Through What Does The Dude Abide?

Richard Brody's review of The Big Lebowski was popping up in my Facebook feed, and while I usually avoid his reviews because they're impenetrably pretentious, I read this one. As expected, it sucked. But he was right about one thing, which was something I noticed when my wife and I saw it in theaters a few months back. The Big Lebowski is a leftist movie.

I hadn't noticed it years ago when I first saw it, and I wouldn't know what to make of it back then anyways, but in a brief scene between Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore, the Dude gives a rundown of his past. And the Dude was a hardcore activist. As he tells it, he was a coauthor of the original Port Huron Statement - and not “the compromised second draft.” 😉 And when I heard that line this time around, the film finally made sense. American fascism might have its roots in California, but between Philip K. Dick, Thomas Pynchon, and The Big Lebowski, it sure gave us some great anti-fascist literature too. Which is particularly ironic because I get the sense that this movie has a fan base among the kind of punk rock, Trump-loving fascists who like getting toasted, smoking weed, and bowling.

But the jokes on them, because they're what the Dude has to abide through.