A Big Lebowski Sleep-Over

"I guess that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself."
- The Stranger (Sam Elliot) THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Dir. Joel Coen, 1998)

A few weeks back I went with some friends to a BIG LEBOWSKI party. Of course there was plenty of White Russian drinking (everyone it seems had brought Kahlua, milk and vodka) and individualized drinking games - I myself drinking to every time "the rug tied the room together". The hosts had a bevy of t-shirts with quotes from the film like "The Dude abides", "mark it zero" and "Lebowski Urban Acheiver". I was disappointed there wasn't one for "you mean coitus?"

Anyway they had a DVD projector and it was great to see the movie on a big screen again. At the beginning of the movie when the Dude (Jeff Bridges) makes out a check to Ralph's grocery store for 69 cents it is notable that the date on the check is Sept. 11th 1991. Especially since he pauses while writing it to glance up at President Bush Sr. on a wall mounted TV monitor saying "this aggression will not stand" in reference to the Gulf War.

Just a coincidence and not a prophecy, sure but I was watching THE BIG SLEEP (Dir. Howard Hawkes, 1946) the other day and noticed that at the beginning that detective Phillip Marlowe (Humprey Bogart) while reviewing his newest case is handed an envelope of promissory notes with the date September 11th, 1945. The Coen brothers have admitted that big influences on THE BIG LEBOWSKI included the arguably classic in-every-way THE BIG SLEEP and the Robert Altman's 70's shaggy private dick Rip Van Marlowe mystery THE LONG GOODBYE so it makes perfect sense.

More later...