“Darkness warshed over the Dude– darker ’n a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.”
The Coen brothers wrote the screenplay with Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Sam Elliott in mind. Charlize Theron had been considered for the role of Bunny Lebowski. The Dude was based on independent film promoter Jeff Dowd (aka Jeff “ The Dude” Dowd, who helped the Coen brothers secure distribution for their first feature, Blood Simple (1984). Like his fictional counterpart, Dowd was a member of the Seattle Seven and takes a casual approach to grooming and dress. A lot of The Dude’s clothes in the movie were Jeff Bridges’ own clothes including the Jellies sandals that he wears. The Coens were inspired by Robert Altman’s movie, The Long Goodbye (1973), which also features a down on his luck protagonist. Both of the films are highly influenced by Raymond Chandler, and parody and pay homage to Los Angeles culture. Altman’s film features a gangster who is a devout Jew like John Goodman’s character, Walter. One of the inspirations for the character of Walter is the Coen brothers’ friend, writer-director John Milius, an infamously bombastic right-winger with an obsession with all things military. Before filming a scene, Jeff Bridges would frequently ask the Coen brothers “Did The Dude burn one on the way over?” If they said he had, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before doing a take. In an early draft of the script, The Dude’s source of income was revealed. He was an heir to the inventor of the Rubik’s cube, but it’s never mentioned in the film. The word “Fuck”, or a variation of it, is used 281 times.
