September 4, 2021 • 36 mins
In 1998, the Coen Brothers made their masterpiece, The Big Lebowski. It’s a genre-bending take on Film Noir, but it’s also about the Dude’s favorite sport, bowling. In this episode, Mike and Lance discuss how bowling is different from other sports, and how The Big Lebowski is different from other sports movies.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to the Nerd Polite. Hello, and welcome to Training Montage, the
show on the Nerd Party where wetalk about sports movies. I'm Mike,
(00:27):
and today we're going to be talkingabout what I personally think is the greatest
sports movie ever made. The BigLebowski. Interesting. The DUDEA bides,
The Duda bides, Yes, hedoes. Kind of an an interesting sports
movie in that it's kind of afringe sport and maybe it's a sports is
(00:51):
kind of fringeing. Well maybe not. I don't know. It's pretty good
to grow. But yeah, Sowhen did you first see The Big Lebowski.
I first saw The Big Lebowski incollege, during undergrad So this is
probably oh four oh five ish,okay, you know, in somebody's dorm
(01:12):
room, you know, and ona movie night, and this is the
thing that was on and I rememberthis is a movie that a lot of
people kind of got into, likewhen I was like, this is one
of those movies that like people whowere in college like they get into when
they're like deciding it's like, oh, I like only good movies. You
know that type of you know,when they have that type of attitude.
And so this was This was oneof the definitely one of those movies,
(01:34):
and I think the second the nexttime that I saw it again was like
on a bus somewhere, like ona band trip, like this is a
this is a band trip movie.In college? Yeah, for sure,
what about you. I was aboutthe same age as you, but it
would have been earlier for me getcloser to the time that the movie came
out. I didn't see it inthe theater, which is weird because you
(01:57):
know, they had done Fargo,and you know, even though everyone absolutely
loved Fargo and that's what they gotnominated for an Oscar for and all that
stuff, I was just kind oflike, this movie doesn't work for me.
So I wasn't like anxious to seethe new Cohen brother movie. And
when I saw the trailers for thisand everything, I was like, m
(02:17):
it's not really working for me,Like there's nothing about this which is,
you know, extremely appealing. SoI passed on it. But my friends
had seen it and they were alllike, oh my god, this is
one of the best movies ever made. It's hilarious. They kept on quoting
it and everything like that, andit was one of those things where it
(02:38):
was like they were just being annoyingabout it, and I kind of like
just didn't bother watching it because theywere so annoying about it. You know.
It's interesting that you that you bringthis up, because like I remember
like really enjoying this movie, andthen when I watched it, you know,
recently, for this, I waslike, my thoughts were, was,
(02:59):
like, is this as really asgood as I remember it being?
Was my was my first thought.So and I was like annoyed, more
annoyed at the things in this moviethan I was amused as I was when
I was younger, which I thoughtwas interesting. I mean, it is
one of those things where it hasbecome I mean, like my friends were
trend setters in that way, butI mean this has become like a cult
(03:22):
thing, like everybody does that,and I mean there's books written about it
and everything, books written about bigLebowski fandom, you know, and everything.
They have Lebowski Fest every year,like traveling. I mean, there's
Lebowski conventions the way there are StarTrek conventions. And because of that,
it does sort of it's it's allrevolving around this one movie. And it's
(03:45):
like I've certainly I've seen this moviein the theater many times, you know,
as like in like repertory screenings,and I mean there have been.
I mean I can remember one timein particular where I went to I mean,
yeah, so out and everything likethat, but like there are also
times, you know, it's likea midnight show. I'm sitting behind like
a bunch of guys who came tosee it together and they're you know,
(04:11):
a little tipsy and just like quotingthe entire movie, and it's like Jesus,
like, I like, I needto I need to get up and
leave, you know, I needto go and sit somewhere not by them,
because they're just being so annoying.Yeah, you know, so yeah,
(04:33):
I saw it late. I sawit, you know. Finally,
one of my other friends, whoseemed a bit more rational at the time,
was like, this is a goodmovie. You should watch it.
Let me lend it to you.And it's one of those things where like
someone gives you a movie to watchand you're like, I don't particularly want
to watch this, but I feelobligated to watch this because they gave it
(04:56):
to me. So I watched it, I know that, feeling very well,
yes, yes, everybody does soI watched it. Um, this
would have been probably like a yearafter it came out, you know,
and I saw it on like DVD, and um my reaction was like,
yeah, that's that was that wasgood. That was a solid movie.
(05:18):
I enjoyed it. It was amusing. Not as good as everyone says it
is, but it was good,and you know, as as one does,
I just kind of gravitated towards itagain and again and again, and
watching it numerous times, I'm like, actually, this probably is one of
the best movies ever made. Thisis really really funny, Like it's kind
(05:43):
of my go to, like whenpeople say, like, what's the funniest
movie ever made? I mean that'sreally hard to say, right, it
is hard, but you but thenbut then you, you know, you
get rational and you're like, yeah, coming to America. I mean maybe
maybe coming to America is a biglevel sky scenario for me. I just
saw the first time last year andI was like, oh, this is
(06:05):
fine, you know, but Idon't feel compelled to ever watch together.
Man. See I am I've grewup with that movie. And the people
you were complaining about quoting coming toAmerica. That is me and my friends
because we went to a quote alongfor that movie, and let me tell
you, we legit. Like youknow, have you ever been one of
(06:25):
those sort of OK for clues?Yeah, clue hilarious, But like you
know, they at these these umthese quote alongs, they have certain things
and scenes that they want you toquote along too. It's not like the
whole movie, but me and myfriends literally did every line from start to
(06:46):
finish, even the music, themusic cues, everything. I know that
movie inside it out. Yeah yeah, I mean I get it, you
know, I definitely get it,but I don't really get it. It's
all good, you know, ButI'm starting to get it with The Big
Lebowski I am, you know,and it's to the point that it's like,
yes, yes, I mean ifsomeone asks me, like, what's
(07:09):
the funniest movie ever made? Imean the three movies that I kind of
think of our Clerks, Mall Ratsand this. So to Kevin Smith's in
there, yeah, I mean KevinSmith is He's he's my guy, you
know, Yeah, he's the best. So yeah, now, I guess
(07:30):
before we get super into the movie, let me ask you what you think
about bowling as in, Like,do I think it's a sport or not.
Oh we could do that. Wecould start with that. Do you
think it's a sport? Okay,I do? And what do you what
do you think about the sport.It's fun, it's um, it's it's
(07:54):
recreational more so than like I'm like, I don't get a competitive edge like
when I do it, but like, like and like I get it with
other sports that I've played in thepast. Now there is a you know,
competitiveness that you can get with it, because you can be competitive about
anything. But I don't get theyou know, the blood pump in the
same way I would if I'm like, you know, you know, I'm
(08:15):
playing pickup or I'm playing you know, baseball, football or even golf.
Uh. This is more just likea sport to chill and just kind of
you know, with your friends andjust kind of hang out with you know
what I mean. Still a sport, but it's not one of the ones
that really gets the competitive juices flowing, how about you. Yeah, No,
that's definitely true. I can Ican see that, you know for
sure. I Mean people always jokeabout like, oh, it's a sport,
(08:39):
but you're sitting around most of thetime drinking beer or whatever you're doing.
