Kermode Uncut - The Big Lebowski Revisited

so the time has come the hour is upon us it's time for me to address one of the subjects that has been most hotly debated here on the Kermode uncut blog my dislike of The Big Lebowski is it misplaced well according to many of you it is you see I've always had a problem with The Big Lebowski despite the fact I love the Cohens I love Jeff Bridges I love John Goodman but to me it was one of the Coens quirky movies the kooky movies the movies which just seemed a little bit too ramshackle for their own good and when the film first came out I gave it a not very good review and since then I've always said yeah it's the overrated one it's not that disciplined it's not like Fargo it's not like Barton Fink now many of you disagreed writing and saying not you've got it wrong you've completely misunderstood the film you've completely misjudged it you have to go back see it again and get a second opinion on it and I think people were aware of the fact when I first saw a blue velvet I hated it next time around I really really loved it so I have been wrong about films in the past but somehow I have avoided seeing the Big Lebowski again I think partly the reason for that is I'm slightly worried about the fact that you know maybe I did get it wrong maybe I'm going to discover after all this time having said for so long that Big Lebowski is nothing to get excited about that actually it's a masterpiece and I was wrong so the BFI here at the Southbank have been showing a season of films by Jeff Bridges but one of the films they're showing of course is The Big Lebowski and I promised you that when it came on I go and see it and I give you an honest assessment of whether I was right or you were right here we go you get to see whether anything's going to change my mind open mind that is okay so I did it I saw The Big Lebowski again was I wrong were you right well I confess this it's a funnier film than I thought it was it is true I think that I had a bit of a humor bypass the first time around certainly I laughed a lot more this something I don't remember laughing very much at all first time but I did laugh a lot in this screening also I think it's a warmer and more engaging film that my first moment it being largely I think due to Jeff Bridges performance I mean I love Jeff Bridges I always have done maybe I love him more now than I did when I first saw the film I do think his character is more likable than I thought the first time around and there's a whole menagerie and array of interesting little cameos I think John Turturro is really funny I think John Goodman's great I think there are things in the movie that are really interesting and funny but is it one of the Coen brothers best movies no and I'll tell you why because my problems with it the first time around are exactly the same a second time ran and they are this in the end it is a movie that is to say it's lacking in structure is to do it a great favor it is a movie of moments it is a series of interludes that individually may stand up but actually don't hang together as a coherent whole now that's not to say that those individual ones aren't exciting and funny and charming and interesting all those other things but what it means is they don't add up to a single great work I mean there's no consistency in the way of a movie like Fargo this is the kind of movie that reminds me of raising Arizona or worse than that of Burn After Reading it's a kind of film in which there are individual things about it that I like but as a whole I still think it's baggy an anarchic a very good comparison would be with the Blues Brothers the Blues Brothers is all over the place everyone knows it even the people that love it but the people that love it decide to go with that to embrace that anarchic structure I feel the same way about The Big Lebowski if you want to like it there's plenty to like is it enjoyable film yes is Jeff Bridges terrific in it yes is it terrific to see a Jeff Bridges season in which that's the jewel in the crown with a packed audience yes of course it is is it the Coen brothers finest film no is it their worst work no not by a long way it's not down there with bird after eating or indeed I think it's it's more coherent and raising Arizona but it's a right old mess [Music]

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 96,996

Keywords: Lebowski, kermode, film, review, bbc, big, coen, ethan, joel, movie, jeff, bridges, john, goodman, tuturro, uncut, blog

Id: Vr3aPxi3Qcw

Length: 4min 4sec (244 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2011