FILM · 1998 · UK
The Big Lebowski
- Directed by
- Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Runtime
- 117 min
- Studio
- PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Working Title
17 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (17)
- #001
The Dude, a member of the bowling team, is never seen bowling.
- #002
It is John Goodman's favorite among the films he has appeared in.
- #003
Most of the Dude's clothes in the film were Jeff Bridges's own, including the Jellies sandals he still owns and wears to this day.
- #004
In the first draft of the screenplay, the Dude's source of income was revealed: he was the heir of the inventor of the Rubik's Cube, which would also have made him Hungarian. It was Joel Coen's idea to drop this and never mention it.
- #005
The Dude says "man" 147 times in the film, nearly one and a half times per minute.
- #006
John Goodman stated that he has never enjoyed acting in any film as much as this one.
- #007
After appearing in the film, Jeff Bridges, who was no stranger to working on films where scripts are constantly rewritten, called John Goodman to ask when they would get the rewrite. Goodman, a longtime collaborator of the Coens, told Bridges that this film belonged to the Coens and that they did not rewrite their own material.
- #008
Jimmie Dale Gilmore (Smokey) admits that he has been asked hundreds of times whether he crossed the line. Gilmore says the answer is a secret he will take to his grave.
- #009
The screenplay was written with John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Sam Elliott in mind.
- #010
John Turturro initially thought he would have a larger role in the film. When he read the screenplay, he realized the part was quite small. However, the Coen brothers allowed many of his own ideas for the character to emerge, such as the scene in which he polishes the bowling ball and dances backwards, which he said was inspired by Muhammad Ali.
- #011
When they began writing the screenplay, the Coens had written only forty pages and let it sit for a while before finishing. This is a normal writing process for them, because most of the time "we run into a problem at a certain stage, we move on to another project, then we come back to the first screenplay. That way we have already accumulated pieces for several future films."
- #012
The last time Donny bowls is the only time he fails to get a strike.
- #013
T Bone Burnett served as music consultant on the film and helped Joel Coen and Ethan Coen shape the Dude's musical taste. Burnett chose most of the songs featured in the film and also suggested the Dude's hatred of the Eagles (Burnett himself is not a fan). It was reported that Glenn Frey, a member of the band, was so horrified by this that he even angrily confronted Jeff Bridges when they met at a party.
- #014
The Dude calls The Big Lebowski "human paraquat." Paraquat is an herbicide. In the late 1970s, a controversial US government-sponsored program sprayed it on marijuana fields in Mexico, causing the plants to wither quickly. The real problem was that immediately after the spraying, farmers harvested and sold the crop right away, producing a product called "killer weed." It killed no one, but it made people sick and was considered carcinogenic.
- #015
One of the inspirations for the character Walter is the Coen brothers' friend, writer and director John Milius, a flamboyant right-winger obsessed with everything militaristic and with a passion for guns. His surroundings, beard, hairstyle and coloring are also reflected in Walter's physical appearance. The Coens had tried to cast Milius in the role in Barton Fink (1991) that Michael Lerner ultimately played.
- #016
The final scene consists of a single shot lasting 2 minutes and 27 seconds, which ends with professional bowler (and the film's consultant) Barry Asher bowling a perfect strike.
- #017
The scene in which Walter throws the car phone out the window was actually shot backwards in post-production and then reversed. After several failed attempts to throw the briefcase in a perfect arc, a crew member off-screen threw the case to the driver while the driver was told to walk backwards.
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