1998 in Review: "The Big Lebowski"
one iconic quote from every scene
The Big Lebowski was released on March 6, 1998.
I don’t recall exactly when the conversation took place. Early in the pandemic, maybe. I was talking to my friend Ethan about The Big Lebowski, when he suddenly asked me, “Do you think every single scene in it has an iconic line?” I didn’t know the answer but pledged to get it for him one day. That day is today. In honor of the film’s 25th anniversary, I revisited the best Coen brothers film (there, I said it), and picked the most quotable line from each scene. Did every scene have one? You be the judge.
Many of these lines look unremarkable on the page, but that’s just part of the film’s genius. There is some sparkling, noir-inflected dialogue and some great jokes in The Big Lebowski, but much of what makes it special is in its performances. The actors find the humanity in the dialogue and make even throwaway lines feel like they’re coming straight from their souls. Below you’ll see some brilliantly-constructed, award-worthy sentences. You’ll also see some silly jokes and well-placed obscenities that tickle me in ways I can’t quite describe.
Anyway, I tried. Here they are, by scene number:
“Sometimes there’s a man…I won’t say a hero, ‘cause what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man, and I’m talking about The Dude here…sometimes there’s a man…well, he’s the man for his time and place.”
“Obviously, you’re not a golfer.”
“It really tied the room together.” The first bowling alley scene really highlights the Coen brothers’ mastery of dialogue. It’s filled with memorable one-off lines, but what makes it sing is the music of it, the repetition and the rhythm. “It really tied the room together” is a succinct expression of The Dude’s ethos. He appreciates the little things, possesses a strong sense of injustice, and even has a bit of feminine sensibility (he understands interior design). But I could have easily gone with, “Donny, you’re out of your element,” “They peed on your fucking rug,” or “That’s your name, Dude!,” or simply reprinted the entire scene right here. It’s all perfect.
“This aggression will not stand, man!”
“He’s a nihilist.” “Oh, that must be exhausting.”
“Smokey, this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.”
Runner-up: “Fucking dog has fucking papers.”
“You’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an asshole!”
“You know, my cycle.”
“Are you surprised at my tears, sir?”
“Well, Dude, we just don’t know.” This might be my favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performance. His approach to the character of Brandt floors me every time I see it. He turns a generic sycophant into the most mysterious character in the film. What has made Brandt sacrifice his entire soul in service of this godawful human being? I have no idea, but I would have been happy to get an entire feature film devoted to him just to try and figure it out. On the other hand, there’s something exquisite about the impression Hoffman makes with such limited screen time.
“Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” Easily the most usable quote in the entire film.
First dream montage. The Dude flying over Los Angeles. No dialogue, so this scene gets an exemption, but it’s a real good time.
“Her life is in your hands, Dude!” How Hoffman slips into the dialect of a surfer dude every time he says The Dude’s name absolutely slays me.
“Nothing is fucked here. You’re being very un-Dude.”
“Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you’re gonna have to face the fact that you’re a goddamn moron.”
“Shomer Shabbos!” Whenever anyone asks me to do anything on a Saturday, this is my response.
“Separate incidents!” Every time I revisit The Big Lebowski I gain a new appreciation for one of its minor players. I call this character Optimistic Cop because, unlike his partner, he seems perfectly happy with this terrible call. When he learns that The Dude’s rug and car have been stolen separately, he is delighted at the opportunity to work on an actual case. Yet when he hears Maude’s voicemail admitting to having stolen The Dude’s rug, it doesn’t dampen his enthusiasm one bit: “Guess we can close the book on that one,” he says, grinning. I bet he and Donny would have been great friends.
“You mean…coitus?” Speaking of Maude, this is my new favorite scene in the movie. The exchange between Moore, playing Mr. Lebowski’s feminist art-freak daughter, and Bridges is filled with perfect zingers:
“Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?”
“It can be a natural, zesty enterprise.”
“He fixes the cable?”
“Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.”
“Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, yes, and proud we are of all of them.”
“He’s a good man…and thorough.”
It’s notable, though, that the most quotable line is from The Dude himself, reacting in bewilderment to Maude’s eccentricities. “Do you like sex?” she asks him. “You mean…coitus?” Is The Dude really this oblivious, or is he playing the role of the befuddled stoner to get more information out of Maude? I lean towards the former, but the genius of the movie is that the latter always seems possible.
