WEBVTT
00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:12.080
A former coworker, mentor, and friend of mine used to wisely say to me on Friday afternoons, Luke, the work is gonna be there on Monday.
00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:18.000
He was a seasoned worker with a Rolodex of experiences and roles across his career.
00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:24.960
He was from California originally, but found himself fundraising for a nonprofit in chilly West Michigan.
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:32.079
He was smart, savvy, and knew exactly when to get his shit done and when to let things slide.
00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:37.439
He had an almost monk-like and methodical approach to his work.
00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:41.439
We called him the dude.
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.079
This is a very complicated case, Mom.
00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:49.119
You know, luminal.
00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.600
Is this your homework learning?
00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:54.320
I would like my undies, man.
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:40.719
Let's go.
00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:54.400
This could be a lot more complex.
00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:59.519
I mean, it's not just it might not be just such a simple uh you know.
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:07.359
Welcome to Least Important Things, a podcast about movies, friendship, and finding meaning in the most important of the least important things.
00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:09.599
I'm your host, Luke Ferris.
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:17.360
You can call me Luki, Lucius, Luca Reno, or just whatever.
00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:30.400
The 1998 film The Big Lebowski was directed by the Cohen brothers and starred Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and a slew of Hollywood character actors.
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:39.599
This story is about a burnout slacker and hippie who gets involved in a case of cat and mouse with a business mogul with the same name.
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:48.159
He and his bowling buddies are thrust into a world of crime, deception, and money, just hoping to come out on top and make the finals of the bowling tournament.
00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:51.039
Actually, I'll just read the back of the VHS.
00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.360
Let me take my glasses off.
00:02:53.919 --> 00:03:05.120
The dude, one cool guy, who one day comes home to find two thugs have broken in and ruined his favorite carpet, the one that made the room hang together.
00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:12.560
The thing is, they did it because he's got the exact same name as one of the richest men in town, Lebowski.
00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.319
But hey, no problem, he'll get even.
00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:20.400
At least, he'll get someone to pay for new carpet.
00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:27.599
Which is one of the best back of the DVD, back of the VHS descriptions, because it describes really nothing about what this movie is.
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:34.000
It's a movie whose iconography is more widely known than the actual plot of the movie.
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:44.879
From the posters of dorm room walls to animated gifts on your iPhone, the Big Lebowski's one-liners, images, and moments are a foundational part of modern pop culture.
00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:46.800
And here's a secret.
00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:51.759
I've never seen it from start to finish before.
00:03:52.240 --> 00:04:02.319
That was until a couple of weeks ago, when I had some time off and decided to do a Jeff Bridges double feature with the 1980s romantic thriller Against All Odds.
00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.599
Yes, with the titular track sung by Phil Collins.
00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:06.719
It's a good one.
00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.520
It's not that I had never watched or wanted to watch the big Lebowski.
00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:14.400
Just never got around to it, man.
00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:15.919
So just relax.
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:23.279
But maybe like you, the iconography and most famous scenes were a part of my pop culture upbringing.
00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:25.040
The dude was everywhere.
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:33.040
It's actually why I've been enjoying watching the pre-Lebowski Bridges and movies because his public persona is intertwined with the dude.
00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:42.720
So I'm very late to the bandwagon, but I'm I'm so late to the bandwagon and to this trend that I might be actually ahead of it.
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:44.560
Does that make sense?
00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:55.439
However, while watching the movie all the way through for the first time, the caricature and symbol of the dude wasn't fully what I expected compared to the actual movie and the plot.
00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:12.240
While many of the late 90s and early 2000s dorm rooms were covered with giant movie posters of the Big Lebowski, the actual structure of the movie was very familiar to traditional Hollywood storytelling, specifically the noir genre.
00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:22.639
But instead of Humphrey Bogart, Nicholson in Chinatown, or Harrison Ford and Blade Runner, the dude is not an anti-hero sleuth detective or private dick.
00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.199
He's just a dude.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:36.800
But he similarly gets thrust into a world of the unfamiliar, the dangerous, the provocative, and has to navigate the murkiness of the gray morality disguised in high society.
