To some, the 1998 film The Big Lebowski shares the same ideas and qualities as Buddha, Nietzsche, and William Shakespeare.
The Big Lebowski will have a screening in Chattanooga this Friday at music venue Track 29.
The film was ranked number eight on Entertainment Weekly's Funniest Movies in the Past 25 Years list. Annual Lebowski Fests are held in Louisville, New York, and LA. The film has also spawned an internet-based religion called the Church of the Latter-Day Dude.
The popularity of the film has even gained attention from academics. In May, Wiley Books published The Big Lebowski and Philosophy: Keeping Your Mind Limber with Abiding Wisdom. The book is edited by Dr. Peter Fosl, who spoke to WUTC about the different philosophies within the film.
In 2010, Simon & Schuster published AdamBertocci's play Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. In a complete Elizabethan overhaul, the play re-tells the plot of The Big Lebowski as if written by William Shakespeare. GQ said Two Gentlemen of Lebowski was "a blast to read." Adam Bertocci told WUTC that there were many "Shakespearean undercurrents" to The Big Lebowski.