I saw The Big Lebowski on opening night.
. Day .
I hardly ever see movies on opening night (and if I ever write about seeing Tim Burtons Planet Of The Apes on opening night, you'll know why) but this was a fun group of friends. I was in such a celebratory mood that I did something I never do, which is smoke pot. It wasn't the stupefying kind that makes me afraid and paralyzed (i.e., most pot) but I was a bit altered nonetheless.
The movie was good and interesting, and it didn't bother me that I was having a hard time following it. But that night about 1 a.m., opening the refrigerator, I thought: "What the hell was that? How did they make and release a movie like that? It didn't make any sense! And who was that guy at the end, what did he want?" I'm still a bit puzzled about that last one, actually.
You have to remember this was opening night. There was no lore yet. Nobody had seen "the Jesus" put his tongue on a bowling ball yet, only a select few were aware that had happened. "A toe? I can get you a toe" hadn't entered the discourse. "The dude abides" didn't seem like it meant anything.
It was a while before I changed my attitude about the movie and the Coen brothers. I did, of course; I finally saw The Big Lebowski again (probably with a note pad in hand) and loved it. Maybe all Coen brothers movies require a second viewing for me. (No Country For Old Men did, it went from a D- to an A+ for me. It won Best Picture for the rest of you.) I'm on board now, although I saw Joel Coen's Macbeth, and it went down in my opinion the following day. (See the Roman Polanski one, it's really something.)
NYC movies The Big Lebowski Art Winer Leslie Al Dorsey
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