{"id":347,"date":"2023-11-17T10:40:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/clairemainprize\/?p=347"},"modified":"2023-11-17T10:42:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:42:58","slug":"abiding-by-bowling-the-big-lebowski-and-ecclesiastes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/clairemainprize\/2023\/11\/abiding-by-bowling-the-big-lebowski-and-ecclesiastes\/","title":{"rendered":"Abiding by Bowling: The Big Lebowski and Ecclesiastes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Abiding by Bowling<\/h1>\n

The Big Lebowski and Ecclesiastes<\/h3>\n The Dude, Theodore, and Walter hitting the lanes in The Big Lebowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Although now considered a cult classic, the Coen Brothers\u2019 early film\u00a0The Big Lebowski<\/em>\u00a0did not receive immediate acclaim. In fact, it barely broke even on its estimated budget of $15 million.[1]<\/a>\u00a0However, in the years that proceeded, a strange thing happened. Film scholars J.M. Tyree and Ben Walters describe it as such:<\/p>\n " Legions of dedicated fans turned \u201cThe Big Lebowski\u201d into a cult phenomenon and a hipster bible, quoting chapter and verse from its dialogue and dressing up like its characters at parties, screenings, and conventions, many of which were held in bowling alleys. . . .The picture began to take on the status of scripture, with the Dude as a downat-heel Zen master for a debased postmodern age.[2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although some elevate the screenplay itself to scripture, the film has plenty of themes that overlap with a piece of legitimately canonized scripture: Ecclesiastes. Similar to the film\u2019s reluctant reception, this book is seldom preached on, save for a foreboding pair of occasions\u2014weddings and funerals\u2014and touts \u201ca cynicism and even a despair that seem out of place in the Bible\u2019s grand narrative.\u201d[3]<\/a> By examining the elements of narrative depicted in the film\u2019s opening scenes as well as the motifs throughout, I will unpack the power of The Big Lebowski<\/em>, showing how it effectively translates the message of Ecclesiastes into postmodern American speak.<\/p>\n Several years ago, prolific film critic Mike D\u2019Angelo embarked on a curious tour de cin\u00e9ma, subsequently recording his observations in an article he penned for the popular culture website\u00a0The A.V. Club<\/em>. The piece, aptly titled \u201cWhat I Learned From Watching the First 10 Minutes of 500 Movies,\u201d offers a list of takeaways, led by: \u201c10 minutes is more than enough to identify mediocrity.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0He writes:<\/p>\n " People who read screenplays professionally often say that the vast majority of scripts are dead in the water by page 10. Completed films are no different. . . .When a movie is firing on all cylinders, waiting to see where it\u2019s headed is a pleasure. Its opening minutes should extend an invitation.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Suffice it to say, the openings of movies are important. In\u00a0The Big Lebowski,<\/em> even the five minutes and 43 seconds that precede the opening credits do more than merely refute mediocrity: they successfully frame the story that is to follow.<\/p>\n In their book\u00a0Deep Focus,\u00a0<\/em>authors Robert K. Johnston, Craig Detweiler, and Kutter Callaway borrow aspects of literature in order to analyze film. The four \u201cconstitutive parts\u201d that make up every story are character, setting, plot, and tone (or \u201cpoint of view\u201d). \u201cIn any given telling of a story,\u201d they claim, \u201cone or another of these four aspects of the narrative will be emphasized or given precedence.\u201d Thus, \u201cBy reflecting on a story\u2019s makeup, the audience can find a key to the heart of a story.