00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:50.720
It's an LA noir homage with Donny's modern dialogue and a protagonist that looks like the weird neighbor down the hall, rather than some golden age tall, dark, and handsome movie star.
00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:58.000
If you want to learn more about the noir genre, I discussed it in my black and white movies episode from season two.
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:05.120
Now, like many cult classics, over time people have had a lot of theories about what the movie is actually about.
00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:10.800
Some of the more common ones are what I just said, it's a noir retelling in the 90s.
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:14.879
Some people think it's a commentary on the Gulf War or Vietnam.
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.399
Some think it's an Alice in Wonderland retelling.
00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:30.639
While there's some more absurd theories like Donnie is a figment of Walter's imagination, or every character in the movie knows they're in a movie except for Donnie.
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:40.959
But for me, I really see all of those theories and the many messages embedded in the movie about the systems we're all a part of.
00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:52.079
Whether you own a small business, work at a corporation, work for the government, or are a stay-at-home mom, we have to participate in these systems.
00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:57.040
Life is a system from the seasons to water to the very faculty of life.
00:06:57.199 --> 00:06:59.360
Yes, the circle of life.
00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:21.920
Sorry to get a bit far out here, but this movie uses the dude as a stereotypical burnout hippie who's not beholden to any system and juxtaposes it with his best friend Walter, who's aggressive toward any system and a foreshadowing of how our dualistic culture has been propagated through the internet and social media.
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:33.120
There's a bigger message, I think, from this movie about how all the systems we interact with are flawed, and that no matter how hard we try or don't try, we don't have control.
00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:49.600
The dude was thrown into multiple swirling systems through his arc: the art world, finance, legal, pornography, crime, religion, political correctness, and the structure of a bowling league, yet he navigates them all with a laissez-faire confusion.
00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:58.319
Honestly, he's less chill throughout the exposes of his hero's journey than we are meant to believe in the caricature of the pop culture.
00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:06.480
Because he realizes once he's drawn into these worlds that it's really stupid, and his friend Donnie doesn't get it.
00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.120
He wants him to push it and to exploit it.
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:21.600
But the dude really wants is just the decency of who is responsible for ruining his rug, and he wants to be compensated for it.
00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:32.720
To quote George Costanza from Seinfeld, we are living in a society, and all the dude wants is the decency of a micro justice.
00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:44.879
Yet he learns that asking for a small societal fairness leads down the rabbit hole of a bigger societal injustice webbed throughout all systems.
00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:53.519
What we learn from the dude in this film is to hold it all loosely and to abide.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:05.759
A beauty in the oftentimes criticized flat ending of the big Lebowski is the dude doesn't really get the girl, and he really isn't the hero.
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.080
He actually kind of loses in the end.
00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:13.600
But it doesn't totally ruin his state.
00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:23.919
He actually doesn't change in the end, which if you follow typical hero's journey storytelling, there's supposed to be a change at the end.
00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:26.320
But the dude doesn't.
00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.960
He's kind of back to square one at the end of this.
00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:37.120
Ultimately the thing that stood out to me in watching this movie is that everything can fall apart.
00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.159
The systems and structures that disappoint us.
00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:44.639
But what matters is our friendships and the people we love.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:53.440
No matter how flawed or how much they annoy us, that's the thing worth coming back to.
00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:55.440
Worth holding on to.
00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:01.519
Even if it's as simple as a friend at a bowling alley.
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:10.559
That's in the end the only thing worth committing to and putting your faith into, no matter how flawed it is.
00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.639
It's all kinds of bullshit besides it.
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:19.679
And it can be frustrating and annoying in a battle to stay afloat.
00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:28.720
But in the end, life is never as good and it's never as bad as we think.
00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:34.080
And as the dude would say, the dude abides.
00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:52.159
And the work will be there on Monday.comslash least important things.
00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:58.639
You can find us on social media where you can see what we're up to, and we'll talk to you next time on least important things.
