Five Things You Didn't Know About 'The Big Lebowski'
Well, OK, maybe you did, but they're still pretty cool
1. It's understood that The Big Lebowski riffs on the
golden-age L.A. noir of Raymond Chandler, but most fans
don't realize the early scene of the Dude at the Big
Lebowski's home is a thinly veiled sendup of Howard Hawks'
1946 film version of Chandler's The Big Sleep as scripted
by William Faulkner. The Dude stands in for Humphrey
Bogart's Philip Marlowe--both go to the home of a patriarch
in a wheelchair (General Sternwood in Sleep), after which
they are eventually hired to handle the case of a
free-spirited young woman (Carmen in Sleep, Bunny in
Lebowski). The uptight butler Brad in Lebowski replaces
uptight butler Norris in Sleep, while Bunny attempts to
seduce the Dude just as Carmen tries to seduce Marlowe (to
which Bogart famously quips, "She tried to sit in my lap
while I was standing up").
2. The scene in which the Big Lebowski delivers a monologue
in front of the fireplace recalls a similar setup in Orson
Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons.
3. The death of Steve Buscemi's character Donny is built up
to throughout the film. Each time he is shown bowling, he
bowls a strike (leading him to say things like "I'm
throwin' rocks tonight!"), until the last time, just before
his heart attack, when he looks puzzled after failing to
knock down all his pins. This omen is not in the screenplay
and was added during filming. Incidentally, Buscemi's
character has also been killed off in three other Coen
brothers' films: Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and Fargo.
4. The private investigator who tails the Dude drives a
blue Volkswagen--the same kind of car driven by the private
investigator in the Coen brothers' first film, Blood
Simple.
5. A scene in Rod Lurie's The Contender pays tribute to The
Big Lebowski, as Jeff Bridges, playing the president of the
United States, bowls while talking to Sam Elliott as his
adviser. In a 2001 interview, Lurie told me he specifically
put the scene in to attract Bridges to the project, but his
plan backfired. "I put the bowling scene in when I was
trying to get Jeff, because I assumed it would be helpful
because of The Big Lebowski, and then I found out he
doesn't bowl at all. He goes, 'Oh fuck, I've got to bowl
again.'" Lurie also said that upon agreeing to the project,
Bridges walked him out to his car and said, "Wow, Dude's
gonna be president."