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n In the aforementioned six-or-so minutes that bring\u00a0The Big Lebowski\u00a0<\/em>to life, each element is presented. First, a single-camera shot follows a tumbleweed as it rolls across the desert to overlook the glistening cityscape of Los Angeles (setting). By this point, the audience is already hearing a voice-over by what the script deems \u201ca deep, affable, Western-accented voice\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0(point of view). After a montage of clips follows the tumbleweed through various LA sites, the scene cuts to the interior of a Ralph\u2019s grocery store. Here, a frumpy middle-aged man turns the corner and inspects the milk aisle, eventually opening a quart and furtively taking a swig; the narrator informs us that this is Jeff Lebowski, who calls himself \u201cthe Dude\u201d (character). He also informs us that this story \u201ctook place back in the early nineties\u2014just about the time of our conflict with Sad\u2019m and the Eye-rackies.\u201d[8]<\/a> Shortly thereafter, the juxtaposition between this historical moment and the present scene is confirmed at the Ralph\u2019s register, where a small television shows a clip of George Bush on the White House lawn saying \u201cThis will not stand\u201d as the milk-mustached Dude lazily makes out a check to the cashier for sixty-nine cents (atmosphere).<\/p>\n Incidentally, it is the latter two elements that are \u201cgiven precedence\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0in this film. Like a camera directing one\u2019s gaze, the opening scenes effectively zoom into the story\u2019s emphases: character and atmosphere. This is compounded by the following narration: \u201csome-times there\u2019s a man\u2014I won\u2019t say a hee-ro, \u2019cause what\u2019s a hee-ro?\u2014but sometimes there\u2019s a man. And I\u2019m talkin\u2019 about the Dude here\u2014sometimes there\u2019s a man who, wal, he\u2019s the man for his time\u2019n place, he fits right in there\u2014and that\u2019s the Dude, in Los Angeles.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0At this point, the film is at less than\u00a0half<\/em>\u00a0of D\u2019Angelo\u2019s time window\u2014and there is one element markedly missing: plot. Hence, the scene cuts to the Dude entering his bungalow to find two men who\u2014clearly mistaking the Dude for a different, richer, Lebowski\u2014proceed to violently threaten the Dude while he imperturbably quips back (plot).<\/p>\n However, even this scene works to communicate the personality of the Dude, who by this point is clearly the film\u2019s protagonist. Promptly after the opening credits roll, the supporting character (Walter) is introduced, alongside their meek and ever-confused third musketeer (Donny). Right up until the ten-minute mark, the three-man bowling team discusses the events of the previous night while taking turns rolling.<\/p>\n Johnston et. al. rightly claim that \u201cWhile spectacle may draw us to the cinema, it is the plight of the characters that gets us invested in a story. . . . We hunger for heroes.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0However, calling the Dude\u2014this unemployed, pot-smoking, and White-Russian-drinking pacifist\u2014a hero feels like an overstatement. Contradictory to the name that dons the film\u2019s title, the main character goes by a subego, consistently rejecting references to his given name (e.g., \u201cLook, nobody calls me Lebowski. You got the wrong guy. I\u2019m the Dude, man.\u201d[12]<\/a>)<\/p>\n This is in stark contrast to the\u00a0other\u00a0<\/em>Lebowski\u2014the one who lives in a mansion and should really be mixed up in the dizzying series of events that began with owing a large debt to a porn empire mogul. Elmers notes how this speaks to \u201cone of the film\u2019s many cultural resonances,\u201d which is its \u201cdemolition work on certain American mythologies involving the success ethos and the marginalization of losers, flakes, and outsiders who cannot seem to make it within the parameters of the American gospel of prosperity.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0When the two Lebowskis initially meet, the Dude\u2019s counterpart yells \u201cYour revolution is over! Condolences! The bums lost!\u201d According to Elmer:<\/p>\n " The scene hilariously combines a representative of the 1960s ethos of hippie burnout with a synecdoche of the unwarranted arrogance of 1980s and 1990s triumphalism about the march of capitalism to The End of History. . . .\u201cI\u2019m a Lebowski, you\u2019re a Lebowski,\u201d mutters the phony tycoon who denies the brotherhood of man but turns out to subsist on a handout from a strong and competent woman. In the diverse and homey bowling alley of the film\u2019s credit sequence, by contrast, the lowbrow entertainment of cheap play brings together Americans from all backgrounds and classes. How like Hollywood movies at their best.