That's correct. Those are the bestsports I was in. I was
in a bowling alley, uh Idon't know, about two years ago or
something like that, and they hada sign up on the wall where it
was basically saying like bowling is great, you should be bowling, and there
was all these great things about bowling, and of the things was like,
(09:01):
did you know that in the courseof a bowling game, you walk like
half a mile or something like that, and it's like, okay, hey,
well look good, good for you. Then I guess, yeah,
okay, cool, you know.Um, but yeah, it's I mean
I loved doing it as a kid, absolutely loved it. Yeah. It's
(09:22):
one of those things where it's likeI always want to do it. I
just never really have the excuse.I probably haven't done it in like ten
years, maybe more than that.And like I work for a company that
owns a bowling alley, and everytime I go there, you know,
the atmosphere and everything, I'm justlike, this is the coolest place.
(09:43):
Like I just want to I justwant to bowl. You know, Yeah,
no, I hear you, becauselike when you're there in the moment
you're just like, man, whydon't we do this all the time?
Yeah, because it's it's I mean, it's a good time, it's a
good hang and you know, it'sa simple game. It's easy to understand
U and you know there are waysto get better at it quickly, you
(10:03):
know what I mean. And yeah, there's there's there's some benefits to it.
It's uh what I used to actuallydo it, like for a hot
stretch. I like bowled every weekat one point in college and to the
point where like I have my ownbowling shoes because didn't want to didn't want
to pay for bullet shoes, soI like went to like academy and just
bought like some twenty dollars bowling shoescame in handy. Yeah. I I
(10:28):
have like family members like my unclewas like really good, you know,
he'd bowled like, you know,two seventy five games and stuff like that.
And my my my grandpa and grandmawere both really good and they were
in leagues and everything. And it'sone of those things like I always I
mean, leagues seem like a lotof fun, you know, and it's
one of those things where it's like, Okay, I want to do this,
(10:50):
but at the same time, Ineed to find like I don't know,
three other people to do it withme, you know, and then
there's the whole thing. It's like, well, you know, I mean,
chances are I'm gonna suck. Youknow. It's kind of like the
same thing with golf. Like Igolfed when I was a kid, and
now, you know, people saylike, oh, you want a golf
and I'm like, I do wanta golf but I realize that if I
(11:11):
do that, I'm going to embarrassmyself. You know. See, Well,
here's the thing golf. Golf ishard, and so that's the that's
the inherent difference between it. Ithink the two. Like bawling, you
can kind of get the hang ofit through like one game. You can
kind of figure out what you're doing, and you can get yourself in a
flow and get yourself in a rhythmto where you can be you know,
(11:33):
all right, like like to thepoint where you're not making you know,
gutters every single time. You know, there's ways to do that to get
like a score that you kind ofwant to get right in golf, like
you could do everything fine and thenyou can hit the ball and it goes
not the way that you want itto go, or something happens and you
strike the ball and it goes liketwo yards, right, So it's like
all sorts of things go wrong,and it's so it's so mentally hard.
(11:58):
It's very humbling. Golf is um, that's that's I think those are the
because, like I think you cankind of comp these two, these two
activities, like these two sports rightslike, oh yeah, they're similar.
They're similar in certain ways, right, but at the same time one is
really difficult and the other one iseasier to pick up. That's definitely true.
That's definitely true. But that feelingis still I like, I mean
(12:20):
with golf, I feel I meanwith with bowling, I feel like you're
saying, you know, I canI can get over this quickly, Like
I can go I can find itan afternoon when there's no one at this
bowling alley. Yeah, I canbowl for a couple hours and then be
like, Okay, I'm good tobowl in a public setting now, right.
(12:43):
Whereas, like you know, forfor a couple of years there I
had that I joined this like gymthat was like down the block from the
theater that I worked at and Iwas like really excited to play bass bsketball
in the middle of the night.You know, oh, bro, because
(13:03):
because no one's going to be thereand I can just do whatever I want
to do because I'm terrible at basketball, right this calculation on your part,
sir. Okay, well, Ias far as no, as far as
like nobody being there, nobody beingthere, yeah, because but like those
those runs of gyms are always full, Well it turned out to I never
(13:26):
I never found out whether or notyou were You're correct in that because when
they built the gym, it waspart of like a larger like complex that
I had like condos in it,and basically the basketball court was so loud
that they had to close it atten o'clock at night. And they kept
on saying, like we're going todo more soundproving, and they like put
(13:46):
a bunch of money into sound provingit and it still didn't work and everything.
So I never got to play basketballin the middle of the night.
Oh okay, Well, I'll tellyou, like a seventy who's played some
some midnight runs, it's awesome.Yeah, But like if you go to
a gym though expecting he's like,oh yeah, I'm gonna you know,
get some shots up on this court. Uh and practice and practice and work
(14:07):
on my games. No, it'snot happening now because people are running full
court like pretty much all day.Yeah, yeah, no, I mean
I guess that makes sense. Yeah, um, I don't know, some
bowling, bowling might that that mightbe. Maybe that's maybe that's a sport
because I do like that competitive stuff, right, and that's really what drives
(14:28):
the dude as well. Yes,right, he's I mean, you know,
he talks about how like, youknow, even though this guy's paying
him like twelve thousand dollars, youknow, to make this drop, you
know, and he gives him abeeper like if it happens during a league
game, he's out. But he'snot just bowling in his league games,
you know, he's bowling all thetime. It really is his life.
(14:50):
It's his passion, you know.Yeah. John Goodman's too, Oh yeah,
oh yeah for sure. And that'sone of the things. I mean,
that's kind of like how this sportis like introduced into this movie and
and and woven into this movie.It's like it's not about bowling, it's
(15:11):
not about him as a bowler.Never once in the entire movie do you
actually see the dude throw a balldown a lane. Yeah, you don't
get to see him roll, asthey as they say, that's yes,
you never get to see him roll. But it really it's not about how
good he is or whatever. It'sabout how much is his passion. Yeah,
(15:35):
it's the driving force in his life. And all he wants to do
his bowl and all of these jerkswith their money and there whatever they're getting
in the way of him doing that. Yes, a simple man with a
simple, simple passion and that's allhe wants to do, and people just
(15:56):
kept messing it up for him.Yeah. I think that's so cool.
Like I really do relate to himon that level. I mean not in
terms of bowling, but in termsof whatever, whether it's movie watching or
whatever, you know. And Imean this, this movie is so perfectly
constructed in a lot of ways.I mean, it is a film noir.
(16:17):
It's a throwback to these detective stories, oh absolutely. And yet and
it follows that formula exactly. Yeah, and yet the detective is not you
know, Sam Spade or something likethat, who's you know, like all
into you know, like being thebest detective in the world. It's a
guy who's thrown into this situation againsthis will. Yeah, and also like
(16:41):
he doesn't have the look of iteither. And that's the other thing that
they kind of flip on its headhere. It's like he's this schlubby like
like dude addicted to his white Russians. He can't really form a coherent sentence
most of the time. He doesn'tlisten to people. They don't listen to
him, like, but he's theguy that's all the case. Yeah,
he's fumbling through it just because he'sthere. You know. It's it's it's
(17:06):
perfect, you know. And JeffBridge's performance is I mean one of the
best in movie history. He's great. He's so good, you know.
