Review: THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Limited Edition) Blu-Ray
Chances are pretty high that if you're visiting this site before, you've seen The Big Lebowski and simply want to know how decent the Blu-ray transfer turned out and whehter Universal sprang for some additional features for the hi-def release. You don't need to be convinced to see this movie or reminded how funny it is, or how simply lived-in, occupied, breathing, and fascinating Jeff Bridges is in the role that more or less defined the actor over the last decade. You can feel free to skip ahead to be reassured that yes, the transfer is very clean (although the image seems a tad bit, I don't know, soft, at times), the audio allows you hear every little inflection in John Goodman's blustery dialog, and you get some features ported over from the 2008 DVD in standard def in addition to a 10-minute retrospective in HD. For you half-dozen readers out there who haven't seen the movie, allow me to tell you right now to simply close your browser and seek it out immediately for career-best work from the Coens, Bridges, John Goodman, and nearly everyone else assembled in a piece of brilliant, pot-fueled noir.
So that's out of the way. But what I can't help articulating here is simply how vital the Coen's movie is 13 years out (and about 20 years past the events of the film). I'm going to try and ascribe some present-day significance on this bit of Chandler by way of Southern California burn-out culture, so you'll forgive me if I go off the reservation in this section.
If you squint just enough, you can allow that The Big Lebowski is one of the more trenchant indictments of our current national predicament that simply had the misfortune of being made 13 years too early. It's got everything: allegedly hard-willed ideologues who not too secretly think of themselves, slimy criminals pretending to be businessmen under the protection of the law, empty suits who talk a good game about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps without ever actually having done a damned thing, and finally, in the thick of it all, the rest of us, the other 85% who try to get by, fuck up, and are terminally victims of the whims of all of the above. Sure, we talk a good game, and most of us are pretty decent, but we haven't made any kind of change worth a damn and we mostly hope things will work out. Like it or not, most of us have become the Dude and we should really be better than that by now.Allow me to confirm here, for those of you not paying attention, that I'm something of a bleeding-heart liberal and have been known to be a pessimist.
The Big Lebowski is funny precisely because it's so heartbreaking and true. Yeah, the basic vision is about the failure of the Baby Boomer generation to be the change they wanted 40-odd years ago but it's damned relevant today given the easy surrender to the Jackie Treehorns and Jeff Lebowskis of the world, who hold all of the power and the money, and don't mind putting you in their crosshairs if you're in the way of what they're want.
I'll cop to this being a not very good review of an excellent comedy, which quickly turned into a piece of commentary. But then again, I did warn you to simply skip down to the features section, didn't I?
Reading back over what I've written just now, it's possible that I've added a more cynical and maybe even hostile take on the movie than it deserves. It remains an essential piece of of the comic canon, and among the Coen's many great works, it ranks pretty high up there (to my mind, Raising Arizona remains the comedy closest to my heart from the brothers).
Audio and Video
The audio is a DTS-HD mix which catches all of the rich sounds of the tracks handpicked by Music Archivist T Bone Burnett. The thing sounds good.
Where it gets a little iffy--and this is a case where I'm not willing to trust my own eye--is in the visual quality. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie on the big screen (13 years, to be exact) and while it's a marked improvement over the very first DVD pressing of the film (which was a muddy mess, actually) but the image seems, I don't know, a little soft? This might be the original intent of the filmmakers, I can't really tell for sure. Time permitting, I'll have to check it out on another player on another screen, but there's not the high level of contrast between the actors and the background in scenes. It's most noticeable during the credits and two dream sequences. Not fatal (or even deadly) but slightly distracting.
Special Features
A couple of the features here were in the disc from three years ago, but there's more than enough added content to make the upgrade worth it. Even porting over the Making of doc which I think has been around since the very first DVD for the movie is something of an archivist's treasure, presenting the increasingly tight-lipped Coens on-screen to talk about the making of the film.
I'm kind of a sucker for the book-style presentation for recent Blu titles (see Goodfellas, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), so they had me at stiff, "book-like binding with photos inside." The release is described as a Limited Edition, but who knows how long this thing will stay on the shelves.
- U-CONTROL: Universal's exclusive feature that lets the viewer access bonus materials without leaving the movie!
- Scene Companion: Watch cast and crew interviews, behind the scenes footage and more during key scenes with this picture-in-picture companion.
- Mark it Dude: This onscreen counter really ties the film together. Keep track of all the "F-Bombs," "Dudes," and "Dude-isms" in the film with this ultimate fan guide.
- The Music of The Big Lebowski: Instantly identify the songs heard while watching the film, create a custom playlist of your favorites and even purchase them from iTunes®!
- WORTHY ADVERSARIES: WHAT'S MY LINE TRIVIA: Test your Lebowski knowledge by finishing lines of dialogue during the film. Play as Walter or The Dude or in two-player mode against friends.
- BD-LIVETM: Access the BD-Live™ Center through your Internet-connected player to watch the latest trailers and more.
- pocket BLU™: The groundbreaking pocket BLU™ app uses iPhone®, iPod® touch, Android™, PC and Macintosh to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray™ player. Also available on the iPad™, owners can enjoy a new, enhanced edition of pocket BLU™ made especially to take advantage of the tablet's larger screen and high resolution display. Consumers will be able to browse through a library of Blu-ray™ content and watch entertaining extras on-the-go in a way that's bigger and better than ever before. pocket BLU™ offers advanced features such as:
- Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray™ player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live™ functions with ease.
- Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the film.
- Mobile-To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray™ discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there is a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
- Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU™-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray™ Hi-Def. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.
- Keyboard: Entering data is fast and easy with your device's intuitive keyboard.
- uHEAR™: Never miss another line of dialogue with this innovative feature that instantly skips back a few seconds on your Blu-ray™ disc and turns on the subtitles to highlight what you missed.
- JEFF BRIDGES PHOTO BOOK: For more than 30 years, Jeff Bridges has been snapping pictures on movie sets. The accomplished photographer presents exclusive shots taken on the set of The Big Lebowski providing personal commentary on each photo.
- THE DUDE'S LIFE: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro take a look back at their performances and their delivery of the Coen Brothers' dialogue that became classic movie lines.
- THE DUDE ABIDES: THE BIG LEBOWSKI TEN YEARS LATER: A freewheeling conversation with the cast about the film's decade-long reign as a cult classic, including a discussion about what ever happened to the "little Lebowski" that the Dude and Maude made that fateful night!
- THE LEBOWSKI FEST: AN ACHIEVER'S STORY: An in-depth look at the popular Lebowski Festival, formed by the legion of fans in honor of the film.
- FLYING CARPETS & BOWLING PIN DREAMS: THE DREAM SEQUENCES OF THE DUDE: From aerial flights over Los Angeles with his bowling ball chasing Maude on a flying carpet, to the large scale "Busby Berkley" dance sequences as The Dude goes flying through the legs of all the bowling pin headed dancers, this piece examines how these "ahead of their time" scenes were constructed.
- THE MAKING OF THE BIG LEBOWSKI: A behind the scenes look featuring interviews with the Coen Brothers.
- PHOTO GALLERY: Slideshow of Jeff Bridges' on-set photography.
- INTERACTIVE MAP: Take a tour of the locations of The Big Lebowski, then and now.
- AN INTRODUCTION: Featuring Mortimer Young, a practitioner of "non-uptight" film preservation. His restoration of the famous "toe scene" will blow your mind.
