Scene Analysis - The Big Lebowski free essay sample

The Big Lebowski (1998) by the Coen Brothers is no doubt a comedy film about friendships between three bowling buddies with differing personalities who met and stuck together as friends by choice in Los Angeles when the U.S. army invaded the Middle East. The Coen Brothers managed to capture the spirit of friendship bonding, conflicts, characters’ internal struggles as well as personal desires with exceptional cinematography and mise-en-scene through a plot that went from western to Film Noir. There is a cleverly placed contrast between violence, kidnapping, femme fatales and other dark elements that do not really go with the sunny, carefree impression of L.A. where the story is set in. Such metaphorically structured contrasts along with well-constructed dialogues between three characters from varying backgrounds bring out the contradictory nature of how the Dude (Jeff Bridges), a bearded, unemployed long-haired hippie who did not care much about this world that lived in a dressing gown met his two best friends Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), a Vietnam vet who could not move on from the war period and Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi), a bland character that got ignored most of the time, who all lived with the shadow of intergeneration give-and-take hovering yet still managed to stay committed to their  friendships even when they have their own burdens to deal with in life. We will write a custom essay sample on Scene Analysis The Big Lebowski or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The ending scene of The Big Lebowski where the Dude and Walter scattered Donny’s ashes pleasantly reflected what seems to be delicate but actually strong bonds of relationships between the three main characters. The ending scene starts with a long shot of the Dude and Walter’s back view walking from the foreground to the middle ground on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The way how the directors placed the two actors to walk a route in the middle of the screen with Walter leading the way in heavy posture, carrying Donny’s ashes in a milk-powder can implies that every human being alive are in line to face their own fate sooner or later. We can tell the characters made an effort to show respect, with the Dude’s costume smartened up slightly and the yellow-colored shirt freshen up the ending scene. The change of costume also implies that this is a scene representing changes and a new phase in both of the characters’ lives. The clip is then edited to an extreme long shot of Walter and the Dude standing still on the cliff with green grass closer to the camera and the blue Pacific Ocean in the background that the characters are looking at. As an ending scene, the director thoughtfully balanced the mood by including lively features such as light brown swaying hay-like plants in the foreground to soothe the audience, green fields between rocks in the middle ground representing the unchanging physics elements in the universe while contrasting the entirely changed lives that both characters were going through and showed the overwhelming heavy emotions that the characters were feeling via the way they faced the enormous blue-colored background. The fact that Walter and the Dude stood still on the cliff with slightly moving background and foreground implies that they took time to moan and reminisce about their friend, Donny. The director also created a tiny suspense here with the sound of sea gulls echoing offshore in this scene right before Walter start speaking in the next scene. Before scattering Donny’s ashes, the dialogue from Walter’s eulogy where he talked a little about Donny’s bland life but then switched to the subject about his lost companions during the Vietnam War at Hill 365 which he mentioned countless times before in the film shows that Walter was still not  over his post-traumatic syndrome. ‘He died he died as so many young men of his generation before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him. As you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364! These young men gave their lives. And so did Donny. Donny, who loved bowling.’ The reason why the director placed this line in the eulogy is to show how Walter considered this an opportunity to a closure of years and years wasted in memories. The Coen Brothers put a vivid, living proof of Walter being stuck in the past on screen via his costume throughout the movie with his trademark safari vest, amber lens aviator sunglasses and the military dog tag that he always kept close in the film. Apart from the genuine friendship between the Dude, Walter and Donny, the eulogy dialogue also implies another layer of meaning from the movie concerning generation loss, changes and the cycle of life. Although the three main characters are bound together by bowling but Donny is the only one we ever do see bowl, in fact, we only seem to notice his existence at the bowling alley but his bowling results never did come to the Dude nor Walter’s notice. From the way how Donny let Walter call him names, swear at him and never really get to enjoy bowling’s fun, to Donny being scared to death with an heart attack caused by Nihilists attack or even after Donny’s death, when there is no family member but only Walter and the Dude to take care of his remains indicates a generation ignored and lost. In the eulogy scene, the director used an unusual composition than those we often see in the movie, with Walter dominating the screen at front in the middle of the screen and the Dude falling into the background with matching hair color to the hill behind on the right side of the screen. This arrangement not only implies it is time to close the curtain of the Dude’s story but is also time for the audience to finally get to know more about Walter’s underlying obsession with him stepping up the stage to answer and satisfy the audience’s curiosity towards his bitterness past. The prop Walter held during this scene, a Folgers roasted-coffee-powder can, also resembles a milk-powder can that acts as a metaphor for birth or new life, indicating the end of this phase of their lives but stepping into another phase. Walter wearing a military-hinted outfit while holding the  milk-powder-can-like prop makes one of the many metaphorical contradictions that are placed in the movie. After the depressing, nerve-irritating eulogy comes the funny part. Walter finally scattered Donny’s ashes but the onshore wind literally forced the Dude to ‘face’ Donny’s disheartening death when he got covered in his ashes all over the body. The sound of waves coming onshore in this scene also implies that everyone has to go through the wash of generation impacts as well as events that one cannot avoid to experience in different stages of life. The reappearance of sea gulls sound at this point represent the mockery of the Dude covered in ashes and also the shower of distorted society ideologies presented in this movie which are forced into our minds just like how sounds are forced into our heads. Towards the end of this scene, Walter’s action of putting down the can on the ground to comfort an offended version of Dude shows how he finally moved on from the past and started to focus on the present. In The Big Lebowski, there are a flood of foul language usage with ‘Fuck it!’ being the motif of the film. With the Dude accusing Walter for considering everything a travesty, asking ‘What the fuck does anything have to do with Vietnam?’ madly and Walter apologizing for the first time throughout the whole movie indicates the slightly changed relationship due to the loss of a dearest common friend. Meanwhile, with the Dude’s intense hitting slowly turns into a heartwarming hug on screen, a bond stronger than ever between him and Walter are presented to the audience. In addition to the actors’ behavior, we can also notice a tiny body figure walking back from a distant cliff on the right upper corner on screen, such appearance of a irrelevant third party successfully delivered the message of ‘Life goes on no matter what’ to the audience, it also lighten up the mood while bringing the audience out of the story and back to the reality. The Big Lebowski is an inspiring art piece that investigated the relationship between friends and society norms. The Coen brothers taught us how to bear our own pain and nightmares, shoulder what our generation offers us and showed us the importance to live it up so we have enough exciting adventures to share when we catch up with The Stranger (Sam Elliott) down the trail; to bring with us when we pass away.

