The first Big Lebowskifest took place at a Baptist-run bowling alley which allowed neither drinking nor cussing (something of an irony given that apparently the F-word and its variants apparently pop up in the movie no less than 267 times). With an advertising budget of just $42 the pair’s hopes were modest, figuring that if 35 people turned up then at least they might break even. On the night 150 attended. This year, thanks in large part to a namecheck in Spin magazine, over three times that amount had to be refused tickets.
“We had a lot of heartbreaking stories,” explains a genuinely sad-looking Russell. “But it’s obviously a film that strikes a chord with people. It’s such an independent-minded movie. It has this whole squares versus the bums thing going on. And the Dude is such a genuine person.”
He’s also based on a genuine person, the Coens’ longtime friend and white Russian devotee Jeff “the Dude” Dowd. A 1960s radical turned independent film producer, he is also this year’s guest of honour. I first encounter Dowd earlier in the day at a nearby Holiday Inn where he is gamely being photographed with an apparently endless succession of Big Lebowski-ites. And, it has to be said, drunkenly sticking his tongue into the ear of any woman who comes within range.
… “The movie’s odd because it takes only a portion of my life, when we were hanging out in the 1970s,” says Dowd, who is currently working on his autobiography, Classic Tales And Rebel Rants From The Dude. “But they captured a certain spirit of Dudeness if you will. Of friendship and not accepting the corporate conglomerate reality. And I think the people here have a certain satirical outlook. They aren’t Trekkies. They are people who don’t accept the norm. But I don’t want to make too much of it. I mean, maybe they’re just a bunch of drunks drinking white Russians … ”
Certainly, looking around, there is no shortage of imbibing, if no obvious Dude-style dope smoking.
“Only one group of people here so far have said why don’t you … come back to our room,” says Dowd. “Actually, what they said was, we have all this pot – do you have any rolling papers? But there will be times when I’ll be in Austin or Cannes or some other film festival and people will say, do you want to smoke a joint, dude? So that’s a nice, uh, fringe benefit. I never have to worry about flying with it because I always know it’s there. It’s always awaiting the Dude.”