The Big Lebowski Is Returning To Theaters For Its 25th Anniversary
Joel and Ethan Coen's "The Big Lebowski" might as well be the textbook definition of a film ahead of its time. We here at /Film have already devoted an entire week to commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Coen brothers' cult classic shaggy dog tale of Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) and his search for justice after a case of mistaken identity leads to the desecration of his prized living room rug. (It really tied the room together, you see.) Now, Fathom Events is getting in on the action with a special two-night showing of the film in select theaters.
"The Big Lebowski" will return to the big screen as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics lineup this year, with screenings planned on both April 16 (at 4PM and 7PM local times) and April 20 (at 7PM local time). Per the announcement trailer embedded below, these screenings will include commentary and "insights" from film critic and historian Leonard Maltin concerning the movie's conception and subsequent critical re-appraisal over the decades following its original release in 1998.
The Dude abides
"What makes 'The Big Lebowski' such a masterpiece? You can argue it is the memorable lines and the simplicity of the Dude's persona," as Fathom Events argues on its official website. The film itself served as the Coen brothers' follow-up to their 1996 classic "Fargo," yet marked a dramatic change of pace from the duo's Oscar-winning, darkly quirky, Minnestoan tale of crime, murder, and kidnapping schemes gone wrong. Much like the brothers baffled the masses by swerving from the bleak Cormac McCarthy adaptation "No Country for Old Men" to their off-kilter Judaism parable "A Serious Man" in the late 2000s, the last thing anyone expected from the siblings in 1998 was a wry homage to the hard-boiled detective noir fiction of Raymond Chandler. As a result, the film did middling business at the box office and garnered a polite if far more restrained critical response compared to previous Coen works.
Over time, though, the film has come to gain newfound appreciation, not least of all for the way it speaks to the prevailing attitudes and cultural mindset of the '90s-era U.S. "After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the start of an enormous economic boom, America began to gaze inward and was a little terrified with what it saw," as /Film's Witney Seibold observes in his own examination of "The Big Lebowski" and its deeper meaning. Of course, it helps that the film is also peppered with memorably colorful characters and bizarre scenarios that unfold over the course of The Dude's personal odyssey, on top of the endlessly quotable dialogue like, "You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!" I'm remembering that line correctly, right?