And you you brought up the whiteRussians. I mean certainly that's become a
huge part of the fandom. Abeverage here, yep. I mean it
feels it's it's like people feel compelledto drink white Russians while they're watching this
(17:27):
movie, something which I've never donebecause I'm not really a drinker, but
I do I do want to tryit. At some point. We we
did a thing since we the companythat I work for owns a bowling alley
which is literally beneath a thousand seatmovie palace. Right. We did a
(17:48):
thing where it was like a midnightshow of The Big Lebowski and you could
get like a package deal where beforethe movie you could go bowl for an
hour and then come upstairs and watchThe Big Lebowski, you know. And
I mean it was awesome. Andman did we sell a lot of white
Russians, you know, which,which is pretty cool, Which is pretty
(18:11):
cool. I'm I'm, I'm allabout the the sort of like breaking the
the two dimensions of the screen andlike finding ways to enhance the movie watching
like he's drinking a white Russian.I'm drinking a white Russian. You know,
let's let's let's do this. It'spretty cool, Like I enjoy that.
(18:33):
But there's another thing about bowling,like and and in relation to you
know, the sports that that we'rewe're looking at, you know most of
the time, and how it reallyis kind of like a different um,
a different side of things in termsof the viewers relationship to it, which
maybe is why people don't really seethis as a sports movie when you think
(18:56):
of like sports at least when Ithink of sports, I kind of think
of them as a viewer. Ithink of watching the Super Bowl or the
World Series or whatever, going toa baseball game or a basketball game or
whatever. But I mean, onthe whole, nobody goes to watch bowling,
(19:18):
right, No, and the placesthat you normally watch bowling only happens
on these random sundays on on ESPNtwo when you can watch the Pro bowling
and that's when you get to,you know, see things like, you
know, Pro bowling Champion Peter Webber, and that's and he's become he has
one of one of the greatest memesand sound effects and cat phrases ever.
(19:40):
Who do you think you are?I am it's so great, yes,
And I don't you're talking about it. It's so good. Annually that'll be
a thing that's trending on Twitter.It's just like it's like Peter Webber Day
or whatever, and it's like it'sjust that clip of him saying that it's
so good. I mean, andyet like I see that, and I'm
(20:02):
like I want, like, Icould you know they make fun of that
in Dodgeball and everything, you know, the idea of like but really,
if we think about the Olympics.At least from my perspective, It's like
I don't watch skiing. I don'twatch gymnastics like my ghost in the Winter
Olympics, I don't. I don'twant to do that. All that's a
(20:22):
fringe one, right, I meanthe one that I watch, like in
in in the Winter Olympics is curling. You know, I was all about
the curling. Everybody gets that iswhat everybody's obscure, favorite, obscure sport
is curling. I think that it'sit's similar to bowling, and that like
people see it and they think,like I could I could do that.
(20:45):
Yeah, It's incredibly hard, youknow, Like we have a couple of
curling places here in Chicago, andyou know, like when yeah, and
when the Olympics you know, happenedlast time around, and and you know,
curling was a big thing. Iread an article in the paper where
they were talking about how, yeah, of course the attendance at these curling
(21:07):
rinks shot up, you know,a thousand percent. And everyone gets on
there and everyone is absolutely terrible,has no idea what they're doing or how
to do it, and yet everybodywants to try, right, And I
think that's fun. I mean,like, and it's not like curling or
(21:29):
I mean, I guess the otherone, which you know, ping pong.
You know, yeah you watch pingpong in the Olympics and it's like,
yeah, yeah, you watch thatand you're like, well, they
have all the same equipment that Ihave in my basement, and yet this
is not at all the same,Like, oh, that's actually the most
(21:52):
efficient way to do that thing thatI've been doing for years. Yeah,
you know, like I could neverdo that. But okay, that badminton,
right, badminton? Yeah, althoughwhen I watched badminton. I turned
on badminton for a little bit thistime around, and I'm like, I'm
sure, you know, actually gettingin there, it's like whoa. But
like when I was watching it thistime, I was like, that seems
(22:15):
about the same as being in mybackyard, you know. You know.
I'm like I was expecting it tobe a bit faster or something, but
I guess you know that thing onlythe birdie only travels so so fast,
you know. But bowling, Imean you're taking it one frame at a
(22:36):
time, right, And everyone's hada strike at some point in their lives,
right, whether by luck or byon purpose. So it's really just
about consistency. And it's like,Okay, if I do this enough,
if I go bowl every day,I would be a really good bowler.
Yeah. So I think that it'sit's weird that it's not a popular sport
(23:02):
to watch in some ways. Iguess, yeah, I mean, I
guess to do it. It's notlike baseball, where every play you could
see something you've never seen before,right, Yeah. But yeah, and
there's only certain so many different waysyou can you know, roll the ball
down the alley as well, likelike you know, I remember when like
spinning it and having the ball curvewas like a big deal. It's like,
(23:26):
ohs, like what is this?Yeah, I learned how to do
that. I was like wow,I mean like we did this thing.
Um. We just had an eventat our bowling alley and I was waiting
for the guest of honor to arrive, and uh, I was talking to
the manager of the bowling alley andI was just kind of you know,
like we were just waiting around andI'm like, so, you know bowling,
(23:49):
I hunt a bowl and he's like, oh, yeah, you know.
I love bowling is my passion andI didn't realize this about the guy,
but he was like he feels Imean, he's like the dude,
you know, like bowling was histhing, you know. And I'm like,
so, you know, like Iwas just trying to like get a
feel, like asking all the questionsthat you have for years that you never
(24:11):
get a chance to talk to anyoneabout. Right. So I'm like,
well, what size ball should Ihave? You know, how should the
grip feel and all this stuff.And he's like, well, you know,
blah blah blah blah blah. Andthen he's like well, yeah,
I mean you know, I'm like, which ball do you use? And
he's like, well, I don'tuse any of these. I've got my
own ball. And I'm like,oh, of course you do. I'm
like what type of ball do youhave? And he's like let me show
(24:33):
you. And we go into thislike back room and he's got a whole
rack with all these balls on itand he's like these are all my bowling
balls. I'm like really, I'mlike you just keep them here and he's
like, well yeah, because thisis where I bowl. And I'm like
it was like weird. It's like, you know, like someone it was
almost like something out of a moviewhere like someone's like check this out and
they like open up a door tothe closet and you're like, whoah my
(24:57):
god. You know. I Imean that's what it was. It's like,
he's not like you want to seemy bowling balls. He was just
like, oh, here they are, you know, and he has this
little like and I'm like, well, what do all these things do?
And he's like, well, youknow, this one is for when there's
a lot of oil on the onthe lane. This one's for when there's
not a lot of oil on thelane. You know all this. I'm
(25:18):
like, really, there's that muchvariation that you need like five bowling balls,
but apparently there is. You know, it's crazy. It's like having
multiple clubs. That's I never reallythought about that, but I guess that
makes sense. Yeah. Yeah,it's so strange. But you know,
I mean, I'm like seeing allthis stuff and I'm like, I need
to go bowling. I want tobecome a bowler. I want to start
(25:40):
a league. I want I want, I want to do this. You
know. Yeah, So whatever Ifeel, I feel the dude's passion,
I do. Okay, Um,but yeah. So, I mean,
this movie is a masterpiece. Ihaven't talked a whole lot about the movie,
but god, it works on somany levels. I Mean, one
(26:00):
of the other things which I loveabout it is the scale. It's small,
but it does still do that filmnoir thing that you see in like
you know, La Confidential or evenWatchman or whatever, where it's like there's
one little thing and yet it balloonsinto something, you know, like like
(26:21):
La Confidential, like okay, there'sone little murder, I mean, you
know whatever to just say, likethere's a random murder in a coffee shop,
Okay, we need to figure outwho the killers were. And it's
like, oh, it turns outthat this is the tip of the iceberg,
which is related to corruption throughout thepolice department all the way up to
(26:47):
like the mayor's office, you know, And it's like, okay, you
know that, how do you getthere from just this one little, you
know incident. And in Big Lebowski, it's like the guy just peed on
his rug. He peed on thewrong guy's rug, and digression will not
stand man, yes, and itballoons into you know, this whole ridiculous
(27:11):
situation. Yeah, with like youknow, guys stealing millions of dollars from
their charities, and people chopping offtheir toes to frame other people and everything
like that. A Terror read likelike spot I had. I was I
completely forgotten Slash maybe didn't even realizethat she was in this movie. I
was like, Wow, Okay,yeah, she's she's great. I mean,
(27:36):
this is like one of the firstthings that she was in. Yeah,
this exactly. Then it was likeAmerican Pie right after a year later.
