The Big Lebowski
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Big Lebowski |
| Original title | The Big Lebowski |
| Country of production |
United States , United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1998 |
| length | 117 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Joel Coen , Ethan Coen (not mentioned) |
| script | Ethan Coen, Joel Coen |
| production | Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (not mentioned) |
| music | Carter Burwell |
| camera | Roger Deakins |
| cut |
Roderick Jaynes , Tricia Cooke |
| occupation | |
| |
The Big Lebowski is a comedy film from the year 1998 by Ethan and Joel Coen with Jeff Bridges in the lead role.
The world premiere took place on January 18, 1998 at the Sundance Film Festival . On February 15, 1998, the work was shown as part of the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival . The film was released in the United States on March 6, 1998, and in Germany on March 19, 1998. In 2014, the film was included in the National Film Registry .
action
The story told by The Stranger , a modern cowboy , takes place in Los Angeles in the early 1990s , at the time of the Second Gulf War : the old hippie Jeffrey Lebowski, who just calls himself the dude , pushes a quiet ball: He relaxes in between the regular round of bowling with his friends Walter Sobchak and Donny Kerabatsos with listening to whale songs , drinking White Russians and smoking joints in the bathtub.
This tranquil life changes when two thugs break into the dude's apartment, who mistake him for the city-famous millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski, whose young wife Bunny owes money to a Jackie Treehorn. To intimidate the dude, one dips him upside down in the toilet while the other urinates on his favorite carpet.
The dude then calls in at his namesake's house to claim damages for his carpet. The millionaire Lebowski, who is in a wheelchair, thinks the dude is a lazy "bum" who should look for a job. He is not ready to replace the carpet for him. After the conversation, however, the dude claims to Brandt, the millionaire's assistant, that he can take any carpet from the property and still gets a replacement. When leaving the property, the dude meets the attractive Bunny Lebowski, who makes him a suggestive offer.
A little later, the millionaire lets the dude come again: Bunny had just been kidnapped by strangers and could be set free for a ransom of a million dollars. He assumes that the kidnappers are identical to the thugs. Therefore, the dude should hand over the ransom and identify the kidnappers if possible.
The dude agrees, but suspects that Bunny Lebowski was just faking her kidnapping. His friend Walter takes the handover of the money. Instead of the money, Walter throws a bag full of dirty underwear (the "wrong rabbit", in the original "the ringer") out of the moving car, they keep the suitcase with the ransom. Then they go bowling and leave the money in the car. When they come back, the car has been stolen.
Now the daughter of the millionaire Lebowski, the feminist artist Maude Lebowski, reports . She is Bunny's stepdaughter. She explains to him that she thinks Bunny's kidnapping is also a fake. Both the ransom and the carpet actually belonged to her, since she runs a joint foundation with her father and the father took the ransom from this foundation without authorization. She had already had the carpet fetched from the dude's apartment. It shows the dude the beginning of a porn film in which Bunny can be seen as an actor with a certain "Karl", and later a record by the (fictional) 1970s band "Autobahn", consisting of the " Nihilists ". She offers the dude ten percent of the ransom if he manages to get the million back.
Dude's stolen Ford Gran Torino is found by the police in the meantime, but the suitcase with the money is missing. Instead, in the badly damaged car, the dude finds the homework of a certain Larry, whom he thinks is the thief of the money. Walter and the dude look for the boy, but can't get anything out of him. To intimidate Larry, Walter demolishes a new Corvette in front of his house because he falsely assumes that the vehicle belongs to Larry and that Larry recently bought it with the ransom.
The millionaire Lebowski confronts the dude about the lost ransom and presents him with a cut toe that was sent to him by the kidnappers. The thugs also visit the dude again and bring him to their client, the porn film producer Jackie Treehorn. Treehorn says that Bunny Lebowski owes him money and drugs the dude. It only refers to the student Larry.
