Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In this paper, we explore how The Big Lebowski provides “equipment for living,” to explain the Lebowski phenomenon and answer the question: How do individuals use The Big Lebowski to communicate across cultures? In answer to this question, we argue that the shared lexicon of the cult film serves as a diagnostic tool, which fans use to identify each other, size up their situation, and determine a course of action. In one sense, the film is both a representative anecdote and an unrepresentative anecdote, which draws viewers into a comic frame and allows them to see new ways of thinking and acting in an otherwise typical situation. Ultimately, the co-opting of the film’s ethos and lexicon by fans “individualizes” popular culture, subverting film (a big-budget medium historically dominated by the auteur-director model) and positioning fans as both artistic consumers and creators.
Source: CINEJ Cinema Journal
Authors: Andrew C Jones, Sebastian Williams, Lonnie Martin
Institution: Davis & Elkins College
Language: English
Topic: Cinema History and Criticism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410764191