The Big Lebowski: What Makes A Good Guy?

How do most people define a guy who spends all his days in a bowling room as a deadbeat? Meanwhile, he also does psychedelic drugs, consumes a lot of alcohols and of course uses cuss words like “fuck” and “shit” as his tags. People probably or certainly do not take that kind of people to be a good guy. I do not want to argue with that, since they certainly do not act as a good guy. However, the Dude in The Big Lebowski, a cult favorite film directed by Joel Coen, shows another probability to turn a lazy bad guy to a good guy who has his own bottom line of life as a pacifist. The story unfolds in the early 90s, two Jeff Lebowski live in the city of Los Angeles. Though they have the same name, their lifestyles are in a stark contrast. The
Dude is one of them, he shows up with a casual style pajamas in Ralph’s, it gives people a thought that this guy is madly lazy because nobody would willing to go out with pajamas. Well, his first imagine is successfully giving the audiences a decadent figure and we may even concern he has drug addiction. His career is playing bowling as an amateur, which has no payment at all. I personally concluded him as a bad guy by only seeing the first ten minutes of this movie. Another one is the big Lebowski, a bad temper millionaire who contributes a lot to the society and sends many students to college. This gives me as an audience a view that the big Lebowski is a good successful businessman, and most certainly because he uses his money to help those people who are in need. The reason why these two totally unrelated persons meet is because of a peed rug.
This rug is also the first place people may feel sympathy about the Dude as he gets assaulted by two thugs by doing nothing wrong, and one of those thugs even pees on his rug. One day, he goes back to home with a can of milk and suddenly a guy pushes him to the restroom and presses his head into the closestool back and forth. When he realizes they come for money, the other thug starts to pee on his rug right in front of his face. Those thugs claim he as Jeff Lebowski has to pay for his wife’s bills. He does not have a wedding ring, and certain he does not have a wife. Though he tries to communicate with those thugs that he is not the right Lebowski, he still drinks some toilet water and watches his rug gets peed. How does the Dude thinks when his head gets in such a close touch with a closestool? I bet most people could react very angry to the doer. However, the Dude is a pacifist, he does not show any angry feelings and he also does not want revenge. He goes for compensation from the big Lebowski as his wife owes a guy called Jackie Treehorn’s money, and which causes all those misunderstandings that happen to him. He fails to persuade the big Lebowski, and the big Lebowski gives him a lecture in a very rigorous tone, and the lecture is basically scorning him as an unemployed bummer who wants to scam his money. This part makes people feel sorrow about him because what happens to him is a
tragedy. Even he is a bummer, he shall not deserve this. He could go back home as usual, uses his milk to make a white Russian and enjoys his night. However, his life changes because of that peed rug. People may start to feel sympathy about the Dude because he is a poor guy who just wants to have a good condition rug, but what he got is a lecture from the big Lebowski as a good business man. After a few days, the big Lebowski suddenly wants to see him, and the reason is that his wife Bunny who owes lots of money has been kidnaped. The big Lebowski wants the Dude to be a bagman to pay the ransom money. However, his bowling friend Walter suddenly joins him and surprisingly brings an UZI and a bag full of underwear. Walter wants to save Bunny and meanwhile keeps the money as theirs tips. However, the plan does not work well, they failed to make the trade off. What makes the Dude more pathetic is the words coming from Walter right after they see those kidnappers leave with the underwear bag, “Fuck it, Dude. Let’s go bowling.” The Dude might indirect kill Bunny by Walter’s smart plan, and what did Walter do? Nothing, Walter leaves the full responsibility to the poor Dude. When they come back to the bowling room, Walter acts like a totally unrelated person in this event. The Dude gets annoyed by his friends’ behaviors, and decides to leave. The tragedy thing happens again, somebody steals his car which contains the one million dollars bag. It means the Dude, an unemployed man, has to take responsibility for losing 1 million dollars and indirect killing a women. It makes me feel this could be the worst day that the Dude could have in his whole life. He just wants to make some easy money, and now he does have to worry about a million dollars. In the first forty minutes of this movie, it looks like the Dude is in a hard time. He looks like a pathetic character, and every time he shows up, he will suffer from these kinds of lame things. Most people would think that Walter is an asshole, he creates such a big mess for his friend, and leaves him alone like a stranger. If I were the Dude, I