Fifteen years ago, the Coen Brothers offered audiences one of their most unusual and inspired features with THE BIG LEBOWSKI. However upon its initial release in 1998, the film failed to find an audience and disappeared from the theatres all too quickly. Yet thanks to Jeff Bridges iconic “The Dude” as well as a number of other colorful characters and a fantastic script, the movie charmed film fans when they finally discovered this underappreciated gem. All these years later, the film has developed a massive cult following as well as inspired cool t-shirts plus a ton of great movie quotes… but for fans of the film, it has become something bigger than all that.
With this fascination of one of the greatest movies ever – yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like my opinion man – one of the coolest movie themed events was spawned in the form of The Lebowski Fest. This motion picture/bowling party extravaganza began in Louisville, Kentucky in 2002. When we asked Will Russell, one of the organizers of the Lebowski Fest, if we could come on by and cover it for JoBlo.com, he said, “Sure, man.” And thus last Saturday night, we traveled down to Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley with camera in-hand. Once we arrived, we were surrounded by a number of “Dudes”, “Walters”, “Maudes” and so much more. It was a Lebowski fans dream come true.
While the bowling lanes were pretty packed and we didn’t get a chance to play, we spoke to a number of the folks at the event, including Will Russell himself. My favorite group might have to be the guys and gals dressed as “f*cking a**holes.” It was one hell of a great idea! During the course of this eventful evening, conversation was had, White Russians had been consumed, I got a hug from real life fireman and was even touched by a super sexy bunny… at least I think she was sexy, I don’t really remember very clearly. You can check out the all of the incredibly friendly folk that we spoke to in our video coverage below. I seriously love these people!
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BELOW:
The beauty of this event is it is spread throughout the good old US of A including Louisville, Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Boston and according to Wikipedia, London as well… it’s nice to see some Lebowski love overseas. Even if you are friends with somebody who is a fan, I highly recommend this amazing celebration of such a wonderfully classic film – they even have a screening of THE BIG LEBOWSKI with a live band the night before the bowling portion! Sadly, we missed the opportunity to hear The Kyle Gass Band perform on Friday… the evening was made even cooler thanks to the fact that Jack Black showed up to perform with his Tenacious D pal! For more information on The Lebowski Fest, you can check out their official website.