Scene Analysis - The Big Lebowski
GE3401 – TB2
Exploring English Cinema
Scene Analysis
“Scattering Donny’s Ashes” Scene in The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
Student Name: Fan Ho Nga, Gloria
Student ID: 52948216
“Scattering Donny’s Ashes” Scene in The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998) by the Coen Brothers is no doubt a comedy film about friendships between three bowling buddies with differing personalities who met and stuck together as friends by choice in Los Angeles when the U.S. army invaded the Middle East. The Coen Brothers managed to capture the spirit of friendship bonding, conflicts, characters’ internal struggles as well as personal desires with exceptional cinematography and mise-en-scene through a plot that went from western to Film Noir. There is a cleverly placed contrast between violence, kidnapping, femme fatales and other dark elements that do not really go with the sunny, carefree impression of L.A. where the story is set in. Such metaphorically structured contrasts along with well-constructed dialogues between three characters from varying backgrounds bring out the contradictory nature of how the Dude (Jeff Bridges), a bearded, unemployed long-haired hippie who did not care much about this world that lived in a dressing gown met his two best friends Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), a Vietnam vet who could not move on from the war period and Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi), a bland character that got ignored most of the time, who all lived with the shadow of intergeneration give-and-take hovering yet still managed to stay committed to their friendships even when they have their own burdens to deal with in life. The ending scene of The Big Lebowski where the Dude and Walter scattered Donny’s ashes pleasantly reflected what seems to be delicate but actually strong bonds of relationships between the three main characters.
The ending scene starts with a long shot of the Dude and Walter’s back view walking from the
Exploring English Cinema
Scene Analysis
“Scattering Donny’s Ashes” Scene in The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
Student Name: Fan Ho Nga, Gloria
Student ID: 52948216
“Scattering Donny’s Ashes” Scene in The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998) by the Coen Brothers is no doubt a comedy film about friendships between three bowling buddies with differing personalities who met and stuck together as friends by choice in Los Angeles when the U.S. army invaded the Middle East. The Coen Brothers managed to capture the spirit of friendship bonding, conflicts, characters’ internal struggles as well as personal desires with exceptional cinematography and mise-en-scene through a plot that went from western to Film Noir. There is a cleverly placed contrast between violence, kidnapping, femme fatales and other dark elements that do not really go with the sunny, carefree impression of L.A. where the story is set in. Such metaphorically structured contrasts along with well-constructed dialogues between three characters from varying backgrounds bring out the contradictory nature of how the Dude (Jeff Bridges), a bearded, unemployed long-haired hippie who did not care much about this world that lived in a dressing gown met his two best friends Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), a Vietnam vet who could not move on from the war period and Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi), a bland character that got ignored most of the time, who all lived with the shadow of intergeneration give-and-take hovering yet still managed to stay committed to their friendships even when they have their own burdens to deal with in life. The ending scene of The Big Lebowski where the Dude and Walter scattered Donny’s ashes pleasantly reflected what seems to be delicate but actually strong bonds of relationships between the three main characters.
The ending scene starts with a long shot of the Dude and Walter’s back view walking from the