Yeah, and then yeah, becausethat was the first place I saw
her. Yeah, American Pie.Yeah, I think I must have seen
this like right before American Pie cameout. Okay, but she was like,
I mean, she was liked becominglike a really big actress at that
(27:57):
point in time, you know,and and the Cone Brothers, you know,
tapping into I mean the performances inthis Yes, Jeff Bridges is amazing,
but Philip Seymour Hoffman, how doeshe do what he does in this
movie? He's like, what itreminded me of was um in Thank You
for Smoking Rob Lowe's part. That'sexactly. I was like, Oh,
(28:18):
Rob Lowe is totally doing Philip SeymourHoffman from this movie that's exactly what he's
doing. And and Julianne Moore,you know, same deal. Oh,
she's well, she's fantastic and everythingshe does, she's one of the best
actors in the world. So Iwas not I was not surprised at how
great her mod was. Yeah,I mean you look at you look at
the uh. I mean, Iguess this is just my personal rankings or
(28:41):
whatever. But ninety seven all theway through two thousand, the best movie
of every year, of all fourof those years. And Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Yeah, but he Knights the Lebowski, Magnolias Famous, Yeah, I
(29:03):
can't really age with that. That'sa pretty solid roll. Well, especially
the book ends of that, right, you know, Boogie Knights and almost
Famous, I mean Magnolia. Imean, I don't know, the two
in the middle there are pretty impressiveas well. Well, I'm not so
high on Magnolia. I wasn't kindof like, I mean, I go
(29:25):
back and forth, you know,like thinking about it, you know,
with my gut, I'm like,Boogie Knights is a better movie, But
every time I watch Magnolia, that'sthe best of those four, man,
I mean, it might it's itcould be the best of any four of
all time. It could be,but Magnolia could be two. I mean,
Magnolia could be I know that,but yeah, I don't know.
(29:48):
It does really work for me.Um a lot like when I when I
look at them, like completely objectively, I'm like, I think Magnolia is
a better movie. I think Magnoliamight be the best movie ever made.
Okay. And it was so sad, I mean because of that that run
in particular, but you know,Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman then returned
(30:11):
together for the last Hunger Games movie, and that movie came out after Philip
Seymour Hoffman died. Yeah, andit was I mean, just watching that,
it was so sad, like seeingthe two of them together and thinking
like we'll never see this again,you know, but still oh that we
(30:33):
got at least one last movie outof that parents true. Yeah, So
okay, any final thoughts on TheBig Lebowski. Um, it's a funny
movie. It's one that I enjoyed. It's one that I kind of wrestled
with as far as like is thisas good as I remember? And I
don't think it's as good as Iremember, But I still really enjoyed it,
and there's there's a lot in therethat's just really really funny. I
(30:57):
don't think it lives up to thehype I had for it in my head
and from my first viewings of it, but it's still an incredibly enjoyable movie.
It's interesting in that regard, right, I mean, because it's not
placed on that pedestal that Fargo orNo Country for Old Men is placed on,
and yet it is by far theirmost popular movie, and you know,
(31:21):
the one which has like the passionatefollowing. Yeah, and yet I
look at it and maybe maybe I'mjust, you know, kind of like
simple minded when it comes to theCohen Brothers. But I look at it
and I compare it to any oftheir other movies, and I'm like,
this is easily their best, easilyLike this is them firing on all cylinders,
(31:45):
This is them tapping into the thingthat they do best personally. I
feel like that. So one verylast thing here, I got to ask
you. You know, for yearsand years and years and years, John
Turturro had been trying to make aspinoff movie about the Jesus, which granted
(32:10):
the Jesus that scene in the movieI think is one of the funniest scenes,
maybe the single funniest scene in moviehistory. Right, And yet the
best part about it is not onlythe dancing, it's the look. And
I think what really sells it withthat guy is the rings on his hands.
I was like, of course thisdude has the rings on his hands.
Of course he does. That works. I also like his socks,
(32:35):
which are so incredibly sheer that hislegs underneath them. I mean that we're
I mean, the whole thing isjust perfect, right. And it's like
he's only in two scenes in themovie, and yet he's like the most
memorable thing about the movie. Yeah, and to heat check, Yeah.
And the fact that he's like Iwant to do Like he's like, I
want to do this. You knowyou guys write it, I'll direct it.
(32:59):
You know this what I want morethan anything. And I think the
Cohen Brothers realized, like, that'slike giving Boba fet his own movie.
You know, it's not gonna workbecause he's got to come in, be
a badass and then leave. Well, you know what the answer to that
(33:19):
is, right, what the solutionis, let's his own show on Disney
Plus there you goe, which issomething the Book of the Jesus. That's
that title actually works pretty well,right, you know, but I hired
me Hollywood no stuff. Well Idon't know if you're aware of this,
but John Tatura finally got to makehis Jesus spinoff movie. Oh really,
(33:44):
Yes, it's called The Jesus Rolls. And the weird thing about it,
there's a lot of weird things aboutit. I'm sure one that they made
it, you know, but um, the weirdest thing about it is that
it's a remake of a French movie, which has nothing to do with The
Big Lebowski. Yeah, and thatmovie's not very good and The Jesus Rolls
(34:08):
is not very good. But it'ssuch a weird concept, like the whole
I mean, for one thing,the fact that you can like make this
character a protagonist, you know,you know, because whatever it's, it's
But then you know that it's likethis whole thing about like this guy and
he gets out of prison and hisbrother is doing this thing, and then
(34:30):
they're trying to like steal some moneyand then they meet this woman and it's
like a weird road trip thing.It's so weird because it has nothing to
do with any of this stuff andit just does not work at all at
all. But whatever, I guessthey get an a for effort, you
know. But there is a hiddensequel to The Big Lebowski which is out
(34:53):
there now for anyone who wants tocheck it out. Yeah, all right,
I guess that's pretty much it,right, I think? So thanks?
All right? Well, Lance,where can people find you on the
Internet. They can find me atSir Lance Laster on all of my social
medias, and you can also findme over on the United Federation of podcast
(35:14):
talking about all the things that makeArrow Arrow on Always Hold on to Arrow,
and you can find us on Twitterat Do Not Fail Our Pod.