“Careful, man, there’s a beverage here!”
“That had not occurred to us, Dude.”
“You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me. There are ways. You don’t want to know about it, believe me.”
Runner-up: “I’m staying. I’m finishing my coffee. Enjoying my coffee.”
“Nice marmot.”
“You got any promising, uh, leads?”
“Leads? Sure. I’ll just check with the boys down at the crime lab.”
“I mean, say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
Runner-up: “Fucking Germans. Nothing changes.”
“What the fuck is with this guy?” It’s an unremarkable line directed at Knox Harrington, “the video artist,” but it’s The Dude’s exasperation, increasingly mightily at this point in the film, that sells it.
Okay, I think we have found our first scene without an iconic quote. It’s the scene where The Dude goes to the doctor (“a good man…and thorough”). It’s less than a minute long, but I have to play by the rules here. “Could you pull your shorts down now, please?” does not qualify.
A wordless sequence of The Dude driving, smoking a joint, drinking a beer, and crashing his car. Great scene that doesn’t need any dialogue. The Coens communicate everything through images alone.
“Shut the fuck up, Donny!”
“Does he still write?” “Oh, no, no, he has health problems.”
“You see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass? This is what happens!” Side note: Have you ever seen The Big Lebowski on basic cable? There are so many f-words in this movie that they have to get pretty creative in cleaning it up. The absurd piece de resistance is this line, which they change to, “You see what happens when you FIND a stranger in the ALPS?!” No joke.
“Well, that’s your perception.” Another eminently usable quip.
“Does a pope shit in the woods?” It’s a silly little joke. The Dude has been drugged, so his speech is getting scrambled, but I like how it also reveals character. The Dude has no problem mocking the Pope. He has his own, fully-formed belief system. No, really, it’s called Dudeism.
Runner-up: “It’s video, dude. Now that we’re competing with those amateurs, we can’t afford to invest in little extras like story, production value, feelings. People forget that the brain is the biggest erogenous zone.” It’s wild how this movie just becomes Boogie Nights in this scene.
Dream sequence #2. No dialogue here, but it’s worth noting the striking imagery here. Only master filmmakers could pivot so seamlessly within a film from dialogue-driven storytelling to pure cinema.
“Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man!”
“Come on, man. I had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man!”
“You ever hear of the Seattle Seven? That was me….and six other guys.” This scene also features one of the best spit takes in movie history.
“How you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they’ve seen Karl Hungus?” BEST LINE IN THE MOVIE.
“Lingonberry pancakes.” I can’t say this line is really iconic in the conventional sense, but I think about it a lot.
“Three thousand years of beautiful tradition from Moses to Sandy Koufax, you’re GODDAMN RIGHT I’M LIVING IN THE FUCKING PAST!” Walter proves his Jewish bona fides.
“You human paraquat!” This is fascinating. “Paraquat” is a widely-used herbicide. A nod to the environmentalism of the ‘60s, or just a word that Coens liked a whole helluva lot? You decide.
“It don’t matter to Jesus.” I would also accept, “Wooo! You got a date Wednesday, baby!”
“We still want the money, Lebowksi. We fucks you ups.” I would also accept, “Fucking dipshit with a 9-toed woman.”
“Just because we’re bereaved doesn’t make us saps!”
“Everything’s a fucking travesty with you!”
“The Dude abides.”
(exhales) So what did we learn from this little exercise? That The Big Lebowski is the most quotable film of all time? Maybe. Probably. I think the greater insight is how quotability comes not just from the dialogue of a film but also from its spirit. The Dude, Walter, Brandt, and even Maude are characters who have responded to life’s challenges and absurdities in relatable ways. Brandt has retreated into himself. Maude rises above things. Walter chooses anger. The Dude just tries his best. The Big Lebowski may be a brilliant stoner comedy/western/film noir mash-up, but we love it for how it touches on life right now, when we lack access to an agreed-upon reality and we spend most of our energy simply trying to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s bullshitting us. It’s a lot of work when all we really want is our rug back.
The Big Lebowski gives us a way to engage with annoyances of life. In almost every scene.