Lebowski?

[artificer]

Consider The Big Lebowski to be a sort of Rorschach test.

Hey, nice marmot...

Best

AA

"Obviously you're not a golfer".

ith:

[creagdhubh]

Hahahaha! That was a great post, Scott!

Love that movie...huge cult following too!

"The bums have lost Lebowski, condolences, condolences...the bums will always lose!" Hahahaha!!!!

Cheers,

[cessna152towser]

The pair of filmmaking brothers from Minnesota who made "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"~"Fargo"~"Raising Arizona" and of course "No Country For Old Men."

Over here in Scotland I have never heard of any of these films.

[creagdhubh]

Over here in Scotland I have never heard of any of these films.

Alex, I am sure you'd enjoy them.

[auld argonian]

The Coen Brothers films are in much the same vein as David Lynch's...that there's a very weird subtext to what seems like normal, everyday life.

Some of them are easy to watch...O Brother, which is loosely based on The Odyssey, Fargo and Raising Arizona.

Others are difficult...Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink and A Serious Man.

One of the great things about the Coens is that they have a sort of repertory company of actors who show up in many of the movies....thus you get John Turturro as the doomed screenwriter, Barton Fink and later as the preposterous Hispanic bowler Jesus in Lebowski.

They also like to take a genre and do a slightly bent homage to it.

Best advice is to watch a few but don't expect to finish the film and feel that all the loose ends have been tied up...it's sort of like drinking something and then waiting to experience the aftertaste...might take hours or days for it to happen, though. Sometimes you may watch one of their movies, find yourself frustrated and befuddled at the end but go back several months later to watch it again...

It's a strange body of work but once you've seen a few of them you start to see how they relate and appreciate the fact that it is a true body of work, something that's kind of rare these days...rare since the days of Frank Capra and John Huston, in fact.

Best

AA

[Burly Brute]

Over here in Scotland I have never heard of any of these films.

You really need to watch them. I would say definitely, Oh Brother Where Art Thou? It is a semi-family movie, the worse thing could have been maybe a few swear words. It really does a fair job at representing the era and area, and I relate as my Grandfather is from Tennessee and his family had to move because they flooded his land. Fargo--from what I remember, not kid friendly and aspects of it were disturbing. (This is the wood chipper movie, right?) Raising Arizona--I havent seen this one. No Country For Old Men--Decent, kinda weird.

[jhockin]

Fargo--from what I remember, not kid friendly and aspects of it were disturbing. (This is the wood chipper movie, right?)

once again, a personal judgement ( which is totally alright) - my kids,who were kids, at the time, totally loved the movie. We must have watched it at least 8 times - and "yaaaah", in it's various intonations, were a favourite catch-phrase, for at least a year. We all love all the Cohen bros movies.

[Alan H]

I figure the whole "Order of the kilted Lebowski" thing is just a way to make a statement that not everybody has to aspire to be a "kilted gentleman" as outlined by a core group of guys here on X Marks. I thought that GGGP's mention of the Big Lebowski was perfect at the time, considering as it's more or less as surreal and kind of twisted as the whole notion of being a "non-gentleman" online is.

However, in my mind, there is no hatred associated with it. Annoyance, sometimes, but hatred, or a "challenge"??? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I honestly believe that the site needs all sorts of kilties to be successful, and I also believe that a little friction between the members now and then is not a bad thing.

Some folks probably see me as sitting at the keyboard in my study, pounding away and screaming at the top of my lungs as I foam at the mouth and rant, now and then....'tain't so. I tend to write kind of forcefully, sometimes. But me? PERSONALLY? I'm 'way laid back. WAY laid back. Don't believe it? Ask people on the forum who actually know me, face to face...GGGP, Panache, WalkerK, smayniac, monkey@arms and so on.

I also appreciate the craftsmanship in 8 yards of well pleated wool, or a well-made sporran, and I'm a bit of a history nut especially re: the UK. It's just that the history that I'm interested in is usually more like Iron Age to post-Roman UK, not so much Victorian era, where all the "kilt history" is. Like this.....truth. About a year ago I bought a ticket that was NOT cheap, and drove an hour and a half on a weeknight after work to to to UC Berkeley to listen to a recitation of Beowulf in what this particular scholar believes is the real thing, the real language. It was accompanied by plucking on a 6 string saxon harp, reconstructed from several found in well-preserved graves of that era. It really felt like it took me back to some ancient campfire, inside a circle of pounded wooden staves around homes of wood and thatch, where everybody just KNEW that "out there...there be monsters. Like Grendel."

I don't see the Lebowski of the movie attending that recitation!

Whatever, the case, there is room on X Marks for a whole lot of people, with different outlooks, and as long as everybody gets a reasonable hearing, now and then...life is good!

[Deirachel]

Quick hijack:

About a year ago I bought a ticket that was NOT cheap, and drove an hour and a half on a weeknight after work to to to UC Berkeley to listen to a recitation of Beowulf in what this particular scholar believes is the real thing, the real language. It was accompanied by plucking on a 6 string saxon harp, reconstructed from several found in well-preserved graves of that era. It really felt like it took me back to some ancient campfire, inside a circle of pounded wooden staves around homes of wood and thatch, where everybody just KNEW that "out there...there be monsters. Like Grendel."

Anyone happen to record this? A friend of mine is working on his PhD in Linguistics and Ancient Norse/Germanic Languages and would be quite interested.... as would I.

[Peter Crowe]

Over here in Scotland I have never heard of any of these films.

Alex, I haven't seen The Big Lebowski so I can't comment on it with any authority, but from what Artificer said, I wouldn't mind watching it. As to Brother Where Art Thou, I have seen it at least three times and the movie and it's sound track are excellent.