The Big Lebowski

I think by now we all know about the Big Lebowski. The Coen Brother's hilarious send up of the classic Hammet noir style storytelling has become a cult favorite in the film world, but one thing that you never hear about is the music in this film. For those who unfortunately have not seen this movie, Lebowski is about a mid forties stoner, Jeffrey Lebowski: "the dude", who is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a very wealthy man with a promiscuous wife who owes alot of money to someone. The films follows the dudes quest to solve the mystery of the mistaken Lebowski's so he can get his rug back that was taken from him, because it "tied the room together so well."

The first moment in the film i would like to comment on is the introduction of Jesus. Jesus is a character played by Jon Turturro and a rival bowler in the dudes bowling league. When he is introduced it is in slow motion with very hispanic cultural music playing. It really creates this moment where you are completely focused on this very strange and confusing character. I  believe the music sets it up beautifully, it makes you wonder what we are to think of this character, but his actions of licking the bowling ball, give you a pretty good idea. And even later when we find out that he is a sex offender, it almost feels like a pay off to the slow motion entrance.

The other parts where music is key in this film are his strange sort of dream sequence dance numbers. Early in the film when he is knocked out, he is shown flying through the sky holding a bowling ball. It is a very mellow tune playing as he soars over Los Angeles. I believe this was done to also build character. But the Coen brothers do this to sort of break the audience out of the movie and let them know that this film is not going to be like every other film. And then later there is a musical number where he dances around with girls and Sadaam Hussein. I think that all of these moments that are made to put you inside the head of Jeff Lebowski are extremely well done and well placed and really give the film the unique look that it is famous for today