The Big Lebowski Remains Perhaps the Biggest Cult Classic of the Last Thirty Years: 10 Reasons Why the Dude Remains Such an Endearing—and Enduring—Character:

 

With the new documentary about The Big Lebowski coming out about the enduring cult classic, we should look at 10 Reasons the Dude remains such an enduring figure: 

1. We all want to be the Dude for he is not some elitist or hyped-up movie character. He is an Everyman, which is to say he is a man completely stripped of pretension.
2. The Dude is not a sell-out. No one or no thing owns him. He is his own man and he seems to embody Steely Dan’s song manifesto “Deacon Blues”: “This brother is free. I’ll be what I want to be.”
3. The Dude does not have inflated narcissistic expectations like too many Americans. He just wants his few creature comforts like bowling with his buddies and drinking his favorite libation, a white Russian.
4. The Dude has integrity. He does not wear different masks to manipulate others.
5. The Dude is not a ruthless social Darwinist who would step on others to gain his own advantage. He is loyal to his Dude Code.
6. The Dude does not try to be cool or impress others so that ironically he is truly cool.
7. The Dude captures our incredulity at life’s absurdities. No face in film can capture better the Dude’s “WTF” expression.
8. The Dude is a loyal friend who does not make a big deal about his loyalty because for him loyalty is an unspoken part of his Dude Code.
9. The Dude is his own man but he is not burdened with the narcissistic urge to conform others into his own image. He accepts that everyone is different.
10. The Dude is comfortable enough in his own skin to traipse the grocery store aisles in his robe and slippers and not make a big deal out of it. No studied casualness for him. He is utterly and truly casual.

 

 

Comments

[Jeffrey McMahon]

I loved the Hulk. Too young for the Fugitive. I have not heard of a Lebowski sequel.