(music playing) (George H.W. Bush) "God bless our valiant military forces and their familes and let us all remember them
in our prayers. Goodnight, and may God bless the United States of America."
(The Big Lebowski Main Theme -"Man in Me" by Bob Dylan playing)
(narrator) Nothing happens by accident in "The Big Lebowski."
Every scene, every shot, every line of dialogue, clues us on to something more.
(Blond Treehorn Thug) "See what happens Lebowski, you see what happens."
(Walter) "You see what happens? You see what happens, Larry."
(narrator) Like the hard-boiled fiction authors that inspired them, the Coen brothers frequently use repetition
to highlight the film's major themes. And, while some instances may reveal themselves easily...
(Brandt) "Her life in your hands dude.
(The Dude) "Her life was in our hands, man."
(Walter) "Easy. Nothing's fucked here dude. Nothing is fucked."
(The Dude) "Man, nothing is fucked here."
(Mr. Lebowski) "Nothing is fucked!"
(narrator) ...and some are better at hiding.
(Nihlist) "I said, we'll cut off your Johnson!"
(narrator) But of all the films motifs, there's one that sticks out.
(George H. W. Bush) "This will not stand, this will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait."
(The Dude) "The Dude minds. This will not stand, you know, this aggression will not stand, man!"
(narrator) Lebowski clearly sets place in a political environment.
But more than just adding to the Dude's milieu,
the political environment and how our hero operates in it is a central part of the film.
The Stranger's opening exposition outwardly connects the film to the Gulf War period.
(The Stranger) "Just about the time with our conflict with Saddam and the Iraqis"
(narrator) Immediately after his opening monologue. We see the Dude checking out at the grocery store.
Although it is something likely glossed over on an initial viewing, this scene is packed with thematic elements,
hidden jokes and one remarkable coincidence.
The Dude, who made a grocery run just to buy half and half; a key ingredient to his
signature white Russian drink, is so broke he has to write a check in the amount of 69 cents.
The fact that it's 69 cents could be an attempt at juvenile humor.
(Walter) "Eight year-olds, Dude."
(narrator) But there's something even more clever with the check,
it is written with the future date of 1991.
We know this is a month in advance because the TV broadcast of President Bush is from an interview
on August 5th of 1990 just days after the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait.
The dude is so poor, he's hoping his check for less than one dollar will be cashed months later.
But there's even more, the exact date of the Dude's check is September 11th 1991.
A decade before the assault on the Twin Towers. This is undoubtedly a coincidence.
But, it is scenes as rich as these that immortalize the Coen brothers.
In just a matter of seconds, the scene has
reinforced the Gulf War setting. It told us the Dude is broke, shameless, and a fan of lactose.
And, at the same time it accidentally foreshadows the events of 9/11,
that would ultimately lead to another bush administration invasion of Iraq.
But the Coen brothers ingenuity doesn't end there.
Not only do the filmmakers frequently mention Saddam Hussein throughout the film.
(Walter) "Look at our current situation with that camel fucker in Iraq"
(narrator) They also directly include him in the Dude's dream sequence.
In what at first appears to be a random cameo,
the way the Coen brothers include the dictator is probably more calculated than flippant.
Consider the name, Saddam.
When the second syllable is stressed like Saddam, the name translates to "learned one."
George Bush, full well knowing of this
deliberately stressed the first syllable instead with a more nasally "a" sound.
(George Bush Repeating) Saddam Hussein, Saddam.
(narrator) This was probably done to ridicule Hussein or perhaps link his name with the English word Sodom or sodomy.
Interestingly enough; however, is that bush's Saddam roughly translates to Arabic slang
for a "shoeshine boy" When we see Hussein in the Dude's dream sequence, he is literally the bowling shoe shiner.
This might be a coincidence, but that's one hell of a coincidence.
But of all the Middle Eastern tie-ins, there's one that stands out the most and it's at the heart of the film's convoluted narrative.
Arguing that a film centered on a bum's quest to recover his soiled rug is
actually an allegory for the first Gulf War may seem like a stretch at first.
(The Dude) "Yeah, well.... You know, that's just like your opinion, man."
(narrator) But the more you explore the film, the argument becomes more and more convincing.
Take for instance the type of rug at the center of the story.
This type of rug was made popular by the Persians and is an iconic part of Middle Eastern culture.
Kuwait, an area in between classical Persia and Arabia,
is a small piece of land that links the two major halves of the region. It literally ties the Middle East together.
(Walter) "That rug really tied the room together, did it not?"