You can find me on Twitter andletterbox at Mumbles three k, and you
can also find me on my website, film damagepod dot com, where we
do a show called Film Damage.We've started up our commentaries for Lower Decks
(35:37):
season two, so you can findthose over there, the best Star Trek
show ever made. Yes, well, that's it for this week, but
we will be back next time totalk about a movie which is going to
celebrate the start of football season.Rudy Rudy r rou re join the revolution,
(36:15):
join the Nerd Party,
Welcome to the Nerd Polite. Hello, and welcome to Training Montage, the
show on the Nerd Party where wetalk about sports movies. I'm Mike,
(00:27):
and today we're going to be talkingabout what I personally think is the greatest
sports movie ever made. The BigLebowski. Interesting. The DUDEA bides,
The Duda bides, Yes, hedoes. Kind of an an interesting sports
movie in that it's kind of afringe sport and maybe it's a sports is
(00:51):
kind of fringeing. Well maybe not. I don't know. It's pretty good
to grow. But yeah, Sowhen did you first see The Big Lebowski.
I first saw The Big Lebowski incollege, during undergrad So this is
probably oh four oh five ish,okay, you know, in somebody's dorm
(01:12):
room, you know, and ona movie night, and this is the
thing that was on and I rememberthis is a movie that a lot of
people kind of got into, likewhen I was like, this is one
of those movies that like people whowere in college like they get into when
they're like deciding it's like, oh, I like only good movies. You
know that type of you know,when they have that type of attitude.
And so this was This was oneof the definitely one of those movies,
(01:34):
and I think the second the nexttime that I saw it again was like
on a bus somewhere, like ona band trip, like this is a
this is a band trip movie.In college? Yeah, for sure,
what about you. I was aboutthe same age as you, but it
would have been earlier for me getcloser to the time that the movie came
out. I didn't see it inthe theater, which is weird because you
(01:57):
know, they had done Fargo,and you know, even though everyone absolutely
loved Fargo and that's what they gotnominated for an Oscar for and all that
stuff, I was just kind oflike, this movie doesn't work for me.
So I wasn't like anxious to seethe new Cohen brother movie. And
when I saw the trailers for thisand everything, I was like, m
(02:17):
it's not really working for me,Like there's nothing about this which is,
you know, extremely appealing. SoI passed on it. But my friends
had seen it and they were alllike, oh my god, this is
one of the best movies ever made. It's hilarious. They kept on quoting
it and everything like that, andit was one of those things where it
(02:38):
was like they were just being annoyingabout it, and I kind of like
just didn't bother watching it because theywere so annoying about it. You know.
It's interesting that you that you bringthis up, because like I remember
like really enjoying this movie, andthen when I watched it, you know,
recently, for this, I waslike, my thoughts were, was,
(02:59):
like, is this as really asgood as I remember it being?
Was my was my first thought.So and I was like annoyed, more
annoyed at the things in this moviethan I was amused as I was when
I was younger, which I thoughtwas interesting. I mean, it is
one of those things where it hasbecome I mean, like my friends were
trend setters in that way, butI mean this has become like a cult
(03:22):
thing, like everybody does that,and I mean there's books written about it
and everything, books written about bigLebowski fandom, you know, and everything.
They have Lebowski Fest every year,like traveling. I mean, there's
Lebowski conventions the way there are StarTrek conventions. And because of that,
it does sort of it's it's allrevolving around this one movie. And it's
(03:45):
like I've certainly I've seen this moviein the theater many times, you know,
as like in like repertory screenings,and I mean there have been.
I mean I can remember one timein particular where I went to I mean,
yeah, so out and everything likethat, but like there are also
times, you know, it's likea midnight show. I'm sitting behind like
a bunch of guys who came tosee it together and they're you know,
(04:11):
a little tipsy and just like quotingthe entire movie, and it's like Jesus,
like, I like, I needto I need to get up and
leave, you know, I needto go and sit somewhere not by them,
because they're just being so annoying.Yeah, you know, so yeah,
(04:33):
I saw it late. I sawit, you know. Finally,
one of my other friends, whoseemed a bit more rational at the time,
was like, this is a goodmovie. You should watch it.
Let me lend it to you.And it's one of those things where like
someone gives you a movie to watchand you're like, I don't particularly want
to watch this, but I feelobligated to watch this because they gave it
(04:56):
to me. So I watched it, I know that, feeling very well,
yes, yes, everybody does soI watched it. Um, this
would have been probably like a yearafter it came out, you know,
and I saw it on like DVD, and um my reaction was like,
yeah, that's that was that wasgood. That was a solid movie.
(05:18):
I enjoyed it. It was amusing. Not as good as everyone says it
is, but it was good,and you know, as as one does,
I just kind of gravitated towards itagain and again and again, and
watching it numerous times, I'm like, actually, this probably is one of
the best movies ever made. Thisis really really funny, Like it's kind
(05:43):
of my go to, like whenpeople say, like, what's the funniest
movie ever made? I mean that'sreally hard to say, right, it
is hard, but you but thenbut then you, you know, you
get rational and you're like, yeah, coming to America. I mean maybe
maybe coming to America is a biglevel sky scenario for me. I just
saw the first time last year andI was like, oh, this is
(06:05):
fine, you know, but Idon't feel compelled to ever watch together.
Man. See I am I've grewup with that movie. And the people
you were complaining about quoting coming toAmerica. That is me and my friends
because we went to a quote alongfor that movie, and let me tell
you, we legit. Like youknow, have you ever been one of
(06:25):
those sort of OK for clues?Yeah, clue hilarious, But like you
know, they at these these umthese quote alongs, they have certain things
and scenes that they want you toquote along too. It's not like the
whole movie, but me and myfriends literally did every line from start to
(06:46):
finish, even the music, themusic cues, everything. I know that
movie inside it out. Yeah yeah, I mean I get it, you
know, I definitely get it,but I don't really get it. It's
all good, you know, ButI'm starting to get it with The Big
Lebowski I am, you know,and it's to the point that it's like,
yes, yes, I mean ifsomeone asks me, like, what's
(07:09):
the funniest movie ever made? Imean the three movies that I kind of
think of our Clerks, Mall Ratsand this. So to Kevin Smith's in
there, yeah, I mean KevinSmith is He's he's my guy, you
know, Yeah, he's the best. So yeah, now, I guess
(07:30):
before we get super into the movie, let me ask you what you think
about bowling as in, Like,do I think it's a sport or not.
Oh we could do that. Wecould start with that. Do you
think it's a sport? Okay,I do? And what do you what
do you think about the sport.It's fun, it's um, it's it's
(07:54):
recreational more so than like I'm like, I don't get a competitive edge like
when I do it, but like, like and like I get it with
other sports that I've played in thepast. Now there is a you know,
competitiveness that you can get with it, because you can be competitive about
anything. But I don't get theyou know, the blood pump in the
same way I would if I'm like, you know, you know, I'm
(08:15):
playing pickup or I'm playing you know, baseball, football or even golf.
Uh. This is more just likea sport to chill and just kind of
you know, with your friends andjust kind of hang out with you know
what I mean. Still a sport, but it's not one of the ones
that really gets the competitive juices flowing, how about you. Yeah, No,
that's definitely true. I can Ican see that, you know for
sure. I Mean people always jokeabout like, oh, it's a sport,
(08:39):
but you're sitting around most of thetime drinking beer or whatever you're doing.