When Bunny finally returns from a multi-day excursion, it becomes clear that the group of alleged nihilists from Germany - Uli Kunkel, Franz, Dieter and Kunkel's friend, from whom the severed toe came from - faked the kidnapping. The alleged millionaire Lebowski used Bunny's absence and the alleged kidnapping to appropriate one million from the foundation.
Since the kidnapper still believes that the dude must have the ransom, they attack him and his friends in the parking lot of the bowling center. In the ensuing fight, Donny suffers a heart attack and dies. The dude and Walter take care of the cremation of their boyfriend, then they scatter his ashes and go bowling as usual.
background
Allusions
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“We wanted to tell a Chandler-like story - how it moves episodically and is about characters who solve a criminal case; and we also wanted a hopelessly complex plot that is unimportant in the end. "
The Big Lebowski pays homage to film noir of the 1940s. When creating the script, the Coen brothers wanted to create an opaque story that was similar in narrative structure to those of Raymond Chandler and his private detective Philip Marlowe . The title is a direct reference to Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep from 1939 (German book title: Der große Schlaf ). The figure of the wheelchair user Mr. Lebowski is based on the figure of the paraplegic General Sternwood from The Big Sleep . Among other things, both characters have a daughter who "comes together" closely with the protagonist over the course of the story. Chandler's novel was made into a film by director Howard Hawks as the classic film Dead Sleeping (1946), with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the leading roles. According to an anecdote, even Hawks did not fully understand the plot of the confused dead sleep tight , and the Coen brothers wanted to make their film in a similarly confused manner.
Bunny grew up on a desolate farm near Moorhead , Minnesota , according to Da Fino, the private investigator in the blue VW Beetle , of which he shows a black and white photo. Moorhead is the hometown of Jeff Bridges 'wife and is directly adjacent to Fargo , North Dakota , which gave the Coen brothers' previous film Fargo its title. The origin from poor circumstances is also an allusion to Holly Golightly's origin in Breakfast at Tiffany's . Another tribute to Hawks' filming Dead Sleep Firmly (1946) is Bunny's maiden name: According to Da Fino, her real name is Fawn Knudsen - similar to Peggy Knudsen , who played a supporting role in Dead Sleep Firmly. The last words of the film (the cowboy pronounced “The Dude Abides”) quote the last sentence of the film noir The Night of the Hunter , in which Lillian Gish relates it to the children of the world who have to endure a lot of terrible things.
The character of the Dude is mainly based on Jeff "The Dude" Dowd (born 1949), an independent film producer who helped the Coen brothers distribute their first film Blood Simple . Like the protagonist of the film, Dowd was a member of the "Seattle Seven" and prefers to dress more casually.
The techno-pop record Nagelbett, shown in the film, by a German band called Autobahn , consisting of the Nihilists, is an allusion to the Kraftwerk group , which became known in the USA in particular through the title Autobahn from their 1974 album of the same name . The fictional record cover in the film is based on the look of the Kraftwerk album Die Mensch-Maschine , published in 1978 , which also showed the musicians in striking red shirts with black ties.
Production history
The filming took place from January 27, 1997 to April 25, 1997 in various locations in California. The Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Los Angeles served as the backdrop for the villa of the porn producer . The bowling sequences were filmed over three weeks at Hollywood Star Lanes , a bowling center in Los Angeles that closed in 2002. The scene in which Dude dreams of numerous dancers (a tribute to the Busby Berkeley musical films) was filmed on a disused aircraft hangar.
One of the nihilists is played by Flea , bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers . The nihilist with the cut toe embodies songwriter and singer Aimee Mann . Jimmie Dale Gilmore , singer and songwriter of the folk rock group The Flatlanders, has a short appearance as Smokey . Asia Carrera , the woman who appears along with Bunny Lebowski and the nihilist in the porn film that Maude shows the Dude, is actually a well-known porn actress. Jerry Haleva , who appears as Saddam Hussein in a short dream sequence , already played this role in Hot Shots! - The mother of all films and hot shots! The second attempt .