00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:12.080
A former coworker, mentor, and friend of mine used to wisely say to me on Friday afternoons, Luke, the work is gonna be there on Monday.
00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:18.000
He was a seasoned worker with a Rolodex of experiences and roles across his career.
00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:24.960
He was from California originally, but found himself fundraising for a nonprofit in chilly West Michigan.
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:32.079
He was smart, savvy, and knew exactly when to get his shit done and when to let things slide.
00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:37.439
He had an almost monk-like and methodical approach to his work.
00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:41.439
We called him the dude.
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.079
This is a very complicated case, Mom.
00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:49.119
You know, luminal.
00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.600
Is this your homework learning?
00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:54.320
I would like my undies, man.
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:40.719
Let's go.
00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:54.400
This could be a lot more complex.
00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:59.519
I mean, it's not just it might not be just such a simple uh you know.
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:07.359
Welcome to Least Important Things, a podcast about movies, friendship, and finding meaning in the most important of the least important things.
00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:09.599
I'm your host, Luke Ferris.
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:17.360
You can call me Luki, Lucius, Luca Reno, or just whatever.
00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:30.400
The 1998 film The Big Lebowski was directed by the Cohen brothers and starred Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and a slew of Hollywood character actors.
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:39.599
This story is about a burnout slacker and hippie who gets involved in a case of cat and mouse with a business mogul with the same name.
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:48.159
He and his bowling buddies are thrust into a world of crime, deception, and money, just hoping to come out on top and make the finals of the bowling tournament.
00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:51.039
Actually, I'll just read the back of the VHS.
00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.360
Let me take my glasses off.
00:02:53.919 --> 00:03:05.120
The dude, one cool guy, who one day comes home to find two thugs have broken in and ruined his favorite carpet, the one that made the room hang together.
00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:12.560
The thing is, they did it because he's got the exact same name as one of the richest men in town, Lebowski.
00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.319
But hey, no problem, he'll get even.
00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:20.400
At least, he'll get someone to pay for new carpet.
00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:27.599
Which is one of the best back of the DVD, back of the VHS descriptions, because it describes really nothing about what this movie is.
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:34.000
It's a movie whose iconography is more widely known than the actual plot of the movie.
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:44.879
From the posters of dorm room walls to animated gifts on your iPhone, the Big Lebowski's one-liners, images, and moments are a foundational part of modern pop culture.
00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:46.800
And here's a secret.
00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:51.759
I've never seen it from start to finish before.
00:03:52.240 --> 00:04:02.319
That was until a couple of weeks ago, when I had some time off and decided to do a Jeff Bridges double feature with the 1980s romantic thriller Against All Odds.
00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.599
Yes, with the titular track sung by Phil Collins.
00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:06.719
It's a good one.
00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.520
It's not that I had never watched or wanted to watch the big Lebowski.
00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:14.400
Just never got around to it, man.
00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:15.919
So just relax.
00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:23.279
But maybe like you, the iconography and most famous scenes were a part of my pop culture upbringing.
00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:25.040
The dude was everywhere.
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:33.040
It's actually why I've been enjoying watching the pre-Lebowski Bridges and movies because his public persona is intertwined with the dude.
00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:42.720
So I'm very late to the bandwagon, but I'm I'm so late to the bandwagon and to this trend that I might be actually ahead of it.
00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:44.560
Does that make sense?
00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:55.439
However, while watching the movie all the way through for the first time, the caricature and symbol of the dude wasn't fully what I expected compared to the actual movie and the plot.
00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:12.240
While many of the late 90s and early 2000s dorm rooms were covered with giant movie posters of the Big Lebowski, the actual structure of the movie was very familiar to traditional Hollywood storytelling, specifically the noir genre.
00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:22.639
But instead of Humphrey Bogart, Nicholson in Chinatown, or Harrison Ford and Blade Runner, the dude is not an anti-hero sleuth detective or private dick.
00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.199
He's just a dude.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:36.800
But he similarly gets thrust into a world of the unfamiliar, the dangerous, the provocative, and has to navigate the murkiness of the gray morality disguised in high society.
