The Big Lebowski

It’s an unwritten rule of detective stories that the hero should be past his prime or out of his era. In The Big Lebowski—the Coen brothers’ frayed, inspired spoof on detective flicks and L.A. malaise—Jeff Bridges nails the outsider archetype, portraying a bumbling relic from the antiwar movement. The Coens set the film in the days preceding the first Gulf War, a moment of rah-rah militarism that helped sound the death knell for ’60s-style pacifism. In many ways, The Big Lebowski is the spiritual descendant of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, with Altman’s bold acridity replaced by shaggy, amiable wit. Despite a glib reputation as a “stoner classic,” Lebowski remains an endlessly rewarding film.

Updated 05/24/2011