I am a Jeff Bridges fan so was sad to read this, The Big Lebowski is my favorite Bridges' movie and his update on his condition is very reminiscent of the Dude himself. This summary of the movie says it all:
A moderate hit upon its first release “The Big Lebowski” has evolved into a cult phenomenon with people holding screenings where the audience quotes the dialogue back to the screen. The cult group fans of the film call themselves “achievers” in response to the main character being somewhat of an underachiever. The New York Times praised Bridges performance saying “Mr. Bridges finds a role so right for him that he seems never to have been anywhere else. Watch this performance to see shambling executed with nonchalant grace and a seemingly out-to-lunch character played with fine comic flair.”
Needless to say, not everyone is the a fan of the dude abides.
And how The Dude abides: The film implies that he has been abiding for decades, and that his sole ambition is to abide with as little effort as possible. The difficulty is that, 20 years later, there's something decidedly unfunny about the boomer ethos of simply abiding.
If you want to pursue that line of reasoning, a lot of the Coen movies will fall under the category of hard to explain why I love it. I remember watching Hail Caesar! with a friend who said "I am guessing this is funny and intelligent but I simply did not get the point". That is fair I suppose - maybe that is sort of the point - to not particularly have one.
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