[14]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a later scene featuring the antithetical pair, Mr. Lebowski asks the Dude what makes a man, and then postures: \u201cIs it being prepared to do the right thing? Whatever the price?\u201d Ever exuding classlessness, the Dude responds: \u201cThat and a pair of testicles.\u201d This concept of \u201cthe Man\u201d amounts to one of the film\u2019s motifs. Not only does it show up in audio form in Bob Dylan\u2019s song \u201cThe Man in Me,\u201d but also on a magazine cover in the words \u201cMan of the Year\u201d\u2014which is really just a mirror that reflects the Dude\u2019s sunglassed face as he inspects it. It also debuted in the narrator\u2019s opening monologue, when he settles on calling the Dude \u201cthe man\u201d after \u201chee-ro\u201d didn\u2019t quite fit.<\/p>\n The authors of\u00a0Deep Focus\u00a0<\/em>rightly pose that \u201cAmerican movies tend to follow two basic types\u2014ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations. .\u00a0\u00a0.\u00a0or extraordinary people struggling to resist the forces that cause them to reveal their remarkable gifts.\u201d\u00a0[15]<\/a>\u00a0The film makes clear that its protagonist is of the former sort\u2014he is ordinary. At the same time, however, it makes clear that he is\u00a0t<\/em>he Man<\/em>. And, he is in fact, the\u00a0Big<\/em>\u00a0Lebowski\u2014which can be subtly surmised from the fact that the narrator calls the Dude\u2019s soon-to-be offspring \u201clittle Lebowski.\u201d[16]<\/a><\/p>\n The film is riddled with further expectation reversals: a renowned screenwriter is reduced to life in an Iron Lung, the only innocent and inert character dies towards the end of the movie, and, after the Dude tries to stop further break-ins by nailing a doorstop to the floor, the door immediately opens the other way and he is harassed once again. Later, the Dude stealthily rubs a pencil across a notepad that crucial information had presumably just been scrawled on, only to trace a crude graffito that had been drawn there instead. The incidents go on and on.<\/p>\n Referring to the titular character specifically, Elmer writes:<\/p>\n " Somehow we have to think together the fact that the Dude is the man for his time and place, and that he is over and over again in the wrong place at the wrong time. . . This double condition\u2014central and adrift, exemplary and underdetermined\u2014is what is at stake in the Dude\u2019s mode of being, namely abiding.[17]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n At face value, this last term\u2014abiding\u2014might appear the only point of congruence between\u00a0The Big Lebowski\u00a0<\/em>and the Old Testament text Ecclesiastes. It certainly appears in the most quotable lines in both: namely, \u201cThe Dude abides\u201d in the former, and \u201cOne generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0in the latter. Although the resonance is strong, the two works actually bear a resemblance from their very beginnings.<\/p>\n While The Big Lebowski\u00a0<\/em>begins and ends with words from an unknown and out-of-place narrator, Ecclesiastes is bookended in a similar fashion. In his introduction to the book, Brent A Strawn writes:<\/p>\n " The teaching found in Ecclesiastes is difficult to summarize because most of the book lacks a clear or easily understood structure. There is an editorial frame at the beginning and the end . . . The rest of Ecclesiastes . . . covers a number of topics in a nonlinear, sometimes repetitive, and often contradictory fashion. These factors makes it hard to understand the book, though they maybe part of the Teacher\u2019s strategy to force the reader to feel his frustrations about life and wisdom.[19]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Similar to Strawn\u2019s description of Ecclesiastes, J.M. Tyree labels\u00a0The Big Lewbowski\u00a0<\/em>a \u201clabrynthine story. .\u00a0.<\/strong>in which a down-to-earth detective pinballs his way through various strata of Los Angeles\u2019 human wildlife while investigating a bizarre kidnap-ransom plot.\u201d Seeing as confusion and absurdity are embedded into both, neither \u201ctext\u201d is necessarily about\u00a0what happens<\/em>, but about\u00a0how to deal with it<\/em>.<\/p>\n In\u00a0The Big Lebowski,<\/em>\u00a0it is when the characters are knee-deep in their plight that they relent and say \u201cFuck it, let\u2019s go bowling.\u201d Walter says it after getting shot, when a hand-over of ransom money went completely awry. He repeats it again after scattering Donny\u2019s ashes, which get taken up by the wind and coated onto the Dude\u2019s face. This scene in particular speaks to a section of Ecclesiastes: \u201call are from the dust; all return to the dust. . . . So I perceived that there was nothing better for human beings but to enjoy what they do because that\u2019s what they\u2019re allotted in life.\u201d[20]<\/a>\u00a0Several chapters later, Qoheleth comments on the pervasive nature of death as well as the reversal of expectations:<\/p>\n " The righteous and the wise and their deeds are in God\u2019s hands, along with both love and hate. People don\u2019t know anything that\u2019s ahead of them. Everything is the same for everyone. The same fate awaits the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the pure and the impure, those who sacrifice and those who don\u2019t sacrifice. . . . people\u2019s minds are full of madness while they are alive, and afterward they die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then, he seemingly flips on a dime and concludes:<\/p>\n " Go, eat your food joyfully and drink your wine happily because God has already accepted what you do. Let your garments always be white; don\u2019t run short of oil for your head. Enjoy life with your dearly loved spouse all the days of your pointless life that God gives you under the sun. . . . Whatever you are capable of doing, do with all your might because there\u2019s no work, thought, knowledge, or wisdom in the grave, which is where you are headed.[21]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The wisdom offered by both is to\u00a0stop<\/em>\u00a0seeking wisdom and go enjoy your life. The Coen brothers translate \u201cwhite garments,\u201d \u201coil for your head,\u201d and \u201cdearly loved spouse\u201d into postmodern American terms: bowling, White Russians, and friends. This exemplifies a chief way in which film can actually inform the reading of biblical texts such as this one. In the words of Robert K. Johnston, \u201cContemporary film, rather than being a deterrent to faith, can provide the spectacles, the eyeglasses, to clarify our vision as we look at Ecclesiastes\u2019 enigmatic text.\u201d[22]<\/a>\u00a0Perhaps this is why Johnston argues that \u201cwe are at a propitious moment for understanding Ecclesiastes afresh, for the paradoxes and contradictions recognized as central by postmodernity are central as well to this Old Testament book.\u201d[23]<\/a><\/p>\n Qoheleth himself claims that \u201cWhatever has happened\u2014that\u2019s what will happen again. . . .There\u2019s nothing new under the sun,\u201d[24]<\/a>\u00a0but we need artists\u2014particularly filmmakers\u2014to act as postmodern sages on our behalf, making the paradoxes plain. Through a \u201cseriously unserious\u201d[25]<\/a>\u00a0tale about the Dude, the Coen Brothers achieve just this; unknowingly channeling Qoheleth, they help their audience navigate postmodernity by embracing the paradox\u2014by abiding, and by doing so\u00a0together<\/em>.<\/p>\n Notes<\/h2>\n [1]<\/a>\u00a0J.M. Tyree and Ben Walters, \u201cThe Big Lebowski,\u201d National Film Preservation Board. Library of Congress, accessed March 24, 2020,\u00a0[2]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a>\u00a0Robert\u201d class=\u201dredactor-autoparser-object\u201d>https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/static\/pro\u2026 K. Johnston,\u00a0Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film<\/em>\u00a0(Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011),\u00a0https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/fuller\/reader.action?docID=4446216<\/a>, 13.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a>\u00a0Mike D\u2019Angelo, \u201cWhat I Learned from Watching the First 10 Minutes of 500 Movies,\u201d Film (The A.V. Club, November 12, 2015),\u00a0[5]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a>\u00a0Robert\u201d class=\u201dredactor-autoparser-object\u201d>https:\/\/film.avclub.com\/what-i\u2026 K. Johnson, Craig Detweiler, and Kutter Callaway,\u00a0Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2019), 53.