would beat Walter at least. However, the dude is a pacifist, he does not want to harm anyone, he decides to find out the money first. The big Lebowski finds the Dude, and shows him a toe from Bunny. He threatens the Dude that if Bunny gets any further hurt, he will get tenfold. From here, I personally start to feel the Dude is a good guy because he does not escape from this trouble by hiding his name and moving to another place, he wants to find a solution. When he back to home and wants to take a bath to relax, three German show up, and they come with a marmot. They break many furnitures in front of the Dude without any explanations. Surprisingly again, the German put the marmot into the hot tub, and the marmot screams and so do the Dude. The Dude does not expect this marmot, and it seems like the marmot wants to bite a part from the Dude’s body. The German stops the marmot, and threaten him they will cut his johnson off tomorrow. This happens just in one second, no clues, no omens. Again, it all because of money, those German certain act very angry because they should receive a million dollars as ransom money, not a package of underwear. Poor guy gets threatened by two groups of people in one day. No one would think the Dude is a bad lazy guy at this point. He did nothing wrong, but now he has the risk of losing his dick, and of course he has to take responsibility for the ransom money and Bunny’s life. Who would expect a peed rug makes the Dude’s life becomes such miserable? No one, but Joel Coen successfully makes us feel sympathy about the Dude, and somehow I hope the Dude could hang on and make everything back on its track. Not only him, his poor car also suffers a lot in this story. When the officer finds his car under a bridge, the car becomes more likely to be a moving toilet as the officer describes. Now, he gains another peed stuff besides the rug. How come a guy becomes so unlucky? Fortunately, the Dude does not complain anything, his life still needs to go on, he has to find out who steals the money. He finds some clues in his car, and he decides to go to the suspect guy’s house to find out the truth. It looks like he gets on the right track, but he should not bring the trouble maker Walter. Again, Walter pretends he knows everything. He does not have the patience to testify whether the suspect took the money or not. Walter assumes that the suspect does take the money, and he just does not want to admit. Walter also assumes that the new car which parks in front of his house belongs to the suspect. Walter then grabs a rod, and gives his best to destroy that car. Without any surprises, the car belongs to another guy, and that guy gets really pissed off. Then it turns out to be that man also destroy the vehicle that the Dude drives here. What a poor guy the Dude is. The Dude could never thought the peed rug is just a starter, his house and his car are the things that really give him a big hit. The Dude starts to wonder how these things happen to him could be such a coincidence. When the story moves to the end, the Dude suddenly realizes that the big Lebowski knows he is a bummer, but still leaves him in charge of getting his wife back. This is totally make no sense expect the big Lebowski does not want his wife back or his wife does not disappear at all. Then the Dude calls his friend Walter again because Walter seems like to be the only one he could trust, and they decide to figure out the truth behind this kidnap. When they arrive at the big Lebowski’s house. They find out that Bunny is playing at the backyard, jumping, dancing. This is really giving the Dude a big hit, all he suffered was because of this lady. The toe, the money bag and three German suddenly make no sense because this lady does not even get kidnapped. He and Walter come into the big Lebowski’s room, and he wants an answer from him. I thought the big Lebowski was a good guy, but in fact he is a liar. The big Lebowski uses the kidnap as an excuse to make the money disappear from his foundation, and goes into his pocket, he uses the Dude. The Dude did not do anything wrong, but he suffered a lot, and of course he loses many things like furnitures and car. He also involves in a lot of troubles, and all this caused by the good guy’s evil plan. He does not harm the big Lebowski as Walter does, he also forgives Walter for giving him so much troubles. He as a pacifist, being a good guy in this particular case. Sometimes, a good guy does not need to do anything good.
Sometimes, a good guy just wants to ask for compensation for his rug. Sometimes, a good guy could be the one who does not take advantages from others to earn personal profits. This is the Dude in The Big Lebowski being a good guy by not harming anyone else, even he involves in a big trouble. This is also a reflection of the real world, many normal people or even some bad guys in our point of view are actual good guys. Though they do not contribute to the society like those rich people do, they have their own way to be a good guy that is they do not harm the society or take advantages from it. They are being good by not go into the wrong
ways.