The Coen Brothers are an incomparable screenwriting, directing, and producing duo, who have showcased their aptitude for writing unforgettably hilarious lines of dialogue since the release of their first out-and-out comedy, 1987's Raising Arizona. From Fargo to Burn After Reading, to A Serious Man the Coens know their way around a gleefully unabashed farce or a biting social satire. But the Coen comedy that has taken on the mantle of "Most Quotable Comedy of the last 25 Years" is Marijuana's answer to Humphrey Bogart's The Big Sleep; 1997's The Big Lebowski.
Lebowski is endlessly quotable, and here is a short list of the best lines from this evergreen comedy. Parring down this list to merely 15 selections is a genuine struggle for any Lebowski fan. The mind reels when one considers just how many seemingly random lines of dialogue uttered in this movie, have taken on a life of their own in the modern pop culture lexicon. But it all makes sense when one remembers that the case of The Big Lebowski was very complicated. A Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous. And new s**t is always coming to light, man.
The Big Lebowski
R
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
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*Availability in US
- Release Date
- March 6, 1998
- Director
- Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
- Cast
- Jeff Bridges , John Goodman , Julianne Moore , Steve Buscemi , David Huddleston , Philip Seymour Hoffman , Tara Reid , Peter Stormare
- Runtime
- 117 minutes
15 "You're being very un-dude."
Walter Sobchak
It seems that for every iconic idiom and witticism that stemmed from Jeff Bridges’ Dude, there is an equally sensational quote from his eccentric and ill-tempered best friend, John Goodman's Walter Sobchak. One of his better lines comes when he has picked up the Dude to carry out a transaction that will see a large sum of money exchanged for the Big Lebowski’s kidnapped daughter, Bunny (Tara Reid).
Convinced that the whole abduction is a set-up by Bunny, Walter hatches his own scheme to get rich off the situation, one that leaves the Dude uncharacteristically irate when he figures out what is happening. As he launches into a panicked tirade, Walter speaks slowly as he tries to settle him down. Goodman’s calming delivery of “you’re being very un-dude” is one of the more underrated lines from the movie.
14 "Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with nail polish."
Walter Sobchak
When the bizarre situation the Dude finds himself embroiled in takes a violent turn as Bunny’s severed toe is delivered in an envelope, the Dude, perhaps unwisely, discusses how to proceed with Walter. When he is looking for help, though, he receives only Walter’s cackling denial that the toe is even Bunny’s to begin with, even shutting the Dude down when he mentions the nail polish as an identifying mark.
Doubling down on how easy it would be to procure a toe to use in such a way, Walter insists that he himself could get a toe for the Dude hypothetically, even going so far as to say he could get one by that afternoon… with nail polish. Goodman’s delivery of his lines throughout the scene is magnificent, especially upon rewatching The Big Lebowski when viewers know he is actually right about it not being Bunny’s toe.
13 "He's a good man... and thorough."
Maude Lebowski
Julianne Moore's performance as Maude Lebowski – the avant-garde feminist artist and daughter of the titular Big Lebowski – is a quintessential slice of Coen cookiness. With no real clear explanation as to why, Maude speaks in the fanciful tonality of a femme fatale straight out of a '40s noir.
Moore's line delivery as she's urging "Jeffery" (The Dude) to visit Maude's physician, a man whose skills she vouches for by saying, "He's a good man... and thorough," is so sublimely bizarre, that its unique rhythm and cadence will never leave the recesses of your mind.
12 "Forget it, Donny. You're out of your element!"
Walter Sobchak
As Walter puts it "Donny was a good bowler, and a good man." But he was also a man who was perpetually two steps behind the topic of any given conversation. Sweet Donny's naivete often left him inside Walter's merciless cross-hairs. When Donny hears the duo Walter and the Dude discussing "Lenin" he assumes they mean John Lennon, repeatedly chiming in, "I am the walrus!"
Walter instantly barks back at him, "Shut the f***k up Donny! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!". But of course, Walter's greatest and most hilarious dismissal of poor Donny comes when he simply tells him, "Forget it Donny. You're out of your element!"
11 "Ve vant ze money, Lebowski."
Nihilist
Amid the turmoil and the carnage of the wild adventure the Dude finds himself thrust upon in The Big Lebowski, one unlikely group of villains he finds himself facing is a trio known as the “Nihilists”. Consisting of three eastern European crooks who dress up in black leather and use a pet ferret as an intimidation device, the crime gang poses as Bunny’s abductors but is revealed to be uninvolved in the kidnapping and merely want to use the scenario to get money.
Late in the film, the Nihilists confront the Dude, Walter, and Donny as they leave the bowling alley, sparking a verbal altercation that turns violent and leads to Donny having a heart attack. The scene is jam-packed with hilarity, from Walter’s antics to the ridiculous fighting, but it is Peter Stormare’s “Ve vant ze mawney, Lebowski” that has become its most memorable moment.
10 "F**k it, man, let’s go bowling."
Walter Sobchak
The attitude and aura that defined the Coens' The Big Lebowski, and continues to define it to this day, is one of a laid-back, ever-unbothered easiness that confronts chaotic situations and disastrous problems with a certain lethargy. That comes to the fore near the film’s end when the Dude and Walter send off their friend, Donny (Steve Buscemi), by attempting to scatter his ashes over the beach.
Needless to say, it doesn’t go well, leading to the Dude getting frustrated at a remorseful Walter before the two reluctantly embrace. At a loss concerning what to do next, having miraculously survived their ridiculous and winding entanglement with organized crime and immense wealth, Walter guides the immediate path forward with the perfectly worded “f**k it, man, let’s go bowling.”
