The Big Lebowski

"David Thewlis – Knox Harrington"

"Flea – Nihilist #2, Kieffer"

"Torsten Voges – Nihilist #3, Franz"

"Aimee Mann – Nihilist #4 in pancake diner, Toe Donor"

"John Turturro – Jesus Quintana"

"Dom Irrera – Tony"

"Jon Polito – Da Fino"

"Ben Gazzara – Jackie Treehorn"

"Sam Elliott – The Stranger"

"Well, sir, it's this rug I had. It really tied the room together."

"Look, let me explain something to you. I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness, Duder or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing."

"This aggression will not stand, man."

"This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber."

"Walter, I love you, but sooner or later, you're going to have to face the fact you're a goddamn moron."

"You're not wrong Walter. You're just an asshole."

"I'm perfectly calm, Dude."

"Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

"You see what happens? You see what happens, Larry? See what happens? This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass, Larry! [smashes car]"

"Eh, fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling."

"Life does not start and stop at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit!"

"Language problem here. Little prick stonewalling me."

"Who am I? I'm a fucking veteran that's who I am!"

"Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors and bowling, and as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo and up to Pismo. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives, and so would Donny: Donny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince."

"A wiser man than myself once said, "Sometimes you eat the b'ar.… Sometimes the b'ar, well, he eats you.""

"Way out west there was this fella... fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. Mr. Lebowski, he called himself "The Dude". Now, "Dude" - that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense."

"Now this here story I'm about to unfold took place back in the early '90s - just about the time of our conflict with Sad'm and the I-raqis. I only mention it because 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 talkin' about the Dude here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough."

"They figured he was a lazy, time-wasting slacker. They were right."

"Her life was in their hands. Now her toe is in the mail."

"Times like these call for a Big Lebowski."

"It takes guys as simple as the Dude and Walter to make a story this complicated … and they'd really rather be bowling."

"Lebowski: not a man, a way of life."

"We believe that the Dudeist tradition started as a response to the excesses of civilization. That was Lao Tzu's deal anyway. Lots of similar traditions dealt with issues of work and status and anxiety and nature the same way. But they were all, pretty much, taken over by fascists and real reactionaries. Even Taoism was taken over by charlatans and phonies. But the pure undogmatic centre of lots of traditions (Christianity, Vedism, Buddhism etc) is all the same. And that's Dudeism."

"The Dude is an extreme case, but he provides an ideal which can help you to bring a little more "Dude" into your life, without giving up on the rat race entirely."

"Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski is a genial, shambling comedy about a human train wreck, and should come with a warning like the one Mark Twain attached to Huckleberry Finn: "Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." … Everybody knows somebody like the Dude — and so, rumor has it, do the Coen brothers. They based the character on a movie producer and distributor named Jeff Dowd, a familiar figure at film festivals, who is tall, large, shaggy and aboil with enthusiasm. Dowd is much more successful than Lebowski (he has played an important role in the Coens' careers as indie filmmakers), but no less a creature of the moment. Both dudes depend on improvisation and inspiration much more than organization."

"The Coen Brothers' 1998 follow up to Fargo is a mystery comedy for stoners. No character in the story is exactly what or who they seem to be. Inspired surrealistic dream sequences and touches of ribald humor spike the humorous punch. There's also a shot of red-hot political satire that predicts the Republican Party's post-Reagan shift toward nihilism. You'd never guess that the movie is loosely based on Raymond Chandler's detective novel The Big Sleep."

"Jeff Bridges – Jeffrey Lebowski – "The Dude""

"John Goodman – Walter Sobchak"

"Julianne Moore – Maude Lebowski"

"Steve Buscemi – Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos"

"David Huddleston – Jeffrey Lebowski – "The Big Lebowski""

"Philip Seymour Hoffman – Brandt"

"Tara Reid – "Bunny" Lebowski, AKA Bunny LaJoya, AKA Fawn Knutsen"

"Philip Moon – Woo, AKA "The Chinaman""

"Mark Pellegrino – Blond"

"Peter Stormare – Nihilist #1, Uli Kunkel, AKA "Karl Hungus""

"Dies ist nicht Vietnam, sondern Bowling, da gibt es Regeln."

"Es gibt Tage, da verspeist man den Bären, und Tage, da wird man eben vom Bären verspeist."

"Niemand verarscht den Jesus!"

"Sie ist nicht meine Herzallerliebste! Sie ist nur 'ne Freundin, mehr nicht! Ich helf' ihr bloß schwanger zu werden!"

"Hauptdarsteller:"