The Big Lebowski vs. Charles Bukowski
Perhaps you thought Bukowski and Lebowski were the same person.
I just want to say at the outset, that I’m not always as smart as I like to think I am. This surely comes as a shock to virtually no one, not the least of whom me. Heck, I don’t even know if I constructed that previous sentence smartly.
But what I do know is that up until today — the beginning of March, 2015 — I confused Charles Bukowski with The Big Lebowski.
Since I’m both a writer and an avid movie fan, my ignorance is even more ridiculous.
You probably all know Charles Bukowski was a German poet and novelist who made Los Angeles his second home. He wasn’t fictional. Time magazine called him “a laureate of American lowlife.”
The Big Lebowski was a Coen Brothers film about a guy who also lived in Los Angeles. Jeff Bridges played the title character, a downtrodden man whom Bukowski may have written about, if he weren’t fictional already.
Maybe you can forgive my confusion. Probably not though.
I have heard references to both Lebowski and Bukowski for many years. I saw the movie in 1998, four years after Bukowski died of leukemia. I just mixed the two up in my brain and apparently wasn’t too curious about by why people were so reverent about the Jeff Bridges character. Obviously they were referring to Bukowski not Lebowski.
Both were cult heroes. Both had alternative lifestyles. Both lived in LA. But there’s one more thing. They both kind of/sort of looked alike.
Granted, that’s no excuse for me being a moron. But I’ll bet I’m not the only one. I just found out there’s a Big Bukowski Facebook page. It mashes the two up. Apparently the similarity isn’t lost on others. But whereas I confused them unintentionally, others riff on the likenesses. There’s even a rapper named Larry David Flow who writes, “Big Lebowski and Charles Bukowski are the reasons I’m not angry when you call me Kowalski.”
I’m trying to do more research on their similarities, but my browser feels a bit let down by me too. It has seemingly joined their downtrodden masses and refuses to follow my search requests.
“Rodney,” it appears to ask, “did you really think all those cultural references over the years were to the Jeff Bridges’ Lebowski role and that there wasn’t someone else they were mentioning?”
My browser is right. I shouldn’t be allowed to continue searching this nonsense, hoping that others were as confused as me. So in lieu of proof, I offer up this very tenuous possibility.
Other people fall into one of three camps:
⚫ Those who are fully aware of two separate individuals, Lebowski and Bukowski.
⚫ Those who have never heard of Bukowski, Lebowski or both.
⚫ Those like me who had them confused.
Here is a pie chart, better illustrating my point.
Hey, I’m reading tales of ordinary madness for the first time (and first time bukowski) and 1st character named Duke. Strangely, in France the Dude in the big lebowski is called The Duke so here I am, reading bukowski and thinking I am actually reading the book that inspired the cohens. Then I realise no, I am a moron, search the internet and find your artcle. Now I’m lost for good.
That’s excellent! I think I’m lost for good too. But as Bukowski says, “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
(Though maybe that was Lebowski.)
Yea, this creates all kinds of confusion, because Hunter S. Thompson is also called ‘Duke’ in the Doonsbury strip, and the character reportedly drew inspiration from both Thompson and Bukowski, according to a former associate of the Coens who wishes to remain anonymous. Bukowski may have ghost-written for Thompson while he was too drug-addled to make deadline. Or vice versa, I forget. The other thing is that Jeff Bridges went on to play Rooster Cogburn, a role originally defined by the Duke…
Such crazy interconnections! Thanks, Daniel.
I confused them as well! Thanks for this short/sweet article telling me that I’m not the only one. I just watched Lebowski for the first time and thought “Isn’t there an author with that name…?” I’ve never read Bukowski. I’ve only heard of him (especially his poems) in passing, but never bothered to read him, because I thought “sounds weird”. I probably will read him now after watching Lebowski, if the two are in fact culturally similar. It was an amazing movie. Thanks again for the article!
I’m glad I’m not the only one, Alisha. I just re-watched The Big Lebowski myself. Haven’t gotten around to much Bukowski though. One day though …
Surely all this could be cleared up if Jeff Bridges wrote a semi-autobiographical screenplay entitled, ‘The Big Chenaski’…?
Rodney Curtis, unclear if you were subli.inally or intellectually charged, to write this blog (maybe both!). Somehow I’ve come to believe that Lubowski IS Bukowski, the tounge-cheek manner of public Hollywood. You’re smarter than you think!
I also mixed them up 😀
Just leaving this message as support… Being dumb is awesome 🙂
This was great!
It was strange for me to draw the comparisons, as I did it from watching an old Youtube video, titled “Artbound Episode: Bukowski Reads Bukowski”. At roughly six and a half minutes, you get taken on a walk of the LA street with Bukowski, where his is rambling about his life. It was these ramblings (and the front of his old apartment) that looked like what I had remembered from the movie. Also, after sleeping with Maude, the Dude talks about how he makes his income from residuals off writing. I’d almost go so far as to say that the short portion of the video sighted was more the source of the character than Bukowski himself.
I think the Coen Brothers must have had Bukowski in mind when they were writing the Lebowski character. There are just too many similarities! I Bukowski was much more debased in real life than Lebowski was, who seemed to have a conscience. Also, although Lebowski drank,he seemed more like an aging hippie. Bukowski hated the hippies and didn’t like pot, where Lebowski seemed to enjoy a joint (I thought the movie was long story of a guy trying to get high and life interrupting him.
Anyway, I’m reading my first Bukowski novel now. Women. It doesn’t really remind me of Lebowski. There’s no bowling (yet!)