Soundtrack
The song that runs during the credits is Dead Flowers from the Rolling Stones in a cover version by Townes Van Zandt . Former Stones manager Allen Klein , who holds the rights to the song, wanted $ 150,000 for use in the film. Music producer T-Bone Burnett , who served as the music archivist with The Big Lebowski , urged Klein to come over to see a rough cut of the film. In one scene, the dude is thrown out of a taxi because he emphasizes that he hates "the fucking Eagles " (orig .: "I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin ' Eagles, man!"). Burnett says: "Then there was the point where the dude says, 'I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man! ' Klein gets up and says, 'That's it, you can have the song.' That was nice."
In addition, in the scene in which Jesus can be seen for the first time, a Spanish cover version of the Gipsy Kings of the Eagles' song Hotel California is running in the background .
| No. | Interpreter | title |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sons of the Pioneers | Tumbling Tumbleweeds |
| 2. | Bob Dylan | The Man in Me |
| 3. | Esquivel | Mucha Muchacha |
| 4th | The Monks | I hate you |
| 5. | Captain Beefheart | Her eyes are a blue million miles |
| 6th | WA Mozart | Requiem in D minor |
| 7th | Gipsy Kings | Hotel California |
| 8th. | Bob Dylan | The Man in Me |
| 9. | Creedence Clearwater Revival | Run through the jungle |
| 10. | Booker T. & the MG's | Behave yourself |
| 11. | Meredith Monk | Walking song |
| 12. | Piero Piccioni | Traffic boom |
| 13. | Dean Martin | Standing on the corner |
| 14th | Debbie Reynolds | Tammy |
| 15th | Sons of the Pioneers | Tumbling Tumbleweeds |
| 16. | Elvis Costello | My mood swings |
| 17th | Creedence Clearwater Revival | Looking out my back door |
| 18th | ( Modest Mussorgsky ) | Pictures at an Exhibition (Gnomus) |
| 19th | Santana | Oye Como Va |
| 20th | Yma Sumac | Ataypura |
| 21st | Henry Mancini | Lujon |
| 22nd | Kenny Rogers & The First Edition | I just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in) |
| 23. | Teo Usuelli | Piacere Sequence |
| 24. | Eagles | Peaceful easy feeling |
| 25th | Big Johnson | Viva Las Vegas |
| 26th | Nina Simone | I got it bad and that ain't good |
| 27. | Moondog with Orchestra | Stamping ground |
| 28. | Carter Burwell | Technopop |
| 29 | Townes van Zandt | Dead flowers |
| 30th | Rustavi Choir | We venerate the cross |
Dubbed version
The German dubbed version was created in 1998 at Interopa Film under dialogue direction by Torsten Michaelis based on a dialogue book by Sven Hasper .
| role | actor | German Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Jeffrey "the Dude" Lebowski | Jeff Bridges | Joachim Tennstedt |
| Walter Sobchak | John Goodman | Helmut Krauss |
| Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos | Steve Buscemi | Torsten Sense |
| Maude Lebowski | Julianne Moore | Liane Rudolph |
| Jeffrey "The Big" Lebowski | David Huddleston | Hans Teuscher |
| Brandt, Big Lebowski's secretary | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Michael Pan |
| Bunny Lebowski (Fawn Knudsen) | Tara Reid | Dorette Hugo |
| The Stranger (narrator) | Sam Elliott | Gunter's lap |
| Jackie Treehorn | Ben Gazzara | Christian Rode |
| Jesus Quintana, bowler | John Turturro | Stefan Fredrich |
| Smokey, bowler | Jimmie Dale Gilmore | Stefan Krause |
| Private detective Da Fino | Jon Polito | Hans-Werner Bussinger |
| Knox Harrington, video artist | David Thewlis | Santiago Ziesmer |
| Ulli Kunkel (1st nihilist) | Peter Stormare | Thomas Nero Wolff |
| Kieffer (2nd Nihilist) | Flea (Michael Balzary) | Bernhard Völger |
| Franz (3rd nihilist) | Torsten Voges | Oliver Field |
reception
Popular success and cult status
Production costs were estimated at around $ 15 million. The film grossed around 27 million US dollars in cinemas worldwide (until the end of May 1998), including around 17 million US dollars in the USA. In the German cinemas until March 29, 1998 around 1.8 million German marks were taken. Although the film's financial success was only moderate when it was released, The Big Lebowski is now widely regarded as a cult film and has a large following. A multi-day “Lebowski Festival” has been held annually in various US cities since 2002. Occasionally, those involved in the film also take part in these festivals. In 2005 a religious association was founded that glorifies the dude lifestyle ( dudeism ). It's called the Church of the Latter-Day Dude .
