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The Dude abides: 'The Big Lebowski' at 20

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Frankie Taggart, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/entertainment/05/10/lebowski1.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Jeff Bridges in a scene from &#x27;The Big Lebowski&#x27;</figcaption></figure></div><p>LOS ANGELES -- Twenty years ago, a bathrobe-wearing stoner and his two buddies entrenched themselves in the public consciousness with a strange little movie about bowling, White Russians and a ruined rug.</p><p>Ethan and Joel Coen&#x27;s idiosyncratic, hopelessly complex &quot;The Big Lebowski&quot; distilled the unfussy, slacker spirit of 1990s Los Angeles into a Raymond Chandleresque crime caper.</p><p>It received no Oscar recognition and pretty lukewarm reviews for a byzantine plot which the Coens themselves admitted never really mattered -- but it has proven its staying power.</p><p>Today it is nothing less than a cultural phenomenon, with its own religion, Dudeism, boasting 450,000 &quot;ordained priests.&quot;</p><p>Bathrobe-clad fans gather at the annual Lebowski Fest, which comes to Los Angeles in two weeks, to celebrate Jeffrey &quot;The Dude&quot; Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges when he could still get away with board shorts.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m so proud of being part of this movie. It&#x27;s just a good movie, a really good movie,&quot; the 68-year-old Oscar winner said at a recent screening in Hollywood, hosted by Turner Classic Movies.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/entertainment/05/10/lebowski.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Actor Jeff Bridges attends the screening of &#x27;The Big Lebowski&#x27; at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California. <em>Emma McIntyre, Getty Images for TCM/AFP</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>The Dude, a drama-averse, unemployed slacker with a penchant for vodka with Kahlua and cream, provides the drama as he embarks on a quest to replace his beloved rug, destroyed in a twisted case of mistaken identity. </p><p>Along for the ride are John Goodman&#x27;s loose-cannon Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak and Steve Buscemi&#x27;s virtually mute sidekick Donny.</p><div><strong>&#x27;Off-kilter thriller&#x27;</strong></div><p>Despite eventually making Rolling Stone&#x27;s list of &quot;10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time,&quot; it was neither a critical nor commercial hit on its release.</p><p>David Denby, of New York magazine, called it an &quot;off-kilter thriller with a sad-sack hero&quot; while for Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, the story was &quot;disjointed, incoherent and even irritating.&quot;</p><p>The most scathing critics have largely recanted in the intervening years, recognizing that they were too quick to dismiss a film with lines so quotable that many entered the lexicon.</p><p>&quot;The Dude abides,&quot; said by an insouciant Bridges as his way of rolling with the punches, is perhaps the most frequently-quoted, although the character&#x27;s introductory spiel is just as delicious.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m the Dude, so that&#x27;s what you call me,&quot; he insists. &quot;That or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if you&#x27;re not into the whole brevity thing.&quot;</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VgSqm8-wXWA?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="~//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="~//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>Bridges said The Dude referring to his almost identically-named foe Jeff &quot;The Big&quot; Lebowski as &quot;human paraquat&quot; (toxic herbicide) was the only improvised line in the film, while every &quot;man&quot; and &quot;dude&quot; his hippy character utters was meticulously planned.</p><div><strong>&#x27;Good writing&#x27;</strong></div><p>&quot;That&#x27;s one of the great things about the Coen brothers -- it seems like it&#x27;s happening in the moment but that&#x27;s good writing, really,&quot; Bridges said.</p><p>&quot;As actors, we all realized that and said, &#x27;We&#x27;ve got to get these lyrics down,&#x27; like it was a song we were singing.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Lebowski&quot; was released in March 1998, although the 20th anniversary celebrations are taking place throughout the year, including screenings in 600 US theaters in August. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/entertainment/05/10/lebowski2.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>A scene from &#x27;The Big Lebwoski&#x27;</figcaption></figure></div><p>Bridges, a youthful 48 when it came out, has been asked in countless interviews -- including by AFP -- if he would be interested in doing a sequel. </p><p>John Turturro is currently making a spin-off called &quot;Going Places,&quot; based on 1974 French comedy Les Valseuses but starring his &quot;Lebowski&quot; character, the charmless, menacing Jesus Quintana.</p><p>But he didn&#x27;t cast Bridges, who told AFP in October last year he would jump at the chance to be in a genuine, Coen-made sequel. </p><p>&quot;I am so proud of that movie and proud to have been a part of it,&quot; he said. &quot;These guys, the Coen brothers, are masters. They make it look easy.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Ethan and Joel Coen's idiosyncratic, hopelessly complex "The Big Lebowski" distilled the unfussy, slacker spirit of 1990s Los Angeles into a Raymond Chandleresque crime caper.</p>

Ethan and Joel Coen's idiosyncratic, hopelessly complex "The Big Lebowski" distilled the unfussy, slacker spirit of 1990s Los Angeles into a Raymond Chandleresque crime caper.

The Dude abides: 'The Big Lebowski' at 20

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The Dude abides: 'The Big Lebowski' at 20

Frankie Taggart,

Agence France-Presse

Published May 10, 2018 04:03 PM PHT

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The Big Lebowski

Hollywood

Jeff Bridges

Ethan and Joel Coen

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