Guns essays

Guns essays To own a gun or, not to own a gun? That is the question. In America today, many people face the question of how to protect their families. Is owning a handgun, or any type of gun the answer? We face many gun control such as; accidental shootings, children playing around with an armed gun and shooting themselves, and all types of violent crimes. Whos to blame? The NRA (National Rifles Association), the people who purchase these deadly weapons or better yet, the distributors who sell these deadly weapons on the streets to gangs, anarchist militia and so forth. While guns proved handy in shooting games or defending the home against highwaymen, the Founding Fathers framed the Second Amendment in terms of the potential tyranny of government and the need for individuals to posses arms for a militia to use against an overbearing government.(Foster 4-5) But it has been taken one step over the line. Innocent people are dying each day as America arms itself instead of taking the precaut ions to make sure innocent people dont die for a stupid gang shooting, or a police chase. It is estimated that 44% of Americans own some sort of firearm -thats not including the army or the gangs. Some individuals have valid reasons for being armed, while others purchase weapons for criminal intent. None the less if all the guns presently owned in America were collectively gathered, it is likely that at least one weapon would be available for every adult and child in the United States-thats something to think about. (landau 17) The United States of America had to do something about this, and they did. The passed a bill, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, more commonly known as the Brady Bill. The bill was named for James Brady, former White House press secretary, and his wife Sarah. James Brady alongside former President Reagan and two law enforcement officers, was shot by a man named John Hin...

Loss Aversion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Loss Aversion - Research Paper Example This is evident in trying to explain loss aversion since its explanation is only one sided ignoring the loss-gain explanation aspect of this aspect (McGraw, Peter, Jeff, Daniel and David, 1440). Loss aversion patterns observed in the past periods makes it clear that when a loss and a gain of equal magnitude are compared and an assessment made, losses are realized to impact more on making choices than gains of the same magnitude would do. This is because a loss as it occurs is felt in the very short instances with great influence and severity as compared to if the same amounts of gains occurred. This asymmetry is mostly driven by thoughts and feelings that losses should inflict more pain than would gains of the same or slightly higher magnitude would bring joy and pleasure to the individuals (Harinck, Fieke, Eric, Ilja Van and Paul, 1099-1100). Some form of bias have been witnessed in the observations made since the loss aversion form of impact is mostly felt on non-monetary circumsta nces with the asymmetry not completely detected on monetary situations. This has been proved from several previous studies on monetary gains and losses such as that on mixed gambles assessed on bipolar scales. Support for loss aversion According to the previous discussions, loss aversion happens when people think and expect that losses have greater impacts when compared to the same gain magnitude. This version of the case has been proved by two studies; initially, it was proved that losses that were witnessed from a gamble resulted into greater impacts in feelings than those for gains; this might have been because the expectation may have been quite high. From the studies, it is highly acknowledged that the hedonic impact of losses is higher than corresponding gains. This is proved because negative aspects are processed severally in the different parts for the brains than the processing of positive acts, this highly raises psychological feelings due to increased neural activity. In decision making research, there are constructs of loss aversion that have been used in giving explanation to the effects detected such as endowment and status quo reports. The other effect that this form of act tends to explain is the framing effect that is developed for negotiations in the formation of coalitions (Harinck, Fieke, Eric, Ilja Van and Paul, 1100). . Reasons against loss aversion Despite the application of Loss Aversion having been proved, they may be irrelevant at times. From research, it is found that supporters of loss aversion highly exaggerate the situation. It is clear that negative outcomes are painful when they inflict any individual but it has been witnessed in the past that individual exaggerate the degree of the impact which even propels the inflicted to prolong the period of the feeling. The form of bias exhibited above has been witnessed and recorded through valid proofs in a diverse field of study where people tend to normally exaggerate their negative fe elings about negative occurrences (Kermer, Deborah, Erin, Timothy and Daniel, 651). In the past individuals have also failed to gauge how much they are able