(narrator) It's important to take a step back here and say that no one is arguing that the Big Lebowski
acts as a direct metaphor for the Gulf War. Where the audience could draw a
one-to-one relationship between real-life history and the fictional events of the film.
(Mr. Lebowski) "The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain"
(narrator) A film as rich as Lebowski doesn't limit itself to just one single interpretation.
The rug is one of many symbols throughout the film and it's through the characters' interactions with it
that we are able to draw real world meaning. Along with being a western and the noir, The Big Lebowski
operates as a buddy comedy. At the heart of the comedy is the friendship of three bowlers.
Much has been said about Jeffrey, The Dude, Lebowski.
The bum that exemplifies the eastern philosophical traditions of taoism by
letting go of control and taking it easy.
His past is never explored in depth but from the original screenplay
we learned that the dude was the inheritor of a fortune left down from his family
which invented the Rubik's Cube.
Perhaps, he was formally educated. In his bedroom, we see at his bedside a copy of "Being and Nothingness."
A mid 20th century tome on existential philosophy that is Notoriously difficult to read.
For the sake of our analysis, the Dude represents the liberal left of America.
Walter Sobchak couldn't be any different from The Dude.
As he is wont to remind us, Walter is a veteran of the Vietnam war.
(Walter) "I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so that this fucking
strumpet, this fucking whore, can waltz around town..."
(The Dude) "Walter, I don't see any connection to Vietnam, man."
(narrator) Likely suffering from some form of PTSD, Walter represents the neoconservative right of America.
If Walter and the Dude behave as polar opposites of the political spectrum,
Donny represents the silent majority in the middle.
Donny, in many ways, is a nobody. In fact throughout the film, Donny wears several different bowling shirts.
Conspicuously enough, he has a different name on each of the shirts.
In a film where almost every single line was exactly scripted, down to each "um" "man" and "dude."
"This may be more um... um, um, um, um, um, complex, I mean, it's not just. It might not be just such a simple, uh, you know."
(Mr. Lebowski) "What is God's holy name are you blathering about?"
(narrator) It's hard to believe that the Coen brothers accidentally signed off
on Donnie's wardrobe with each shirt having a different name.
For the Coen brothers, Donny like the American middle ground, is kept silent by the clamor and debates between
the political right and left. It's in the push-pull of Walter and The Dude, that Donny becomes a tag along afterthought.
The trio's conversation at the beginning of the film can serve as a microcosm for the political conversation in America at the beginning of the 90s.
The scene opens with Donny being completely ignored despite his carrying the team with all of his strikes.
The Dude then expresses his apprehensiveness to retaliate against the criminals who defiled his rug.
Through a riling speech, Walter is able to change the dudes mind.
For Walter, the Gulf War is a way to regain dignity for Vietnam. Through persistence,
he is able to convince and coerce the team into fighting back.
(Walter) "Am I wrong?
(The Dude) "No."
(Walter) "Am I wrong?"
(The Dude) "Yeah, but..."
(Walter) "Ok then, that rug really tied the room together, did it not?"
(The Dude) "Fuckin' A."
(Donny) "And this guy peed on it."
(Walter) "Donny, please."
(narrator) Now, let's look at the American public before operation desert storm.
Like Donny and the Dude, the silent majority in the political left were unconvinced that military action
against Iraq was worth it. After a serious effort by the political right to convince
others of the need to oppose Saddam Hussein, Gallup poll showed a 27-point swing in public support
with the majority of Americans now in support of military action against Iraq.
The Big Lebowski, like the Gulf War, ends abruptly.
After all the mix-up, Walter and the Dude are relatively unchanged.
Donny, the story's true victim, is just as silent at the end as he was in the beginning.
The entire plot of the film unfolded after drawing a line in the sand.
But like the events in the real world in which the film is set, very little gets resolved.
Just as the extremes of American electorate are to continue their previous behaviors,
so too are Walter and the Dude left just as they began.
The strangers closing monologue mentions the dudes child suggesting that future generations
follow the footsteps of those before them.
(The Stranger) "But then I happen to know that there's a little Lebowski on the way."
I guess that's where the whole darn human comedy keeps perpetuating itself."
As is often the case in the Big Lebowski,
there's something deceptively prescient in what appears to be a simple statement about fathers and sons behaving alike.
(music playing) (George W. Bush) "...to defend the world from great danger.
On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military
importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war."
(The Big Lebowski Main Theme -"Man in Me" by Bob Dylan playing)