That's correct. Those are the bestsports I was in. I was
in a bowling alley, uh Idon't know, about two years ago or
something like that, and they hada sign up on the wall where it
was basically saying like bowling is great, you should be bowling, and there
was all these great things about bowling, and of the things was like,
(09:01):
did you know that in the courseof a bowling game, you walk like
half a mile or something like that, and it's like, okay, hey,
well look good, good for you. Then I guess, yeah,
okay, cool, you know.Um, but yeah, it's I mean
I loved doing it as a kid, absolutely loved it. Yeah. It's
(09:22):
one of those things where it's likeI always want to do it. I
just never really have the excuse.I probably haven't done it in like ten
years, maybe more than that.And like I work for a company that
owns a bowling alley, and everytime I go there, you know,
the atmosphere and everything, I'm justlike, this is the coolest place.
(09:43):
Like I just want to I justwant to bowl. You know, Yeah,
no, I hear you, becauselike when you're there in the moment
you're just like, man, whydon't we do this all the time?
Yeah, because it's it's I mean, it's a good time, it's a
good hang and you know, it'sa simple game. It's easy to understand
U and you know there are waysto get better at it quickly, you
(10:03):
know what I mean. And yeah, there's there's there's some benefits to it.
It's uh what I used to actuallydo it, like for a hot
stretch. I like bowled every weekat one point in college and to the
point where like I have my ownbowling shoes because didn't want to didn't want
to pay for bullet shoes, soI like went to like academy and just
bought like some twenty dollars bowling shoescame in handy. Yeah. I I
(10:28):
have like family members like my unclewas like really good, you know,
he'd bowled like, you know,two seventy five games and stuff like that.
And my my my grandpa and grandmawere both really good and they were
in leagues and everything. And it'sone of those things like I always I
mean, leagues seem like a lotof fun, you know, and it's
one of those things where it's like, Okay, I want to do this,
(10:50):
but at the same time, Ineed to find like I don't know,
three other people to do it withme, you know, and then
there's the whole thing. It's like, well, you know, I mean,
chances are I'm gonna suck. Youknow. It's kind of like the
same thing with golf. Like Igolfed when I was a kid, and
now, you know, people saylike, oh, you want a golf
and I'm like, I do wanta golf but I realize that if I
(11:11):
do that, I'm going to embarrassmyself. You know. See, Well,
here's the thing golf. Golf ishard, and so that's the that's
the inherent difference between it. Ithink the two. Like bawling, you
can kind of get the hang ofit through like one game. You can
kind of figure out what you're doing, and you can get yourself in a
flow and get yourself in a rhythmto where you can be you know,
(11:33):
all right, like like to thepoint where you're not making you know,
gutters every single time. You know, there's ways to do that to get
like a score that you kind ofwant to get right in golf, like
you could do everything fine and thenyou can hit the ball and it goes
not the way that you want itto go, or something happens and you
strike the ball and it goes liketwo yards, right, So it's like
all sorts of things go wrong,and it's so it's so mentally hard.
(11:58):
It's very humbling. Golf is um, that's that's I think those are the
because, like I think you cankind of comp these two, these two
activities, like these two sports rightslike, oh yeah, they're similar.
They're similar in certain ways, right, but at the same time one is
really difficult and the other one iseasier to pick up. That's definitely true.
That's definitely true. But that feelingis still I like, I mean
(12:20):
with golf, I feel I meanwith with bowling, I feel like you're
saying, you know, I canI can get over this quickly, Like
I can go I can find itan afternoon when there's no one at this
bowling alley. Yeah, I canbowl for a couple hours and then be
like, Okay, I'm good tobowl in a public setting now, right.
(12:43):
Whereas, like you know, forfor a couple of years there I
had that I joined this like gymthat was like down the block from the
theater that I worked at and Iwas like really excited to play bass bsketball
in the middle of the night.You know, oh, bro, because
(13:03):
because no one's going to be thereand I can just do whatever I want
to do because I'm terrible at basketball, right this calculation on your part,
sir. Okay, well, Ias far as no, as far as
like nobody being there, nobody beingthere, yeah, because but like those
those runs of gyms are always full, Well it turned out to I never
(13:26):
I never found out whether or notyou were You're correct in that because when
they built the gym, it waspart of like a larger like complex that
I had like condos in it,and basically the basketball court was so loud
that they had to close it atten o'clock at night. And they kept
on saying, like we're going todo more soundproving, and they like put
(13:46):
a bunch of money into sound provingit and it still didn't work and everything.
So I never got to play basketballin the middle of the night.
Oh okay, Well, I'll tellyou, like a seventy who's played some
some midnight runs, it's awesome.Yeah, But like if you go to
a gym though expecting he's like,oh yeah, I'm gonna you know,
get some shots up on this court. Uh and practice and practice and work
(14:07):
on my games. No, it'snot happening now because people are running full
court like pretty much all day.Yeah, yeah, no, I mean
I guess that makes sense. Yeah, um, I don't know, some
bowling, bowling might that that mightbe. Maybe that's maybe that's a sport
because I do like that competitive stuff, right, and that's really what drives
(14:28):
the dude as well. Yes,right, he's I mean, you know,
he talks about how like, youknow, even though this guy's paying
him like twelve thousand dollars, youknow, to make this drop, you
know, and he gives him abeeper like if it happens during a league
game, he's out. But he'snot just bowling in his league games,
you know, he's bowling all thetime. It really is his life.
(14:50):
It's his passion, you know.Yeah. John Goodman's too, Oh yeah,
oh yeah for sure. And that'sone of the things. I mean,
that's kind of like how this sportis like introduced into this movie and
and and woven into this movie.It's like it's not about bowling, it's
(15:11):
not about him as a bowler.Never once in the entire movie do you
actually see the dude throw a balldown a lane. Yeah, you don't
get to see him roll, asthey as they say, that's yes,
you never get to see him roll. But it really it's not about how
good he is or whatever. It'sabout how much is his passion. Yeah,
(15:35):
it's the driving force in his life. And all he wants to do
his bowl and all of these jerkswith their money and there whatever they're getting
in the way of him doing that. Yes, a simple man with a
simple, simple passion and that's allhe wants to do, and people just
(15:56):
kept messing it up for him.Yeah. I think that's so cool.
Like I really do relate to himon that level. I mean not in
terms of bowling, but in termsof whatever, whether it's movie watching or
whatever, you know. And Imean this, this movie is so perfectly
constructed in a lot of ways.I mean, it is a film noir.
(16:17):
It's a throwback to these detective stories, oh absolutely. And yet and
it follows that formula exactly. Yeah, and yet the detective is not you
know, Sam Spade or something likethat, who's you know, like all
into you know, like being thebest detective in the world. It's a
guy who's thrown into this situation againsthis will. Yeah, and also like
(16:41):
he doesn't have the look of iteither. And that's the other thing that
they kind of flip on its headhere. It's like he's this schlubby like
like dude addicted to his white Russians. He can't really form a coherent sentence
most of the time. He doesn'tlisten to people. They don't listen to
him, like, but he's theguy that's all the case. Yeah,
he's fumbling through it just because he'sthere. You know. It's it's it's
(17:06):
perfect, you know. And JeffBridge's performance is I mean one of the
best in movie history. He's great. He's so good, you know.
