the way it did.
Was it a Dude vs. Walter thing? Why did Donny die? Why was there that crazy fight with the Germans? Why was the narrator even a character at all? I don't... I don't understand.
The wikipedia page had a quote from Joel Coen that this movie "has a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant." So does that mean the plot didn't even matter? What was the point of this movie? Was it about the Dude's journey of... becoming more... something?
Maybe I need to see it to understand it. Someone please help me out here. I am so confused.
OK, so I'd love to talk Coen Bros. with you sometime. I have not seen all of their films by a long shot, but there are a few that I've seen that I absolutely LOVE.
ReplyDeleteI've only seen The Big Lebowski once and it was not surrounded by circumstances in which I could devote my complete attention, but I skimmed the Wikipedia page and it jogged my memory a bit.
Wikipedia suggests that it does in fact have a bit to do with the Dude vs. Walter... maybe not quite foils, but something similar? And something else it says, or a critic said, was that the film (in a comedic way) deals with that old mystery/crime film trope of mistaken identity. Just the mention of that made me think of Hitchcock's North by Northwest (have you seen that?).
The Coen Bros., in my experience/opinion, tend to have incredibly simple messages behind (sometimes incredibly) complex films. I would strongly recommend Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and Barton Fink. ESPECIALLY BARTON FINK. OMG, BARTON FINK. I love the armature, the cinematography, the dialogue, the characters... and it's about storytelling. Or writing. If you end up reading/watching it, let me know!
"Deals with mistaken identity trope"... meaning what? What does "deals with" mean, exactly? That definitely does seem to be the premise of this movie, but I don't understand its purpose.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have gotten many recommendations for Fargo. I'll put both it and Barton Fink on my list of things to read.
I guess my interpretation was that the Coen Bros. take the "mistaken identity trope", which has been done and done and done over and over, and satirize it in a way? Or at least do it within the form of comedy, rather than drama/crime? I dunno. When I saw The Big Lebowski, I got the impression that the Bros. were sort of taking a trope and transplanting it, perhaps to point out its... not weaknesses... but maybe some issues with it.
ReplyDeleteHuh. So you think it's more of a deconstruction of overused dramatic cliches? Like, maybe the point is that it's all silly?
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly! That's the impression I got. And you kind of said it yourself...
ReplyDelete"So does that mean the plot didn't even matter? What was the point of this movie?"
Along with J. Coen's quote about how it's "ultimately unimportant" (he even admits to it!), I think the plot itself doesn't contain a "point".