The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film [Paperback]

Tricia Cooke (Author), William Preston Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1998

Winners of two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Actress for their odd and wonderful Fargo, the Coen Brothers present their new film: The Big Lebowski, starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.

Ethan and Joel Coen have carved out their niche as America's preeminent independent filmmakers. Their films are quirky, arresting, comic, and intelligent. Not given to talking publicly about their work, they have given access to William Preston Robertson and Tricia Cooke to interview the cast and crew of their latest film, The Big Lebowski. In a prose style that complements the Coens's filmic one, the book discusses the Coens's oeuvre, the themes of their films, their atypical brand of humor, their craft and their artistic vision. Several scenes of The Big Lebowski are examined closely to see how the movie goes from idea to reality, making this an ideal book for fans, filmmakers, and filmmaking students.

The Big Lebowski is a razor-sharp comedy thriller of mistaken identity, gangsters, bowling, kidnapping, and money gone astray, written by the Coens, directed by Joel Coen, and produced by Ethan Coen. In addition to Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, the film stars Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Willem DaFoe, Sam Elliot, and Ben Gazzara.
32 full-color photographs and 130 black-and-white photographs and illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Since their debut with Blood Simple in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have created a unique body of work that seems to project their combined imaginations directly onto the movie screen. By concentrating on the filming of their homage to Raymond Chandler, The Big Lebowski, this book provides a great deal of insight into the way that these extraordinary filmmakers take an idea and transform it into a movie.

Text and illustrations combine to reveal the Coens' combination of quirkiness and craft, and the ways that the singular (or is it binary?) vision of the brothers combines with actors and crew in the group effort necessary to produce a finished film. This book doesn't attempt a critical analysis of the work of Joel and Ethan Coen--the complexity of their vision resists such an approach. Instead, we're treated to a fly-on-the-wall view of the creative process, and it's enough to get the most casual film lover to grab a notebook, rent a camera, and start making movies! --Simon Leake

About the Author

Tricia Cooke, an editor on the Coens's films, is married to Ethan Coen and lives in New York.

William Preston Robertson is a screenwriter and journalist living in Lexington, Kentucky.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (March 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393317501
• ISBN-13: 978-0393317503
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it, November 29, 1999

By 

Jeremy Jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film (Paperback)

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in the Coen brother's films, or indeed anyone interested in the filmmaking process. While the book is true to its title, other Coen films such as 'Raising Arizona', 'Miller's Crossing' and 'Barton Fink' are also briefly discussed. Along with spotlighting Joel and Ethan's work practises, the book looks in detail at the storyboards, cinematography, set and wardrobe design on 'The Big Lebowski'. Of particular interest is the comparison of still frames with their orginal storyboards during a detailed breakdown of 4 Lebowski scenes. Also appreciated is Robertson's practise of actually explaining many of the film terms used is the book, recognising that not all his reader's are Directors!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books written about the Coens, March 26, 2004

By 

Cubist (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film (Paperback)

This book was co-written by William Preston Robertson who is someone, if you've studied the end credits of the Coens' early film, who has worked on their films in various capacities. He's often provided voiceovers where needed and even offered a place for them to crash when they developed writer's block while working on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing.

So, he writes this book with an insider's perspective. At every opportunity he makes fun of them (as only a close friend can) and spends the first part of the book tracing their career up to The Big Lebowski. The rest of the book plays out as a quasi-Making Of that is quite an entertaining read. For example, he places their film in the grand tradition of bowling noir, a very rarified subgenre of the film noir. Robertson is quite funny as he pontificates about this subgenre at some length.

If I had one complaint about the book is the amount of detail that is gone into about the storyboarding process which I could have done without. But this is a minor quibble at best.

Robertson's style of writing is very casual and easy to read--it won't take you long to get through this book. If you are a hardcore fan of the Coens, then you will definitely enjoy this book and all the little, inside jokes. It will certainly deepen your appreciation for the film and acts as a great companion-piece.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst "book report" ever, September 14, 2007

By 

David Holman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film (Paperback)

I've never felt so intellectually abused by a book as to resort to writing a scathing review like this on Amazon. This book is mind-bogglingly aweful! It reads like an 8th grade book report. It has no pretense of a plot and does amazingly little to actually delve into the making of the Big Lebowski. Don't buy it! Half of it is literally just the author monotonously describing what *happens* in the Big Lebowski. YES, repeating what you've watched in the movie!! Page upon page reads like "and then the dude goes into...and then...and then..." Much of the rest is an incredibly egotistical author bragging about how "in" he is with the Coens and prattling on about his interactions with them and how well he knows them. The author's grasp of english is profoundly poor and his "hip" slang falls utterly flat and non-sensical as he tries to invent numerous non-words. Even the pictures have nothing to do with their placement in the text. The ONLY redeeming characteristic of the book is that the author includes many long quotes from the Coens and the people who work closely with them.