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a>\u00a0Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, The Big Lebowski\u00a0Script,\u00a0<\/em>PDF file,\u00a0https:\/\/www.raindance.org\/scripts\/The%20Big%20Lebowski%20script.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [8]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a>\u00a0Johnston et. al.,\u00a0Deep Focus,\u00a0<\/em>53.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a>\u00a0Coen and Coen, The Big Lebowski\u00a0Script.<\/em><\/p>\n [11]<\/a>\u00a0Johnston et. al.,\u00a0Deep Focus,\u00a0<\/em>52.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a>\u00a0Coen and Coen, The Big Lebowski\u00a0Script.<\/em><\/p>\n [13]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid.<\/p>\n [15]<\/a>\u00a0Johnston et. al.,\u00a0Deep Focus,\u00a0<\/em>53.<\/p>\n [16]<\/a>\u00a0Coen and Coen, The Big Lebowski\u00a0Script.<\/em><\/p>\n [17]<\/a>\u00a0Elmer, \u201cEnduring and Abiding,\u201d 452.<\/p>\n [18]<\/a>\u00a0Eccl. 1:4, NKJV.<\/p>\n [19]<\/a>\u00a0Brent A. Strawn, Introduction to Ecclesiastes, in\u00a0The CEB Study Bible<\/em>\u00a0(Nashville, TN: The Common English Bible, 2013), 1053-1054.<\/p>\n [20]<\/a>\u00a0Eccl. 3:20\u201322a, CEB.<\/p>\n [21]<\/a>\u00a0Eccl. 9:1\u201310, CEB.<\/p>\n [22]<\/a>\u00a0Johnston,\u00a0Useless Beauty<\/em>, 14.<\/p>\n [23]<\/a>\u00a0Johnston,\u00a0Useless Beauty<\/em>, 14.<\/p>\n [24]<\/a>\u00a0Eccl. 1:9, CEB.<\/p>\n [25]<\/a>\u00a0Tyree and Walters, \u201cThe Big Lebowski.\u201d<\/p>\n Bibliography<\/h2>\n D\u2019Angelo, Mike. \u201cWhat I Learned from Watching the First 10 Minutes of 500 Movies.\u201d Film. The A.V. Club, November 12, 2015.\u00a0https:\/\/film.avclub.com\/what-i-learned-from-watching-the-first-10-minutes-of-50-1798286324<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elmer, Jonathan. \u201cEnduring and Abiding.\u201d In\u00a0This Year\u2019s Work in Lebowski Studies<\/em>, edited by Edward P Comentale and Aaron Jaffe. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009.<\/p>\n Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, The Big Lebowski\u00a0Script.\u00a0<\/em>PDF file.\u00a0https:\/\/www.raindance.org\/scripts\/The%20Big%20Lebowski%20script.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Johnston, Robert K., Craig Detweiler, and Kutter Callaway.\u00a0Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue<\/em>. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2019.<\/p>\n Johnston, Robert K.\u00a0Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film<\/em>. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011. https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/fuller\/reader.action?docID=4446216.<\/p>\n Strawn, Brent A. Introduction to Ecclesiastes. In\u00a0The CEB Study Bible,\u00a0<\/em>1053-1054. Nashville, TN: The Common English Bible, 2013.<\/p>\n Tyree, J.M., and Ben Walters. \u201cThe Big Lebowski.\u201d National Film Preservation Board. Library of Congress. Accessed March 24, 2020. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/static\/programs\/national-film-preservation-board\/documents\/big_lebowski.pdf.<\/p>\n <\/h2>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"********* ** *********Abiding by Bowling The Big Lebowski and Ecclesiastes Although now considered a cult classic, the Coen Brothers\u2019 early film\u00a0The Big Lebowski\u00a0did not receive immediate acclaim. In fact, it barely broke even on its estimated budget of $15 million.[1]\u00a0However, in the years that proceeded, a strange thing happened. Film scholars J.M. Tyree and Ben Walters describe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5007,"featured_media":350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,113,75],"tags":[122,119,33,116,48],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-movies","category-pop-culture","tag-bible","tag-ecclesiastes","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nAbiding by Bowling: The Big Lebowski and Ecclesiastes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's how The Big Lebowski effectively translates the message of Ecclesiastes into postmodern American speak.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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