The Big Lebowski, the Autobahn, and the symptoms of a myocardial infarction.

The Dude himself showed us that The Big Lebowski abides

The Coen Brothers’ 1998 comedic neo-noir film, The Big Lebowski, is one of those rare movies that I gain a greater appreciation for with each viewing.

Jeff Bridges’ performance as the hapless and White Russian-drenched protagonist, The Dude, is magnificent. The soundtrack, aggregated by T-Bone Burnett with original songs by Carter Burwell is awesome. The dialogue is hilarious. The plot is noirishly convoluted and therefore a source of endless fascination and discussion.

Consequently, I could not resist watching a recent showing of the cult-classic accompanied by the comments of his Dudeness in person at the Balboa Theatre in the Gaslamp district of downtown San Diego.

Each time I watch TBL I catch fascinating bits that I missed on prior viewings and with Bridges’ presentation of his Widelux¹ photos shot during the shooting of the film and his commentary, I learned even more this time.

The Nihilists and The AutoBahn

Lately, I have become fascinated with the three Nihilists in TBL who can be summarized by this Wiki Fandom screenshot²

Midway through TBL in a scene at the avant-garde artist Maude Lebowski’s studio, The Dude spots some vinyl albums and on the cover of one are the members of Autobahn.

It is a very quick shot and I had not previously noted that the three men on the cover were the Nihilists.

Neither had I clocked that the name and kraut-rock nature of the fake band, Autobahn was an homage to the proto techno pop band Kraftwerk³ whose seminal fourth album from 1974 features the mesmerizing 22 minute song Autobahn.

During the Balboa presentation Bridges’ and his friend actor Lloyd Catlett sat drinking White Russians and discussed the Widelux photos from TBL.

The photo he is discussing below was during the creation of the fake Autobahn album.

The Soundtrack

Carter Burwell created a song in the technopop genre that played during the hilarious final fight scene with The Nihilists. It is entitled Technopopp.

Other notable songs in TBL are Dylan’s “The Man in Me” which plays during the opening credits, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” which plays while Sam Elliott narrates the opening, the very psychedelic Just Dropped in (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) (by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition) which accompanies the hallucinatory and Busby Berkleyesque “Gutterballs” movie within a movie that the Dude experiences after being drugged but slightly before being picked up and roughed up by the Malibu police and the Gipsy Kings’ (who apparently don’t hate the Eagles) version of Hotel California which plays while John Turturro as Jesus Quintana does some highly theatrical bowling.

The “death” of Donnie by Heart Attack

After Walter and the Dude defeat The Nihilists they meet after bowling near the end of the movie, their buddy Donnie (Steve Buscemi) is found on the ground dying. Walter announces that he wasn’t shot but that he is having a heart attack.

There is a clue in the bowling scene prior that Donnie might be experiencing a symptom that has high specificity for a heart attack.

Throughout the movie when Donnie bowls he always gets a strike, however in his final roll one pin is left standing. After he sits down he shakes and then holds his right arm as if he is having discomfort.

From left to right-The Dude, Walter, and Donnie (holding right hand)

The symptoms of a heart attack are not always crushing central chest pain (like “an elephant sitting on my chest”) in fact it can present in a variety of ways including bilateral or unilateral arm pain, or jaw pain.

While the pain classically radiates down the left arm , radiation down the right arm has a very high specificity for heart attack as this study from 1990 showed .

Please note the features which are most commonly present including, sudden onset, duration >60 minutes and “constriction and squeezing.”

I put “death” of Donnie in quotation marks because Bridges’ discussed a widely known theory that Donnie was a figment of Walter’s imagination, possibly representing PTSD from his time in ‘Nam with the recreation of a lost comrade. It makes some sense because The Dude almost never interacts with Donnie and there were only 2 members of the other bowling teams in the movie.

Unaggressively Yours,

-ACP

1. Bridges was given this camera by his wife as a wedding gift. Per Wikipedia…The Widelux is a fully mechanical swing-lens panoramic camera first developed in Japan in 1958,^[2] Panon Camera Shoko. There are both 35mm and medium-format models. Instead of a shutter, the camera has a slit that exposes the film as the lens pivots on a horizontal arc. This pivot allows for some distortion effects not available with traditional cameras. The last Widelux model F8 ended production in 2000.^”

2. Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played the nihilist Dieter

3. Kraftwerk are still around and actively touring. They are playing April 23 in Austin and April 24 in Dallas. Catch them while you can. I saw them a few years ago in the small venue Pageant in St. Louis and they were phenomenal.

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No marmots or ferrets were hurt in this scene. Apparently the live legs in the bathtub with the ferret were those of Lloyd Catlett. Only a puppet ferret was filmed between the legs of Bridges in the bath tub.