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Writer ldirector Joel Coen discusses a scene with
writer/producer Ethan Coen as actor Harry Bugin looks
• on. "I suppose "The Big Lebowski" is about L.A. the way
"Fargo" is was about the Midwest," says Joel Coen.

A New
Film
From
The Coen
Brothers

ALAN ABRAMS

Special to The Jewish News

L

ike any good Coen brothers
film, you've got to pay special
attention to all the clues in The
Big Lebowski, a Coenesque com-
edy/thriller about extortion, double-cross,
deception, embezzlement, sex and dope.
But there's an intriguing little subplot
that's guaranteed to catch your attention.
The first clue you get that there is
something different about John Good-
man's character,. Walter Sobchak, is when
he unexpectedly utters the name of

Theodor Herzl.
But nothing can possibly prepare you
for the magic cinematic moment when
Goodman delivers one of his best lines
in the movie. "I'm Shomer Shabbas," he
tells his friend Jeff Lebowski (Jeff
Bridges), the laid-back, unemployed,
stuck-in-the-'70s character who's been
mistaken for a Pasadena millionaire of
the same name.
And essentially, Goodman is Shomer
Shabbat. Even to the degree of not want-
ing to participate in a bowling tourna-
ment against his arch-rival, Jesus
Quintana (John Turturro).

"I don't roll on Shabbas," says Good-
man.
Goodman plays a Polish Catholic who
has converted to Judaism. An unlikely
convert at best, but a convert all the
same. He did it for his ex-wife — and
there may be a lesson there. But Good-
man proudly wears his mezuzah with his
dog tags, a juxtaposition that could be
made only by the Coens.
Vietnam and Judaism. Think about it.
You know that Goodman's devotion
to the tenets of Judaism and especially to
the observance of Shabbat will be put to
MOVIES on page 110

