Who could combine a group of German nihilists, an entrepreneurial pornographer, a paraplegic millionaire, a “vaginal” artist, a post-traumatic Vietnam vet, and a grown up burnout from the sixties? Only the Coen Brothers. The film in question is The Big Lebowski, a comedy that is loosely modeled after novels like The Big Sleep (Ciment 167). The Big Lebowski replaces the dangerous and sexy characters of the Raymond Chandler style with the most unique Coen characters yet. The lives of the three central friends, Walter Sobchak, Jeffrey “Dude” Lebowski, and Donny Karabotsos, revolve around the singular sport of bowling. To the naked eye, bowling is something to bring these three grown men together for fun and friendship, but deeper consideration reveals that bowling is a representation of a structured life and provides a deeper look into every character.

As the story goes, Jeffrey “Dude” Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire of the same name whose wife is in deep debt. After being roughed up and having his carpet urinated on by a thug, the Dude seeks out the millionaire Lebowski. Following an unfavorable first meeting, the Dude is called back to the mansion to act as courier in paying the ransom for the Big Lebowski’s wife, who has allegedly been kidnapped. The Dude’s closest friend, Walter, welcomes himself to the transaction, which ends in disaster and leaves the kidnappers without money and the Dude without hope. Many people want their piece of the million-dollar ransom and the Dude begins to want nothing more than out of the situation he’s in. Throughout the story one constant remains, no matter what the Dude encounters: bowling.

Besides a plot device, bowling seems to represent a certain order in life. Though the order itself is undefined, it appears that each character’s association with bowling is indicative of their connection to purpose or order in life. To use the most unappreciated character first, Donny is seemingly the best bowler in the group. As a matter of fact, he bowls strikes through the entire film except once. Donny is the butt of insults from Walter, but he always takes them in stride. Occasionally he’ll ask, “What's wrong with Walter, Dude?” but he’ll never dwell on the bad, or the good for that matter. After his first strike, Donny is excited and even gloats a bit to the other team, but his thrill soon fades when his teammates don’t seem to care. Perhaps Donny represents that person who does well in life-- who perfects his game, while not focusing on it obsessively. After his singular imperfect roll Donny dies of a heart attack in the parking lot of the bowling alley. During an altercation with the German Nihilists Donnie hits the ground clutching his chest even though he remained completely removed from all the action. Was it from the tension of the situation, or did Donnie just make a bad roll in life? The answer never becomes clear, but at his funeral Walter speaks about his lost friend calling him “Donny, who loved bowling.” From what we can gather, we really don’t get to see whether or not Donnie loved life, but we do see how lovable he was in the few scenes he was in.

Walter Sobchak, on the other hand, is much more visible than Donnie was. Walter’s passion for the rules can be seen through bowling, which is so important in his life that the upcoming tournament is often his chief concern. Despite being involved in a million-dollar scam, Walter is frequently worried about losing the Dude from his bowling team. Walter is attempting to take his team to the top of the league, as, one could argue, he is trying to take his life back to the top after his divorce from the unseen Cynthia. The troubles he encounters in life are frequently due to someone not following the rules. The rules of war are ridiculed when the Gulf War is mentioned, the rules for kidnapping are questioned towards the end, and the disputed rules of courtesy lead the Dude to the entire mess in the first place. In one of the films most memorable scenes, Walter draws a firearm on an opposing bowler after the player, named Smokey, denies that he stepped over the line on his turn. The Dude wants to let Smokey go saying, “…it's just… Smokey.  So his toe slipped over a little, it's just a game,” to which Walter loudly asks, “Has the whole world gone crazy?  Am I the only one here who gives a shit about the rules?” There are no excuses in bowling and no excuses in life for a man like Walter.

The thorough viewer will notice that Walter is employed at Sobchak Securities (possibly his own business), so he appears to be self-dependant. Throughout the film it is evident that he is familiar with various political and moral theories like socialism and pacifism, which are based upon rules and regulations. Walter has a yearning to be in order, but who on earth really has an “ordered life?” In his attempt to become organized he finds himself in several tight spots. For one, he is watching his ex-wife’s show dog while she’s on vacation with her new boyfriend. Walter still holds onto the purposeful idea of marriage. Judaism also plays a great part in Walter’s life-- it may be the only thing above bowling. The Jewish faith seems to provide a set of concrete rules and instructions on living a full life. Like bowling, these rules will lead to a winning life, what Walter wants most of all. The most obvious passion for rules is found in Walter’s obsession with Vietnam. In a place where rules were non-existent, he found chaos. Vietnam only served to intensify the necessity of rules, and Walter so eloquently states, “This is not ‘Nam.  This is bowling. There are rules.”