And you you brought up the whiteRussians. I mean certainly that's become a
huge part of the fandom. Abeverage here, yep. I mean it
feels it's it's like people feel compelledto drink white Russians while they're watching this
(17:27):
movie, something which I've never donebecause I'm not really a drinker, but
I do I do want to tryit. At some point. We we
did a thing since we the companythat I work for owns a bowling alley
which is literally beneath a thousand seatmovie palace. Right. We did a
(17:48):
thing where it was like a midnightshow of The Big Lebowski and you could
get like a package deal where beforethe movie you could go bowl for an
hour and then come upstairs and watchThe Big Lebowski, you know. And
I mean it was awesome. Andman did we sell a lot of white
Russians, you know, which,which is pretty cool, Which is pretty
(18:11):
cool. I'm I'm, I'm allabout the the sort of like breaking the
the two dimensions of the screen andlike finding ways to enhance the movie watching
like he's drinking a white Russian.I'm drinking a white Russian. You know,
let's let's let's do this. It'spretty cool, Like I enjoy that.
(18:33):
But there's another thing about bowling,like and and in relation to you
know, the sports that that we'rewe're looking at, you know most of
the time, and how it reallyis kind of like a different um,
a different side of things in termsof the viewers relationship to it, which
maybe is why people don't really seethis as a sports movie when you think
(18:56):
of like sports at least when Ithink of sports, I kind of think
of them as a viewer. Ithink of watching the Super Bowl or the
World Series or whatever, going toa baseball game or a basketball game or
whatever. But I mean, onthe whole, nobody goes to watch bowling,
(19:18):
right, No, and the placesthat you normally watch bowling only happens
on these random sundays on on ESPNtwo when you can watch the Pro bowling
and that's when you get to,you know, see things like, you
know, Pro bowling Champion Peter Webber, and that's and he's become he has
one of one of the greatest memesand sound effects and cat phrases ever.
(19:40):
Who do you think you are?I am it's so great, yes,
And I don't you're talking about it. It's so good. Annually that'll be
a thing that's trending on Twitter.It's just like it's like Peter Webber Day
or whatever, and it's like it'sjust that clip of him saying that it's
so good. I mean, andyet like I see that, and I'm
(20:02):
like I want, like, Icould you know they make fun of that
in Dodgeball and everything, you know, the idea of like but really,
if we think about the Olympics.At least from my perspective, It's like
I don't watch skiing. I don'twatch gymnastics like my ghost in the Winter
Olympics, I don't. I don'twant to do that. All that's a
(20:22):
fringe one, right, I meanthe one that I watch, like in
in in the Winter Olympics is curling. You know, I was all about
the curling. Everybody gets that iswhat everybody's obscure, favorite, obscure sport
is curling. I think that it'sit's similar to bowling, and that like
people see it and they think,like I could I could do that.
(20:45):
Yeah, It's incredibly hard, youknow, Like we have a couple of
curling places here in Chicago, andyou know, like when yeah, and
when the Olympics you know, happenedlast time around, and and you know,
curling was a big thing. Iread an article in the paper where
they were talking about how, yeah, of course the attendance at these curling
(21:07):
rinks shot up, you know,a thousand percent. And everyone gets on
there and everyone is absolutely terrible,has no idea what they're doing or how
to do it, and yet everybodywants to try, right, And I
think that's fun. I mean,like, and it's not like curling or
(21:29):
I mean, I guess the otherone, which you know, ping pong.
You know, yeah you watch pingpong in the Olympics and it's like,
yeah, yeah, you watch thatand you're like, well, they
have all the same equipment that Ihave in my basement, and yet this
is not at all the same,Like, oh, that's actually the most
(21:52):
efficient way to do that thing thatI've been doing for years. Yeah,
you know, like I could neverdo that. But okay, that badminton,
right, badminton? Yeah, althoughwhen I watched badminton. I turned
on badminton for a little bit thistime around, and I'm like, I'm
sure, you know, actually gettingin there, it's like whoa. But
like when I was watching it thistime, I was like, that seems
(22:15):
about the same as being in mybackyard, you know. You know.
I'm like I was expecting it tobe a bit faster or something, but
I guess you know that thing onlythe birdie only travels so so fast,
you know. But bowling, Imean you're taking it one frame at a
(22:36):
time, right, And everyone's hada strike at some point in their lives,
right, whether by luck or byon purpose. So it's really just
about consistency. And it's like,Okay, if I do this enough,
if I go bowl every day,I would be a really good bowler.
Yeah. So I think that it'sit's weird that it's not a popular sport
(23:02):
to watch in some ways. Iguess, yeah, I mean, I
guess to do it. It's notlike baseball, where every play you could
see something you've never seen before,right, Yeah. But yeah, and
there's only certain so many different waysyou can you know, roll the ball
down the alley as well, likelike you know, I remember when like
spinning it and having the ball curvewas like a big deal. It's like,
(23:26):
ohs, like what is this?Yeah, I learned how to do
that. I was like wow,I mean like we did this thing.
Um. We just had an eventat our bowling alley and I was waiting
for the guest of honor to arrive, and uh, I was talking to
the manager of the bowling alley andI was just kind of you know,
like we were just waiting around andI'm like, so, you know bowling,
(23:49):
I hunt a bowl and he's like, oh, yeah, you know.
I love bowling is my passion andI didn't realize this about the guy,
but he was like he feels Imean, he's like the dude,
you know, like bowling was histhing, you know. And I'm like,
so, you know, like Iwas just trying to like get a
feel, like asking all the questionsthat you have for years that you never
(24:11):
get a chance to talk to anyoneabout. Right. So I'm like,
well, what size ball should Ihave? You know, how should the
grip feel and all this stuff.And he's like, well, you know,
blah blah blah blah blah. Andthen he's like well, yeah,
I mean you know, I'm like, which ball do you use? And
he's like, well, I don'tuse any of these. I've got my
own ball. And I'm like,oh, of course you do. I'm
like what type of ball do youhave? And he's like let me show
(24:33):
you. And we go into thislike back room and he's got a whole
rack with all these balls on itand he's like these are all my bowling
balls. I'm like really, I'mlike you just keep them here and he's
like, well yeah, because thisis where I bowl. And I'm like
it was like weird. It's like, you know, like someone it was
almost like something out of a moviewhere like someone's like check this out and
they like open up a door tothe closet and you're like, whoah my
(24:57):
god. You know. I Imean that's what it was. It's like,
he's not like you want to seemy bowling balls. He was just
like, oh, here they are, you know, and he has this
little like and I'm like, well, what do all these things do?
And he's like, well, youknow, this one is for when there's
a lot of oil on the onthe lane. This one's for when there's
not a lot of oil on thelane. You know all this. I'm
(25:18):
like, really, there's that muchvariation that you need like five bowling balls,
but apparently there is. You know, it's crazy. It's like having
multiple clubs. That's I never reallythought about that, but I guess that
makes sense. Yeah. Yeah,it's so strange. But you know,
I mean, I'm like seeing allthis stuff and I'm like, I need
to go bowling. I want tobecome a bowler. I want to start
(25:40):
a league. I want I want, I want to do this. You
know. Yeah, So whatever Ifeel, I feel the dude's passion,
I do. Okay, Um,but yeah. So, I mean,
this movie is a masterpiece. Ihaven't talked a whole lot about the movie,
but god, it works on somany levels. I Mean, one
(26:00):
of the other things which I loveabout it is the scale. It's small,
but it does still do that filmnoir thing that you see in like
you know, La Confidential or evenWatchman or whatever, where it's like there's
one little thing and yet it balloonsinto something, you know, like like
(26:21):
La Confidential, like okay, there'sone little murder, I mean, you
know whatever to just say, likethere's a random murder in a coffee shop,
Okay, we need to figure outwho the killers were. And it's
like, oh, it turns outthat this is the tip of the iceberg,
which is related to corruption throughout thepolice department all the way up to
(26:47):
like the mayor's office, you know, And it's like, okay, you
know that, how do you getthere from just this one little, you
know incident. And in Big Lebowski, it's like the guy just peed on
his rug. He peed on thewrong guy's rug, and digression will not
stand man, yes, and itballoons into you know, this whole ridiculous
(27:11):
situation. Yeah, with like youknow, guys stealing millions of dollars from
their charities, and people chopping offtheir toes to frame other people and everything
like that. A Terror read likelike spot I had. I was I
completely forgotten Slash maybe didn't even realizethat she was in this movie. I
was like, Wow, Okay,yeah, she's she's great. I mean,
(27:36):
this is like one of the firstthings that she was in. Yeah,
this exactly. Then it was likeAmerican Pie right after a year later.
