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The Big Lebowski

"The Big Lebowski" is a movie that I've known about for a long time but never got the chance to watch until now. Having seen the Coen brothers' other film "No Country for Old Men", I was excited to see another one of their films and "The Big Lebowski" was very different but it did not disappoint. I don't think there is any way to fully explain this film and make sense, but in essence, it is a man named the dude's massive and ridiculously complex journey to replace his rug.
In this film, I think that incongruity theory is extremely prevalent even in the premise of the film. This film takes genre and general expectations of what a movie is and flips them on their head, which in a way, is incongruous. As well, the dude being the protagonist is incongruous. Usually in stories, the protagonist is the one that moves the plot along, however, in this movie, it seems like everything around the dude is what propels the plot forward which causes many of the jokes in the movie. The dude's total indifference to the craziness going on around him is a big source of humor throughout the movie.
As well, I think superiority theory was present because many of the characters, from the dude to Walter and then to the butler of the millionaire Lebowski are all crazy and make terrible decisions that in turn make the audience feel superior to them because they would not make the decisions they do. This was a hilarious movie with hilarious memorable characters and one-liners.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 3, 2018 at 7:06 PM

    Good analysis on the incongruity theory and how it is represented in the movie. I liked your thought on how he is a protagonist, but he still manages to move the plot along, as well as how you tied that into the incongruity theory.

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