The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers
by Cathleen Falsani
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Book Summary Information
Author: Cathleen FalsaniEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-15
ISBN: 0310292468
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Zondervan
Book Reviews of The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers
Book Review: "That's, like, your opinion, man." - The Dude.
Summary: 3 Stars
After receiving an advanced copy of the book and reading it, I have been really struggling with how best to write this review. In an eleventh hour effort, here is what I submit to you for consideration:
I am not familiar with the background of the book's author, though I am familiar with the movies it touches on.
This book is best taken with a grain of salt because it seems to convey the idea that perhaps the author is over analyzing the Coen brothers and their movies. She uses the premise of seeing the forest for the trees, but she fails in delivering the big picture which spans all the movies. Instead, it is a contrast that is only explored on a movie by movie basis, individually. She spends all of a paragraph on each movie's big picture, or "forest", while at the same time spending way too much time (often pages) giving way too many details, or "the trees", of each movie. While she gives a brief explanation of what possible moral stories can or could be extrapolated from each movie's context, she doesn't follow this theme to tie all the movies together (as the title and the prologue would lead you to believe). It seems to me that in over analyzing the stories for what they are and trying to find a hidden meaning, she is really missing the enjoyment of the stories themselves for what they are - good humored stories. While it is neat that someone can draw these conclusions, it is impossible to know whether the Coen brothers hide those moral stories in their movies intentionally or not (they don't ever say). Don't get me wrong - I think it is cool that someone is willing to take the time to analyze our entertainment looking for what lessons we might learn from (or in) it (and is willing to write a book about it) - I just think the book needed something more to tie it all together (like the rug did for The Dude's room). Since the book's title is centered around one particular character (and the ethos that has sprung up around it), it would also have been nice to see a big picture tie in to how each "gospel" lesson could be related to The Dude's ethos.
The bottom line? While she purports to be our tour guide helping us see the forest for the trees, the author is overly focused on the trees and for whatever reason misses showing us the forest aerial shot that we paid the admission fee to see.
As it is right now, it's a good read and as such I'd recommend it to others to read, but it's not something you would want to keep on your shelf and revisit on occasion. 3 stars is a fair rating.
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