The Greatest Movie Ever Made

     I have a great love for pop culture. Huge parts of my personality have evolved from the movies and TV shows that I watch over and over again. My wife has movie amnesia. (She will insist repeatedly that she's never seen a movie we watched together the previous week.) I have the opposite. I have an almost uncanny ability to memorize line-for-line any movie that grabs me in a single viewing. (In high school I once orated 'The Matrix' word for word to the kid who sat behind me in math)

    While there are many great movies, and the debate over the best movie ever will never truly end, my personal favorite movie of all time is The Big Lebowski. If you have not seen this masterpiece, stop right now and watch it. This article may contain spoilers, and you need to experience the majesty this great work of art has to offer. Go watch it now.

Best movie ever? That's just like, my opinion man.

    Wasn't that great? The movie is hilarious, but only through repeated viewing did I pick up a few of the greater one-liners in the film. (Brother Seamus? What, like an Irish monk?) I have seen the movie several dozen times, and phrases from this movie still make it into everyday conversations I have. (whenever I see some new decoration at a friend's house, I will tell them how it "really brings the room together") But after doing some research, I found that this movie has one of the most dedicated fan bases of all time.

    The movie was not a record setter by any means. It only made 46.7 million at the box office, off of a budget of  15 million. It didn't win any major awards, it wasn't even nominated. (though it is certified fresh on rotten tomatoes, and is on imdb.com's best movies of all time list)  Most of its popularity came after its release to home video, as word of mouth spread. 

    The reason that, to me, this is the best movie ever, is because it is still making appearances in pop culture, despite the fact that it came out almost 25 years ago. (The Shawshank Redemption is my 2nd favorite movie, but no one talks about that anymore) Content creators are still making references to this masterpiece, and they never fail to make me laugh.

A screenshot from My Little Ponies - The Dude's cutie mark is a rug!

    The more you dig into The Big Lebowski, the more there is to find, and the more impressed I am at how big an impact this movie made.(Side note: at this point, I had to take a break to make myself a White Russian.) Every year there is a gathering of like-minded people at a festival called Lebowski Fest. Members of the cast are known to attend the fest, with Jeff Bridges even performing music from the movie with his band. (His band is called Dude and the Abiders.)

    But this movie has gone beyond the physical into the spiritual. That's right, this movie spawned its own religion - Dudeism. Over 600,000 people have been ordained as Dudeist Priests, and the religion is pretty much exactly what you might expect. Their major tenets are relaxed lifestyle and pacifism. And of course, the dude himself shows these traits exceptionally well. Opening of the movie, two thugs break into his house, break a door frame and the bathroom floor, shove his head in his own toilet , and piss on his rug. And all the dude has to say in response is a few cutting sarcastic remarks. (Hey, at least I'm Housebroken!) I seriously doubt I could have responded so coolly. I would have been inarticulate with rage.

Dudeism.com - the official website of the religion if you are so inclined.

    My wife and I have this adorable(I think) habit of naming our pets after our favorite fandoms. We currently have 2 dogs: our oldest is Penny, named after The Big Bang Theory. Our puppy is now about 7 months old, and we named him Jeffrey Lebowski. Of course we call him the dude, duder, or el duderino if we're not feeling into the whole brevity thing. I love everything about this movie, and I intend to love it for the rest of my natural life. Well, I finished my White Russian. Be right back, I'm just gonna go find a cash machine.

A Higher Look at Disney

     I have been a big fan of Disney movies my entire life. It's the kind of thing that I thought I would have eventually grow out of, cartoons are for kids, right? But thanks to full grown men like Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane, cartoons became acceptable, and even exclusively for adults. I still watch plenty of cartoons, and Disney is no exception to that. 

    You may have seen the recent release from Disney, a fantastic little movie called Encanto. What you might not know, is that Encanto has been destroying records since its release. The song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" (an earworm that burrows in deep and just won't let go) has shattered every record for a Disney song that has existed, leaving even "Let It Go" in the dust.

