The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers

As someone who has watched each Coen Brothers movie since the release of BLOOD SIMPLE at a local film festival, it is great to have a movie by movie guide to their work. Ironically, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, which is the cover to this book is the one movie which I have tried to repeatedly complete and I just cannot get into it. After reading more about it in this book, I may give it another try though. The illustrations in this book are excellent. There is one outstanding drawing of a key character per chapter. I don't know how much value this book is to film students. This is not a highly technical take apart of each movie with in depth probing of every facet of each movie. Thus, as a learning experience for such a student, it may be limited. This is more of a book for those of us who are Coen fans and want to get more on the inside track about the movies.

Just purchased my own Kindle copy of The Dude Abides, since my paper copies kept being given away to strangers on flights. I also thought I'd try saving a tree, or the part that makes The Dude Abides anyway. Great book for a lot of reasons, first and foremost because it helps deliver some clarity to the existential chaos that is inevitable in Coen films. Secondly, Cathleen Falsani, doesn't try to recreate the Coen brothers for her book, she respects their art and influence and helps viewers and readers interact with it, to maybe ask better questions.

Cathleen Falsani is religious - about God and the Coen Brothers. But you don't have to be religious about either to appreciate her analysis of the entire Coen Bros. body of work as she answers the question that plague many of us after watching a Coen Bros. movie-"what was that about?" The Coens are too reticent (or cagey) to discuss the layers and meanings woven into their films. Falsani is not. She sifts through them for their spiritual (if not religious) meanings and explains the moral significance of each film in a way that the average reader (religious or not) can understand. There is no need to Netflix the Coens' catalogue to make this book work for you. Falsani conveniently structures it so that each film has its own chapter, and within each chapter each plot line and story arc is explained. The Coens Bros. plots are made simple. Given their intricacy, this was no easy task. Despite Falsani's background as a "sometimes churchgoing Catholic-turned-Baptist-turned-freelance Episcolpalian," she doesn't look for meanings within only the Christian teachings. She also finds meanings in the Coens' work that are taken from teachings of Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism (including Kabbalah), and of course the Church of the Latter-Day Dude. The first Coen Bros. film I saw was Miller's Crossing - and I loved it, but always wondered what the deal was with the hat? After seeing Barton Fink, I had (and continue to have) a debate with my friend about whether John Goodman's character was the devil and was striking down all the narcissists of the world. Falsani gives the best explanation I've seen about the hat question (no, I'm not telling here). But the John Goodman-as-the-devil question? She falls more on the side of Nebuchadnezzar than Satan. I wouldn't have thought of good ol' Nebuchadnezzar without Falsani. I learned something and you will too when you read this book The book has its quirky moments. For instance, when quoting dialogue, the expletives are not spelled out. Why protect the reader's sensibilities when the violence is described clearly? Maybe the author is preserving the opportunity for the book to be used in a high-school classroom. How great of a class would that be? The only omission I noted was that no time was given to a discussion about why, as a general matter, the Coen Bros. wrap their moral messages in such extraordinarily violent packages. Never mind that, though. Just go pop the corn, grab "The Dude Abides", and slip in the nearest Coen Bros. DVD.

Very cool book...five stars. Of course, I have been a big time Coen Brothers fan since Blood Simple and, like the author, am an ordained Dudeist priest. This treatment of the films is a welcome departure from most of the other writing that has appeared about the same body of work. Its great to go through Cathleen Flasani's "replay" of each movie. Very well done...invokes the vibe of the movie all over again. These "replays" remind me of how I felt the first time I saw each (except A Serious Man). Usually that feeling was...Wow!...what was that all about? A sense of "something is happening here...but you don't know what it is..." even though I'm not exactly "Mr. Jones". An invitation to a new angle on things...like, yeah...these characters inhabit sort of the same world I do...sort of. As is pointed out in the book, more questions are asked than answered by the Coen's sidelong glances at reality. I think THE MORAL OF THE STORY... sections and THE14 COENMANDMENTS provide a useful lens with which to view that "something is happening here" even though the primary manufacturer of the lens is The Judeo-Christian-Western-Philosophical-Tradition, Ltd. I guess I'm just a sucker for the Dudeist/Taoist/Zen thing that is, I think, implied by and has evolved from The Big Lebowski...and what have you. I tend to view the other Coen Brothers films from the same frame of reference. After the first screening of each one of them...even pre-Lebowski...I left the theater to get hit in the face by a new reality in the street outside...different than the one I thought was there when I went in. For a long time now, I have thought of the Coen Brothers movies as koans. Maybe an alternate look at these cinema riddles could be entitled...THE DUDE ABIDES: THE DHARMA (DRAMA?) ACCORDING TO THE KOAN BROTHERS...no detraction from the work considered here intended at all, at all. Cathleen Falsani's book is definitely in the groove, man...

I've always been fascinated by the Coen brothers. My first exposure was "Raising Arizona" which seemed to be a moral tale which described humanity's dilemma's about desire was a favorite. Then saw "Fargo" - another bloody tale about what is good and what is stupidly evil and at that point began watching all the Coen films with an eagerness I did not understand. Cathleen Falsani, who writes about everything spiritual and religious, captured the reasons for a Coen fascination. The book describes each film with an eye that sees both the sacred and the profane in our human journey. She understands the underlying mythology that drives the Coens. She gets the joke, sees the ridiculous and I suppose that's why those of us who love "The Big Lebowski" or have spent time wondering about the hat's symbolic meaning in "Miller's Crossing" will understand this lovely little book. Big picture people are rare these days - when Cathleen sees Marge of Fargo as a Christ figure or understands 'the Dude' as one of the few clear thinkers around - she's talking about the big picture that we often miss in film studies or theological study. For some reason -watching the Coen's is a little bit like reading the Old Testament. We wonder at such violence - what drives these people. What does redemption look like? Where is God in all this? Cathleen's book is not for the stuffy film person or the theologically correct. It is a joy for anyone who wonders about the big questions. They all get answered somewhere in the canon of quirky films and Falsani makes the connections. This is a book to give to anyone who loves film - just be sure the recipient has a sense of humor (another way of talking about what is ridiculous). Falsani's view is passionate and whimsical at the same time - now that's a difficult combination. Come to think of it - reminds me of a Coen brothers film