On the other hand, as Yannick Dahan said in “From Dream to Reality: The Films of the Coen Brothers,” “Life, like bowling, is only a game, and a game is not to be taken seriously (Dahan 177).” This quote epitomizes the Dude. In the film we see the Dude put on his bowling shoes, carry his ball, drink generously at the alley, even listen to past bowling tournaments for recreation, but he never actually rolls at all. The only place that the Dude finds himself sending a ball down the lane is in his dream, with Maude Lebowski. Does the Dude dream of a more structured life? It would appear that the Dude is undoubtedly a man who comes close to settling down and facing life head on, but he always turns away at the last minute. When he has sex with Maude we assume he enjoys it, but when she performs exercises to “increases the chances of conception” the Dude spits his drink out in alarm. In addition, the Dude is admittedly unemployed, and it is impossible to imagine how he lives at all.

Narrator Sam Elliot calls the Dude, “quite possibly the laziest (man) in Los Angeles County,” but also hints at a heroic status of the Dude. And isn’t he an American hero anyway: a man who can live life with ultimate complacency? Perhaps he’s not the modern American hero, but the Dude is undoubtedly heroic in that he didn’t cave in like the other “bums” of his generation did. The Dude started out a stoner and stuck with it. For this reason, a large number of college students and reformed pot-smokers identify with the Dude. At one point in time those people consider how great life could be without caring, and the Dude shows that it can be great.

As the film goes on we find the Dude showing more concern for the events around him, like his “lady friend” Maude, the ultimate solving of the kidnapping, and the tournament at hand. In the final scene we see the Dude run into Sam Elliot’s character again, this time the Dude is dressed in his bowling shirt and acting more sober and arranged. Could it be that the Dude is taking charge of his life under the guise of bowling? Elliot hints at a new Dude when he mentions “a little Lebowski on the way,” but ultimately he concludes his narrative by alluding to the Dude that we love so much in the film: “The Dude abides. I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that.  It's good knowin' he's out there, the Dude, takin' her easy for all us sinners.”

It would be unfair not to mention the vast amount of characters that are completely disassociated with bowling altogether. Maude Lebowski and the landlord, Allan, are both separate from bowling and separate from reality in general. As eccentric artists, the two are somehow drawn towards the Dude as a lover and a tenant, respectively. The Big Lebowski himself is also separated from bowling. His life, though it seems ordered, is completely out of whack. “Father's weakness is vanity,” Maude confesses as she explains how the Big Lebowski’s presented life is a lie. His mansion and money are all products of his deceased wife’s fortune, not his own. Now he has a young bride gallivanting all over town and he has lost all control of his life, though he appears to have the reins tight in hand. The Nihilists may be the ultimate example of what a life without order can become-- kidnappers without a hostage, demanding money for a crime they never bothered to commit. Nihilism, as a belief, denies any objective ground of truth especially moral truths. This group of Nihilists has done so many different things in the past that their lives best demonstrate a life without order. From a techno-pop music career to pornographic film to would-be kidnappers, the Nihilist is the greatest example of a life without bowling, where “we believe in nothing.”

The characters in The Big Lebowski and their tendency towards bowling show how the bowling device can represent a structured life in general. Donny represents the common man who goes unnoticed and does what is expected by the system, seemingly satisfied with the game of life no matter how mundane. Walter Sobchak shows how a life with rigid structure can still be empty. The Dude demonstrates an uncertainty that many people feel before they commit to a career, parenthood, or any new pattern in life. The Dude is a character of fear and doubt that is hidden under his hippie façade. The Big Lebowski verbalizes these fears in his first meeting with the Dude, “...My advice is, do what your parents did!  Get a job, sir!  The bums will always lose!” But no matter how many times they lose or roll a gutter ball, you can’t keep a good bum down.

Works Cited:

Big Lebowski, The. Dir. Joel Coen. Perfs. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman. DVD. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, 1998.

Ciment, Michael and Hubert Niogret. “The Logic of Soft Drugs”. Joel & Ethan Coen Blood Siblings. Ed. Paul A. Woods. London, England: Plexus Publishing, 2000. 167-173

Dahan, Yannick. “From Dream to Reality: The Films of the Coen Brothers.  Joel & Ethan Coen Blood Siblings. Ed. Paul A. Woods. London, England: Plexus Publishing, 2000. 174-180.