![]() ![]() The style is me, too, though Jeff Bridges did add the jellies. “The way the Dude carries himself, like if you can imagine him at Jackie Treehorn’s place, his arms behind his neck, sitting there, slouching, with a White Russian, that’s definitely me,” he tells me down the phone in a thick drawl. Dowd, who doesn’t receive royalties from the film, spent some time on set. Production for The Big Lebowski eventually began on January 27, 1997, with the Coens working on a budget of $15 million. ![]() “It just seemed interesting to us to thrust [someone like Dowd) into the most confusing situation possible, the person it would seem on the face of it least equipped to deal with it,” Ethan said at the time of the film’s release. Think of it as Raymond Chandler, shot through a haze of marijuana smoke and with added farce. Released 14 years later on March 6, 1998, the film tells the LA-based tale of a quixotic, ten-pin-bowling-loving slacker known as The Dude, who’s swept up in a maelstrom of mistaken identity, kidnapping and blackmail. From these two seemingly disparate worlds, the idea behind their gilt-edged comedy classic The Big Lebowski was first conceived. It wasn’t just Dowd himself – an imperturbable, sartorially slovenly pothead nicknamed “The Dude” – it was also the milieu. As were its first-time directors, Joel and Ethan Coen, with whom something stuck that night. ![]() The film’s stars, Frances McDormand and John Getz, were there. Celebrating the forthcoming release of Blood Simple, the trailblazing comedie noire for which Dowd had helped secure distribution, hundreds turned up at a Fifties-style bowling alley in Santa Monica where the Rat Pack used to drink. In 1984, a film distributor and former radical called Jeff Dowd threw a party. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |