By Erik Mattox
Miraculously the film resurfaced as pockets of Lebowski fans began watching it on DVD in their homes or at midnight screenings in theaters across the country. Those who once thought they were alone in their love for this cult film began to bond over it. Then in early 2002, while exchanging “Big Lebowski” film quotes (“You want a toe?” / “I can get you a toe. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know”) with some fellow bored tattoo conventioneers in Louisville, KY, Will Russell and Scott Shufett formed Lebowski Fest, a weekend celebration of the cult classic with bowling, White Russians and lots of Creedence (and no Eagles). Now the two have just released the book, “I’m a Lebowksi, You’re a Lebowski,” co-written with Bill Green & Ben Peskoe, which dives deep into the ethos of Jeffrey Lebowski, a k a the Dude, and the world around him.
After getting longtime Lebowski Fest supporter, Jeff Bridges, who plays the Dude, to write the book’s forward, Russell acknowledges in the book that “he was the key that opened everything. Everything just snowballed from there.” That snowball, which grew after years of exhaustive research, yielded interviews with nearly all of the cast members, including Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as minor character actors like the check-out clerk in Ralph’s Supermarket at the beginning of the film. Russell and Schuffett also managed to get interviews with the real-life inspirations for the film’s characters, like the Dude himself.
The book is the ultimate “Big Lebowski” fan guide, made by fans, for fans, stocked with loads of obscure movie facts, film locations, pictures and fun ways to “dudify” your life (hang up a poster of Nixon bowling). The book also explores the spiritual aspects of the film — one man actually developed a religion based upon it, called Dudeism — and the reasons why this quirky comedy became a cult classic. And if you can’t dig that, then as the Dude would say, “That’s just like, uh, your opinion, man.”