Actual picture of Disney execs in the green glow from all the cash they made off Encanto

    The success of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" has gone beyond the cartoon. Last week, it was the #1 song on the Global Billboard charts. I probably contributed to that a little, seriously that song gets STUCK in your head. In the last week I've woken up with lines of it in my head 4-5 times.

    But I am also a fan of the underrated and underappreciated Disney films out there. (Atlantis? Treasure Planet? C'mon Disney, give us the live-action adaptation we deserve!) And when it comes to music,  I can tell you with no doubt at all that the best score in a Disney film isn't Encanto, or Frozen, or any of the dozens of films scored by the great Alan Menkin (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid).

    No, like any hardcore man-child of the 90's, I know that the Disney movie that had the best score of them all was " A Goofy Movie" (No, really!). It didn't set any records, It didn't top international charts and set the internet ablaze.(It was released in 1995. Dial-up internet was very new.) But every song is a great, feel-good, catchy tune that adds to the story rather than interrupts it. In fact, I'm still waiting for a Powerline album. I would be all over that like white on rice.

On this, Disney and myself don't see I-2-I.

    I have watched A Goofy Movie probably 3 dozen times, with most of those viewing back in middle/high school. When my mom asked me once why I watched that movie so many times, I told her that I identified with Max. I remember this highly offended my dad at the time. But to set the record straight, my dad is no Goofy, and I wouldn't have dreaded taking a long road trip with him. (In fact we did at least once that I recall).

    The reason I used to identify with Max was because I knew what it was like to be invisible to my classmates, and the desire to make that one girl notice me. (I don't remember who the girl was, knowing me there were surely several) As an adult however, I find that I identify with Goofy more and more. Poor guy just wants his son to love him.

    So my new hobby, as an adult, is to get stoned and binge watch Disney movies. My (sometimes overly) ADD brain latches on to certain details and spins whole new meanings out of single lines, and it makes for entertaining viewing.

    Let me give you an example from the great A Goofy Movie that I caught recently. At the beginning of their road trip (just before the fantastic song 'On the open road') Goofy tries to get a despondent and pouting Max to play 20 questions. Goofy's guess? Walt Disney. Walt. Disney.

    That means that Goofy (and by extension all Disney characters) know of their creator. They know that they are from the mind of one man and do not really exist. (that was fairly terrifying and I had to pause the movie to calm down)

  

Just look at those cold, lifeless eyes.

    For a less extreme example, I want to bring up Zootopia (which by the way, might just have the worst score of any Disney film).  The tale is told from the perspective of Judy Hopps, but in my last higher viewing, I saw the story mostly from the perspective of Nick. Poor Nick is just a victim of society. He is a fox in a city where foxes are second-class citizens. He runs a hustle on an unsuspecting farm-girl because its the only way he can get supplies for his business.

    Think about it. He just wanted to buy a popsicle, and they wouldn't sell him one just because he's a fox. (remember the elephant pulls out a sign that says 'we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone'. might as well have said 'whites only') Once he manages to get the supplies to make his popsicles, he ends up being stalked by this rookie cop, despite having committed no crimes, once again because he is a fox(profiling!).

    This same cop continues to blackmail him and use him to go around procedure, even to the point of illegal search and seizure.(BTW, Midnicampum Holicithias, the night howlers from the movie, are real and super toxic to animals) 

    He was incredible businessman (imagine trying to make $200 a day, 365 days a year since you were twelve, just selling popsicles and popsicle sticks) that goes to extra lengths to protect the environment, (every popsicle stick gets recycled and reused) but he gets treated like a pariah by the others in his community. 

    I guess most of these high realizations so far have been pretty dark. Dang Disney, I thought you were supposed to be a family company. But that certainly isn't a reason to stop now. Until next week, and remember, don't talk about Bruno!