While The Big Lebowski is the one true canon document to guide a devoted Dudeist, when I watch the film I cannot but help notice similarities and/or correlations with certain other cultural documents, particularly of the motion picture variety.
So I figured a discussion of Dudeist Apocrypha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrypha) would make a good thread. Maybe a Dudeist pilgrim will herein be exposed to films or books of which he/sha was previously unaware, and may decide to partake. Hell, it beats workin'.
Here are my four nominations, the first two being admittedly pretty obvious:
- Fletch: Mistaken for a vagrant, hired by a rich fuck to carry out nefarious deeds, while investigating a mystery, and employing a take 'er easy approach all along the way. Irwin Fletcher is a pretty decent Dude. The first Fletch movie is a good piece of Dude Apocrypha. The Fletch novels especially are must-reads for any curious Dude pilgrim.
- The Zero Effect: Again, similar basic plot structure. This time the main character isn't the Dude. Instead, the main character works for the Dude. This was the movie that Fletch Lives should have been. It's a highly underrated piece of Dude Apocrypha.
- Office Space: While Peter isn't nearly as lazy as The Dude (in fact, The Dude himself is personified by the never-seen-onscreen broke cousin who don't do shit), he does finally succeed in his quest to find a job that allows him to abide.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The books and the tv series, not the movie. Totally embodies the takin' 'er easy philosophy of simply abiding when all around you is chaos. The movie got a little preachy unfortunately. Douglas Adams apparently just couldn't bring himself to simply say, "yeah, well, uh, that's just your opinion, man."
Now, I'm not just talkin' 'bout movies or books where the characters happen to be Dudes. If the movie or book sucks, then it wouldn't really meet the standards of a religious text, would it? Ah fuck it...
Very interesting proposal. I think the high priests of Dudeism need to look more into this. We may need to require this as reading/watching for new converts!