Psuedo Review: The Big Lebowski – 10th Anniversary Limited Edition

I won’t spend too much time reviewing the actual movie other than to say The Big Lebowski is a great big ball of cool wrapped in a shell of total awesomeness! Jeff Bridges is down right iconic as The Dude and John Goodman turns in one of his best performances as the on (sometimes slightly over) the edge Vietnam Vet and best buddy to The Dude, Walter. We also get John Turturro going absolutely insane as Jesus (no, not that one) and of course the always fun to watch Steve Buscemi in a very subdued role as the ill fated Donny. All the performances are great and the movie is loads of fun. It’s not my fave Coens’ movie (that’s Fargo) but it might be the one I have the most fun watching.

So a few years back they released a ”Collector’s” Edition DVD of The Big Lebowski. I had the original disc and that definitely needed an upgrade. I was ready to feed the beast and give more of my hard earned cash (well, not really hard earned, but it was cash) to Universal Studios. What glorious special features did this DVD have to offer? Well, it had the 24 minute “making of…” documentary found on the original disc, a mock introduction by Mortimer Young (I won’t bother explaining that here) and some photographs taken by Jeff Bridges. Of course, if you spend an extra $20 on the limited edition, you got a !#$%*ing bowling towel. In a rare moment of financial frugality, I passed on this in name only Special Edition. Even an admitted DVD whore like myself has limits, and that crappy excuse of a DVD was my limit. 

So here we are in the year of our Lord 2008, and Universal is trying to give us yet another Big Lebowski DVD. This time, however, I’m happy to report the results are much improved.

I picked up the 10th Anniversary Limited edition bowling ball set because I’m a total sucker for cool DVD packaging. Inside we get 2 groovy discs. All the previous extras from the “Collector’s” Edition are ported over, plus a bunch of new DVD swag. The best of the new features is a 10 year retrospective that includes interviews from the cast. The Coens’ are notoriously media shy so I wasn’t expecting anything new with them. The DVD does include some vintage interview footage from the brothers that I hadn’t seen before, so I was pleasantly surprised. There’s also a doc on the annual Lebowski fest that take place around the US and a short featurette on the infamous dream sequences. We even get the theatrical trailer, missing from the Sucker’s Collector’s Edition.

Not as all encompassing as some fans would have liked, considering how interview shy the Coens are, this is probably as good a Special Edition DVD as were ever gonna get. A vast improvement over the previous editions, the bowling ball proudly sits on my DVD shelf and really brings the room together!