00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:50.720
It's an LA noir homage with Donny's modern dialogue and a protagonist that looks like the weird neighbor down the hall, rather than some golden age tall, dark, and handsome movie star.
00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:58.000
If you want to learn more about the noir genre, I discussed it in my black and white movies episode from season two.
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:05.120
Now, like many cult classics, over time people have had a lot of theories about what the movie is actually about.
00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:10.800
Some of the more common ones are what I just said, it's a noir retelling in the 90s.
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:14.879
Some people think it's a commentary on the Gulf War or Vietnam.
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.399
Some think it's an Alice in Wonderland retelling.
00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:30.639
While there's some more absurd theories like Donnie is a figment of Walter's imagination, or every character in the movie knows they're in a movie except for Donnie.
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:40.959
But for me, I really see all of those theories and the many messages embedded in the movie about the systems we're all a part of.
00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:52.079
Whether you own a small business, work at a corporation, work for the government, or are a stay-at-home mom, we have to participate in these systems.
00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:57.040
Life is a system from the seasons to water to the very faculty of life.
00:06:57.199 --> 00:06:59.360
Yes, the circle of life.
00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:21.920
Sorry to get a bit far out here, but this movie uses the dude as a stereotypical burnout hippie who's not beholden to any system and juxtaposes it with his best friend Walter, who's aggressive toward any system and a foreshadowing of how our dualistic culture has been propagated through the internet and social media.
00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:33.120
There's a bigger message, I think, from this movie about how all the systems we interact with are flawed, and that no matter how hard we try or don't try, we don't have control.
00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:49.600
The dude was thrown into multiple swirling systems through his arc: the art world, finance, legal, pornography, crime, religion, political correctness, and the structure of a bowling league, yet he navigates them all with a laissez-faire confusion.
00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:58.319
Honestly, he's less chill throughout the exposes of his hero's journey than we are meant to believe in the caricature of the pop culture.
00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:06.480
Because he realizes once he's drawn into these worlds that it's really stupid, and his friend Donnie doesn't get it.
00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.120
He wants him to push it and to exploit it.
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:21.600
But the dude really wants is just the decency of who is responsible for ruining his rug, and he wants to be compensated for it.
00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:32.720
To quote George Costanza from Seinfeld, we are living in a society, and all the dude wants is the decency of a micro justice.
00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:44.879
Yet he learns that asking for a small societal fairness leads down the rabbit hole of a bigger societal injustice webbed throughout all systems.
00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:53.519
What we learn from the dude in this film is to hold it all loosely and to abide.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:05.759
A beauty in the oftentimes criticized flat ending of the big Lebowski is the dude doesn't really get the girl, and he really isn't the hero.
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.080
He actually kind of loses in the end.
00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:13.600
But it doesn't totally ruin his state.
00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:23.919
He actually doesn't change in the end, which if you follow typical hero's journey storytelling, there's supposed to be a change at the end.
00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:26.320
But the dude doesn't.
00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.960
He's kind of back to square one at the end of this.
00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:37.120
Ultimately the thing that stood out to me in watching this movie is that everything can fall apart.
00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.159
The systems and structures that disappoint us.
00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:44.639
But what matters is our friendships and the people we love.
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:53.440
No matter how flawed or how much they annoy us, that's the thing worth coming back to.
00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:55.440
Worth holding on to.
00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:01.519
Even if it's as simple as a friend at a bowling alley.
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:10.559
That's in the end the only thing worth committing to and putting your faith into, no matter how flawed it is.
00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.639
It's all kinds of bullshit besides it.
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:19.679
And it can be frustrating and annoying in a battle to stay afloat.
00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:28.720
But in the end, life is never as good and it's never as bad as we think.
00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:34.080
And as the dude would say, the dude abides.
00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:52.159
And the work will be there on Monday.comslash least important things.
00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:58.639
You can find us on social media where you can see what we're up to, and we'll talk to you next time on least important things.
