10 Sarcastic Movie Pricks You Can't Help But Love
2. The Dude - The Big Lebowski
Donny; Phone's ringing, Dude.The Dude; Thank you, Donny.
The Big Lebowski is the Coen brothers' zaniest, wackiest, most bodacious film. It's a story of a mix-up, a ransom, a passion for bowling, White Russians and rugs and, of course, an all-abiding Dude- surely the hippiest version of a sarcastic film god on the list. The Dude scoffs with disbelief throughout his mix-up with the real Mr Lebowski and his odyssey through Los Angeles criminal underworld.
Introduced to us in his pyjamas whilst sampling milk in a supermarket, The Dude-the laziest man in Los Angeles County, though surely its most affable deadbeat- proves his humour is better than his bank balance. The Dude delivers his lines in such a lazy drawl; he urges anyone to take it easy if a situation gets too hot, warns of a beverage alert if the situation gets physical and offers a belated, rather stoned huh as salutation to any new plot development.
When a pair of sadistic thugs break into his house in a case of mistaken identity, The Dude's head is ducked into the toilet- Thug; 'Where's the money, Lebowski? Where's the f**king money, sh**head?" The Dude; "It's uh... uh... it's down there somewhere, let me take another look".
And The Dude's freeloading charm is amongst the most singular in movie history. I guess it qualifies as sarcasm and, if not, these Dudisms are certainly sarcastic enough in their own right. His response to having his rug peed on and stolen is his heart-rendering lamentation it really tied the room together. At one point The Dude claims to his German aggressors that Nihilism must be absolutely exhausting And the breviloquent irony in The Big Lebowski's majestic homage to the Chandler film-noir, as well as the Dude's most sumptuous sarcasm, is most on show when the Dude is with his old pal Walter Sobchek.
Ah yes, Walter..the Vietnam-remembering, pseudo-Jew played by Jon Goodman. Nobody tests The Dude's otherwise passive, stoic manner than the well-meaning Walter who is altogether the more active of the pair in trying to solve Bunnys kidnapping. The following lines are truly immortal; The Dude; "That's a great plan, Walter. That's f*ckin' ingenious, if I understand it correctly. It's a Swiss f**kin' watch". Or the irrepressible, unforgettable exchange that had us rolling down the aisles Walter Sobchak; "Am I wrong?" The Dude; "You're not wrong Walter. You're just an !*$%:"
And The Dude's droll, sarcastic humour is his greatest, perhaps only, weapon against the more powerful forces that accost him in this underbelly of Los Angeles. Another fine example of the hippy-turned-detectives fearsome wit; Thug: "What the f**k is this?" The Dude: "Obviously you're not a golfer And, of course, as a ladies man, The Dude's sarcasm abides very well"; Maude Lebowski "What do you do for recreation?" The Dude; "Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback".