Your Humble Blogger has received details on tomorrow's Friday Flix screening...
SCREENING THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 AT FRIDAY FLIX! 12:30 p.m. San Gabriel
334
"THE BIG LEBOWSKI" (1998)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John
Turturro and Sam Elliot
Running time: 119 min.
The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and
Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles
slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to (and also refers to himself)
as "The Dude". After a case of mistaken identity, The Dude is introduced
to a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski. When the millionaire
Lebowski's trophy wife is later kidnapped, he commissions The Dude to
deliver the ransom to secure her release. The plan goes awry when The
Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the full
ransom.
The film is loosely based on Raymond Chandler's novel, The Big Sleep. The
original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a longtime collaborator of
the Coen Brothers. The Big Lebowski was a disappointment at the U.S. box
office and received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Reviews have
trended towards the positive over time, and the film has become a cult
favorite, noted for its idiosyncratic characters, dream sequences,
unconventional dialogue, and eclectic soundtrack.
The Big Lebowski received its world premiere at the 1998 Sundance Film
Festival on January 18, 1998 at the 1,300 capacity Eccles Theater. It was
also screened at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival before
opening in North America on March 6, 1998 in 1,207 theaters. It grossed
USD $5.5 million on its opening weekend, grossing US$17 million in the
United States, just above its US$15 million budget. The film's worldwide
gross outside of the US was $10,300,000, bringing its worldwide gross to
$27,739,163.
Since its original release, The Big Lebowski has become a cult classic.
Steve Palopoli wrote about the film's emerging cult status in July 2002.
He first realized that the film had a cult following when he attended a
midnight screening in 2000 at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles and
witnessed people quoting dialogue from the film to each other. Soon after
the article appeared, the programmer for a local midnight film series in
Santa Cruz decided to screen The Big Lebowski, and on the first weekend
they had to turn away several hundred people. The theater held the film
over for six weeks, which had never happened before.
Entertainment Weekly ranked it 8th on their Funniest Movies of the Past 25
Years list. The film was also ranked No. 34 on their list of "The Top 50
Cult Films" and ranked No. 15 on the magazine's "The Cult 25: The
Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list. In addition, the magazine
also ranked The Dude No. 14 in their "The 100 Greatest Characters of the
Last 20 Years" poll. The Big Lebowski was voted as the 10th best film set
in Los Angeles in the last 25 years by a group of Los Angeles Times
writers and editors with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some
inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director
was allowed on the list". Empire magazine ranked Walter Sobchak No. 49 and
the Dude No. 7 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll. Roger
Ebert added The Big Lebowski to his list of "Great Movies" in March 2010.
DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW
ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE WELCOME
Two hours Flex credit will be granted for GCC staff if both film and
discussion are attended.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 12:30 A.M. San Gabriel 334
Ryun Hovind
Glendale Community College
Adjunct Instructor Media Arts 107
818-240-1000 Ext. 5610
Labels: friday flix