Reviews
The Big Lebowski received largely positive reviews, with the Coen brothers praising the dialogue and visual expressiveness, as well as the performances of Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in the leading roles.
“In their latest stroke of genius, the Coen brothers have taken on all those genres in which the problem of being a man is traditionally most purely negotiated. The slide for The Big Lebowski is without a doubt The Big Sleep , but besides film noir, westerns and war films get due attention, and even porn and Busby Berkeley musicals are part of the mix. Almost a small panorama of Hollywood cinema in the 1940s; only moved from the time of the Second World War to that of the Gulf War. "
“With The Big Lebowski , the Coen brothers didn’t succeed in making a really exciting film, but they’re a very amusing comedy with lovingly and skillfully characterized spinners. It is pleasant that - in contrast to her successful film Fargo - violence is seldom present in this film, but the ironic humor is all the more common. "
“A very funny film full of bizarre jokes, which, in addition to its immense ingenuity, can build on the pointed, restrained play of the actors. The successful variant of a modern picaresque novel , characterized by a lust for tales and an exuberant fantasy. "
Awards
- The film was invited to the 1998 Berlinale and nominated for the competition for the “ Golden Bear ”.
- At the 1998 European Film Awards , the film was nominated for “ Best Non-European Film ”.
- The film won an award for "Best Foreign Film" from the Russian Guild of Film Critics in 1998.
- The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “valuable”.
Spinoff
With The Jesus Rolls, John Turturro staged a spin-off about the character he portrayed Jesus Quintana , which is also a remake of The Savvy . The film premiered in October 2019 and was released in theaters in February 2020. Turturro was also involved as a screenwriter.
literature
- Tricia Cooke, William Preston Robertson: The Making of the "Big Lebowski" . London 1998, ISBN 0-571-19334-X .
- Aaron Jaffe, Edward P. Comentale (Ed.): The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies , German: absolute (ly) Big Lebowski. Eleven essays . orange-press, Freiburg im Breisgau 2010, ISBN 978-3-936086-52-2 ; Attachment tape
- Bill Green, Ben Peskoe, Will Russell, Scott Shuffitt: I'm a Lebowski, you're a Lebowski. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-453-67603-9 . (With a foreword by Jeff Bridges; US original edition: Bloomsbury, New York 2007)
- Jeff Bridges , Bernie Glassman : The Dude and His Zen Master. Life, love and how to stay relaxed. Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-7857-6111-3 . (The American original edition was published in 2012)
Web links
- The Big Lebowski in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Big Lebowski at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The Big Lebowski at Metacritic (English)
- The Big Lebowski in the online movie database
- The Big Lebowski in the German dubbing file
- Dudeism - a pseudo-religion inspired by The Big Lebowski (English)
- Film notice ( memento from May 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) from Kino Xenix, Zurich
Individual evidence
- ↑ Susan King: 25 titles added to National Film Registry , Los Angeles Times online, December 17, 2014, accessed December 18, 2014.
- ↑ Indiewire: Interview with the Coen brothers : "We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story - how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant."
- ^ Jesse Pasternack: The Legacy of The Night of the Hunter. October 8, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (American English).
- ^ Jeff Dowd at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ essay at Bright Lights Movie
- ^ "The Big Lebowski" at the German dubbing index
- ↑ Business. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ^ "The Big Lebowski" at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Thomas Willmann: Critique . In: Artechock .
- ^ Critique by Klaus Waltz
- ↑ The Big Lebowski. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The Big Lebowski on fbw-filmbeval.com