If you’re mystified by the title of this piece, then obviously you’re not a golfer.

It’s 10 years since The Dude – possibly the laziest man in Los Angeles county, which puts him in the running for laziest wurrrldwide – sauntered onto our screens to an indifferent box-office and critical reception in the shambling, Chandler-esque Coen Brothers comedy The Big Lebowski. Given the congenital torpor of Jeff Bridges’ unlikely and bone-idle amateur detective, the term ‘sleeper’ was never more appropriate, as the box-office bomb spawned legions of fanatical, quote-obsessed Lebowski devotees in the years afterward, and 2008’s ten-year anniversary is a big event that will be met with…White Russians, hanging out, driving around and lots of bowling.

Only Rocky Horror and Withnail and I have anywhere near the same level of quotability as Lebowski, and it’s probably possible by now to recreate the entire script from currently available t-shirts. The 2002 ‘Lebowskifest’ in Kentucky instantly became an annual sell-out event, with audiences turning up as the characters in the film and collectively mirroring the classic lines at showings of TBL in almost liturgical rhapsody. The event finally came to the UK last August at the Edinburgh Festival.

Lebowskifest has been a particularly successful exercise in worship and proselytisation thanks to the poster art and corollary design-work of Dude-advocate and graphic designer Bill Green (see picture on the right), also one of the authors of last year’s I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You, where the slacker-worshipping Dude-heads actually get off their arses and interview pretty much everyone associated with the film, as well as persuading Jeff Bridges to write an introduction to the book.

Jeff Dowd, the laconic film-producer on whom the Coen Brothers based Bridges’ character, has spun his new cult popularity into a series of lectures and interviews, and you do have to wonder if the persona that the film immortalised has fed back into his own public image by now.

But if it’s so great, why did it tank on release? Though there are many films that have TBL’s endless re-watch value, there are very few that are so unimpressive the first time you see it, and many of Lebowski’s most fervent fans (including myself), were either non-plussed or just ‘made curious’ on first viewing, leading to the popular (and true) notion that if you’ve only seen it once, you really haven’t seen it at all. A rambling plot, a plethora of narrative non-sequiturs (for instance, we never find out anything more about ‘video artist’ Knox Harrington after his giggly introduction in Maude Lebowski’s lounge) combine with the easiest case any Chandler-style tec ever faced, to bewilder an audience expecting something more sophisticated from the film’s noir title.

Instead, TBL fans get converted with repeated viewings, which is apt considering that repetition is what Lebowski is all about: the clueless Dude adopts phrases he hears from less-wrecked people than himself (including George Bush Snr.) throughout the film, and Philip Seymour Hoffman even says a line of dialogue twice in quick succession for no apparent reason. Repetition is a hallmark of the Coens, particularly in the more commercially successful Fargo (1995) and the underrated The Hudsucker Proxy (1991), but only in TBL did they find the necessary means for necessary means for fully expressing their obsession.

Lebowski transcends the shallow need for plot and resolution to become a laid-back journey of non-discovery in the company of some of the Coen Brothers’ most bizarre comic creations – proto-feminist artist and rich-chick Maude Lebowski; Sam Shepherd’s incongruous cowboy narrator; the Dude’s un-named progressive-dancing landlord; John Turturro’s outrageous comic turn as bowling superstar and pederast Jesus Quintana; Jon Polito’s Dude-worshipping detective (arguably the first of Dude’s many fans)…amongst many, many other oddball cameos.

But does that about wrap her up? Have we really seen the last of The Dude? If the Coen Brothers have proscribed any sequel (and sadly it seems that they have), surely there is a case for HBO to rope Jeff Bridges into a short series of new ‘cases’ for the shambolic shamus…? There are few other places on American TV where the dude’s inability to complete a sentence without the word ‘fuck’ in it could be tolerated (see clip below).

The Big Lebowski, like with Withnail And I, reveres one man’s utter ineptitude and dedication to idleness and abnegation of personal responsibility, thus guaranteeing a perennial renewal of a student fan-base. For those of us who do have a job (what day is this..?), it’s good to know that even after ten years, the Dude is still out there, taking it easy for all us sinners.

Don't watch the clip if you're easily offended; it's every swear word from The Big Lebowski. It's genius.

Links:

Ten Signs You Might Be A Dude
Which Lebowski are you?
Lebowski Theory