9 "Nobody f***s with The Jesus."
Jesus Quintana
The great John Turturro has long been a key player in the Coen Brother's larger stable of acting talent. After his stellar dramatic one-two-punch in Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink, a bowling-ball-licking, child sex offender was not exactly the role that folks would have expected him to take on back in 1997.
Turturro himself even expressed some confusion around the tone and the overall point of his character in the story. He has since come around on The Jesus, as the character ended up achieving cinematic icon status with less than 5 minutes of screen time. His self-aggrandizing catchphrase is now immortal, "You said it man. Nobody f***s with The Jesus." Nobody.
8 "You are entering a world of pain."
Walter Sobchak
The character of Walter was reported to be heavily inspired by the legendary screenwriter and self-described maverick filmmaker John Milius. Milius was a gun-nut, and a man singularly obsessed with the nature of guerilla warfare, despite never serving in the military himself. If Walter is indeed based on Milius, then the iconic "Over the line!" scene is the clearest evocation of that basis. When local bowler, Smokey, barely slips his toe across the threshold of the foul line, then refuses to mark his scorecard as a zero, Walter simply cannot let his transgression slide.
Walter explains to Smokey how bowling, unlike Vietnam, has rules. When Smokey insists that he didn't cheat, Walter reaches into his bowling bag, pulls out his "piece" and ensures him, "Smokey my friend, you are entering a world of pain." It's comforting to know that there are still people like Walter out there, who, "Gives a s**t about the rules."
7 "That rug really tied the room together."
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled detective novels like The Maltese Falcon, The Dude's prized, urine-soaked rug, serves as the central MacGuffin for The Big Lebowski's bewildering mystery plot line.
The Dude's quest to retain his prized rug, a household item that he desperately needs to be returned as it "really tied the room together," is the impetus for numerous comedic set pieces, each and every major "plot" point of the story, and also, a lifetime of people complementing their friend's new rug by saying, "Yeah, man. It really ties the room together."
6 "This aggression will not stand, man."
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
One of a couple of lines that get recycled throughout the movie, "This aggression will not stand man" is an enduring statement of The Dude's unique brand of spacey indignation. The Dude is a laid-back cat, but when he's been wronged, he'll let you know that "The Dude minds."
He's adamant that he deserves some recompense after The Big Lebowski's goons soiled his rug. He may leave Mr. Lebowski's office getting pelted with cries of, "Condolences! The bums lost!" but The Dude walks out of his mansion with a brand-new rug in hand. So I guess he was right.
5 "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
Another line that is surely in the running for most-quoted-of-all-time in cinematic history, but then again that might be, just my opinion man. The Dude's classic line is so readily applicable to any kind of disagreement or decision-to-be-made in life, that it quickly became one of the most popular from the entire movie, especially once the Lebowski cult phenomenon started to build some real steam.
Two things deepen the hilarity of this relatively benign line: 1. Jeff Bridges' hysterical line reading. 2. The look on Steve Buscemi's and especially John Goodman's face as he's saying it. It's an alchemical, lighting-in-a-bottle moment of comedic genius.
4 "Do you see what happens when you f**k a stranger in the a*s!?"
Walter Sobchak
Famously dubbed over in the TV edit with the ludicrous line "Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!?" Walter pushes the limits of coercive interrogation in this volcanically absurd scene. Walter simply cannot abide Little Larry Seller's silent treatment any longer, not with The Dude's Johnson on the line. So he reaches into his trunk and takes matters into his own hands (matters being a crowbar).
Unfortunately for him, the car belongs to Larry's neighbor, not to Larry. But regardless, anyone who has ever seen this scene will forever know the answer to the question "Do you see what happens?"
3 "This is not ‘Nam, this is bowling… There are rules."
Walter Sobchak
When a disgruntled Walter takes issue with the conduct of a fellow bowler, the escalating exchange makes for a legendary scene defined by its hilarious dialogue and John Goodman’s brilliant performance. Smokey (Jimmie Dale Gilmore) oversteps the line when he bowls, a foul that he rebuffs and that the Dude could hardly care less about, but Walter insists that the laws of the game must be obeyed and commands the Dude to mark Smokey’s score as zero.
As Smokey tells the Dude to count his score, a somewhat taken aback Walter looks plainly at his competitor as he makes the hilarious comparison between the Vietnam War, of which he is an obsessed veteran, and the game of bowling. The line hilariously encapsulates Walter’s two fiercest passions in life, while the growing intensity throughout the scene embodies what makes Walter such a fantastic comedy character.
2 "Her life is in your hands, Dude."
Brandt
One of the Coen brothers' greatest gifts is their ability to create a host of exceptionally memorable side characters. The Big Lebowski features a remarkable array of supremely funny supporting performances, none more worthy of praise than the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt; the obsequious and tightly-clenched assistant to The Big Lebowski himself. Like The Jesus, Brandt has precious few moments on screen, but the brilliance of Hoffman's performance makes the character loom far larger than perhaps he even should.
From his comically stiff posture to his prideful boasting about "The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers," to his gravely serious reminder to the Dude of, "Her life is in your hands, Dude," Brandt is a truly fantastic Coen creation.
1 "The Dude abides."
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
As this is The Dude's final line in the movie, it's only right to close out this list with a three-word-phrase that has been pasted on the front of more T-shirts, and quoted in more dorm rooms, than the Coens could have ever anticipated, "The Dude abides." The actual meaning of this phrase is somewhat murky and up for debate.
But one thing is clear from The Dude's tone; in this life, you get some strikes, and you get some gutters. But as long as The Dude has a J to burn, a beer to sip, and an open lane to bowl with his pal Walter, he'll be A-okay.
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