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I read this great article at The Atlantic on the 15th anniversary of the release of The Big Lebowski. Of course I’ve noticed and enjoyed the spiritualism displayed in Lebowski, but I’d never realized how far some people have taken this. Perhaps if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a little too uptight and organized and Franklin-planned and Covey-ish for you, The Church of the Latter-Day Dude is more your style.
😆 Quote:“Nihilists! F*** me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos!”
Oh, the wisdom of Walter Sobchak. As well might we say “Say what you want about the tenets of Mormonism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos!”http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/03/still-abiding-after-15-years-the-laid-back-world-of-big-lebowski-worship/273750/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/03/still-abiding-after-15-years-the-laid-back-world-of-big-lebowski-worship/273750/ Have watched that film twice, it never made a big impression on me, and personally am mystified why it has become such a cult. I think the Matrix, or even Fight Club, have more to say. (The Matrix somewhat diluted its message with sequels)
Quote:At least it’s an ethos!
Amen – and a very powerful one for millions of people. It’s not letting the ethos get hedged about and lost by the administrative and cultural minutiae that is the key.
This thread makes me smile. Thanks. :thumbup: Sometimes when I think about church or doctrines the movie Month Python and the Holy Grail comes to mind.
It’s very interesting, and could even be its own thread, that different “secular” movies have spiritual components that touch different people in different ways. I just commented on another thread that I didn’t find The Lord of the Rings books particularly spiritual, but enough people have said that they do find them spiritual for me to believe that they are, for them. I think The Dude is pretty clearly a Christ figure – at least twice he’s depicted in a cruciform pose, and even though he’s got a name, he prefers to be addressed by a title. SamBee wrote:Have watched that film twice,
it never made a big impression on me, and personally am mystified why it has become such a cult…I think the Matrix, or even Fight Club, have more to say. (The Matrix somewhat diluted its message with sequels) Kumahito wrote:It’s very interesting, and could even be its own thread, that different “secular” movies have spiritual components that touch different people in different ways. I just commented on another thread that I didn’t find The Lord of the Rings books particularly spiritual, but enough people have said that they do find them spiritual for me to believe that they are, for them.
I think The Dude is pretty clearly a Christ figure – at least twice he’s depicted in a cruciform pose, and even though he’s got a name, he prefers to be addressed by a title.Interesting; I would have never thought of the dude as being a Jesus figure or “The Big Lebowski” as being a spiritual movie but I guess it was surprisingly thought-provoking after seeing the original previews and then watching the actual movie years later. To me it simply looks like an intended comedy that has ended up developing a cult following mostly because it was so odd and offbeat. I see the dude as mostly an anti-hero, sort of the ultimate slacker that has completely dropped out of the rat race and become perfectly content with this un-ambitious lifestyle. The main line I still remember from this movie was Sam Elliot explaining how the dude was “the laziest man in Los Angeles County” which of course put him in serious contention for being the laziest man worldwide. I’ll have to watch it again sometime.
Saw a painting of the character the other day on a wall somewhere, and thought, yeah, it does look a bit Christlike. Maybe it’s the beard. But I found the film pretty forgettable, all in all.
The Hudsucker Proxy has a lot of spiritual stuff in it, but I generally think it gets in the way of the comedy.
I’m not sure that the Dude was intended to be a Christ figure, but he was an archtype — a person who ‘got by’…who abides rather than thrives. But in as far as the Christ is also an archtype, then there are similarities: all archtypes are meant to reflect something universal. Interestingly, when I was heavily involved in daoist forums, Big Lebowski themes were used a lot to reflect principles of daoism: wuwei/effortless action, non-intervention, going with the flow, the rough exterior obscuring internal integrity.
Dude: “Is that some sort of eastern thing?”
Cowboy: “Far from it.”
That rug really tied the room together.
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