Yeah, and then yeah, becausethat was the first place I saw
her. Yeah, American Pie.Yeah, I think I must have seen
this like right before American Pie cameout. Okay, but she was like,
I mean, she was liked becominglike a really big actress at that
(27:57):
point in time, you know,and and the Cone Brothers, you know,
tapping into I mean the performances inthis Yes, Jeff Bridges is amazing,
but Philip Seymour Hoffman, how doeshe do what he does in this
movie? He's like, what itreminded me of was um in Thank You
for Smoking Rob Lowe's part. That'sexactly. I was like, Oh,
(28:18):
Rob Lowe is totally doing Philip SeymourHoffman from this movie that's exactly what he's
doing. And and Julianne Moore,you know, same deal. Oh,
she's well, she's fantastic and everythingshe does, she's one of the best
actors in the world. So Iwas not I was not surprised at how
great her mod was. Yeah,I mean you look at you look at
the uh. I mean, Iguess this is just my personal rankings or
(28:41):
whatever. But ninety seven all theway through two thousand, the best movie
of every year, of all fourof those years. And Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Yeah, but he Knights the Lebowski, Magnolias Famous, Yeah, I
(29:03):
can't really age with that. That'sa pretty solid roll. Well, especially
the book ends of that, right, you know, Boogie Knights and almost
Famous, I mean Magnolia. Imean, I don't know, the two
in the middle there are pretty impressiveas well. Well, I'm not so
high on Magnolia. I wasn't kindof like, I mean, I go
(29:25):
back and forth, you know,like thinking about it, you know,
with my gut, I'm like,Boogie Knights is a better movie, But
every time I watch Magnolia, that'sthe best of those four, man,
I mean, it might it's itcould be the best of any four of
all time. It could be,but Magnolia could be two. I mean,
Magnolia could be I know that,but yeah, I don't know.
(29:48):
It does really work for me.Um a lot like when I when I
look at them, like completely objectively, I'm like, I think Magnolia is
a better movie. I think Magnoliamight be the best movie ever made.
Okay. And it was so sad, I mean because of that that run
in particular, but you know,Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman then returned
(30:11):
together for the last Hunger Games movie, and that movie came out after Philip
Seymour Hoffman died. Yeah, andit was I mean, just watching that,
it was so sad, like seeingthe two of them together and thinking
like we'll never see this again,you know, but still oh that we
(30:33):
got at least one last movie outof that parents true. Yeah, So
okay, any final thoughts on TheBig Lebowski. Um, it's a funny
movie. It's one that I enjoyed. It's one that I kind of wrestled
with as far as like is thisas good as I remember? And I
don't think it's as good as Iremember, But I still really enjoyed it,
and there's there's a lot in therethat's just really really funny. I
(30:57):
don't think it lives up to thehype I had for it in my head
and from my first viewings of it, but it's still an incredibly enjoyable movie.
It's interesting in that regard, right, I mean, because it's not
placed on that pedestal that Fargo orNo Country for Old Men is placed on,
and yet it is by far theirmost popular movie, and you know,
(31:21):
the one which has like the passionatefollowing. Yeah, and yet I
look at it and maybe maybe I'mjust, you know, kind of like
simple minded when it comes to theCohen Brothers. But I look at it
and I compare it to any oftheir other movies, and I'm like,
this is easily their best, easilyLike this is them firing on all cylinders,
(31:45):
This is them tapping into the thingthat they do best personally. I
feel like that. So one verylast thing here, I got to ask
you. You know, for yearsand years and years and years, John
Turturro had been trying to make aspinoff movie about the Jesus, which granted
(32:10):
the Jesus that scene in the movieI think is one of the funniest scenes,
maybe the single funniest scene in moviehistory. Right, And yet the
best part about it is not onlythe dancing, it's the look. And
I think what really sells it withthat guy is the rings on his hands.
I was like, of course thisdude has the rings on his hands.
Of course he does. That works. I also like his socks,
(32:35):
which are so incredibly sheer that hislegs underneath them. I mean that we're
I mean, the whole thing isjust perfect, right. And it's like
he's only in two scenes in themovie, and yet he's like the most
memorable thing about the movie. Yeah, and to heat check, Yeah.
And the fact that he's like Iwant to do Like he's like, I
want to do this. You knowyou guys write it, I'll direct it.
(32:59):
You know this what I want morethan anything. And I think the
Cohen Brothers realized, like, that'slike giving Boba fet his own movie.
You know, it's not gonna workbecause he's got to come in, be
a badass and then leave. Well, you know what the answer to that
(33:19):
is, right, what the solutionis, let's his own show on Disney
Plus there you goe, which issomething the Book of the Jesus. That's
that title actually works pretty well,right, you know, but I hired
me Hollywood no stuff. Well Idon't know if you're aware of this,
but John Tatura finally got to makehis Jesus spinoff movie. Oh really,
(33:44):
Yes, it's called The Jesus Rolls. And the weird thing about it,
there's a lot of weird things aboutit. I'm sure one that they made
it, you know, but um, the weirdest thing about it is that
it's a remake of a French movie, which has nothing to do with The
Big Lebowski. Yeah, and thatmovie's not very good and The Jesus Rolls
(34:08):
is not very good. But it'ssuch a weird concept, like the whole
I mean, for one thing,the fact that you can like make this
character a protagonist, you know,you know, because whatever it's, it's
But then you know that it's likethis whole thing about like this guy and
he gets out of prison and hisbrother is doing this thing, and then
(34:30):
they're trying to like steal some moneyand then they meet this woman and it's
like a weird road trip thing.It's so weird because it has nothing to
do with any of this stuff andit just does not work at all at
all. But whatever, I guessthey get an a for effort, you
know. But there is a hiddensequel to The Big Lebowski which is out
(34:53):
there now for anyone who wants tocheck it out. Yeah, all right,
I guess that's pretty much it,right, I think? So thanks?
All right? Well, Lance,where can people find you on the
Internet. They can find me atSir Lance Laster on all of my social
medias, and you can also findme over on the United Federation of podcast
(35:14):
talking about all the things that makeArrow Arrow on Always Hold on to Arrow,
and you can find us on Twitterat Do Not Fail Our Pod.
You can find me on Twitter andletterbox at Mumbles three k, and you
can also find me on my website, film damagepod dot com, where we
do a show called Film Damage.We've started up our commentaries for Lower Decks
(35:37):
season two, so you can findthose over there, the best Star Trek
show ever made. Yes, well, that's it for this week, but
we will be back next time totalk about a movie which is going to
celebrate the start of football season.Rudy Rudy r rou re join the revolution,
(36:15):
join the Nerd Party,
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