'The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans'

[Blue_Tires]

'The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans' explores the Dude phenomenon
The Coen brothers' 'The Big Lebowski' has achieved cult status. Eddie Chung's film tries to figure out why.
By Scott Timberg
July 30, 2009


Eddie Chung, a former philosophy student who is accustomed to pondering life's deepest mysteries, is still stumped by something that shapes lives by the thousands: Why has "The Big Lebowski" become the most popular and all-consuming cult film since "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"?

"I don't think," said Chung, a 38-year-old Southland filmmaker, "that's an answerable question. It's like asking, 'Why did Britney Spears become popular?' "

Maybe so. But as with Spears, the 1998 Coen brothers film is now an undeniable pop-cult force: For many it is a way of life. The mystery of the film's resonance is something Chung has pondered for five years now, since he walked into a Lebowski Fest in Las Vegas in 2004.

He and a friend arrived a bit early, and Chung began to wonder if the celebration was for real. "By then, there was no proof that anyone was gonna show up for this."

But they did: The event -- a bout of bowling, trivia and white Russian consumption following the kind of screening in which audiences talk back to the screen -- drew nearly 1,000 people and sent Chung on a journey from which he's only just now emerging.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-lebowski30-2009jul30,0,1650079.story