Comments on: The Dude Abides http://andersonpost.org/2009/10/15/the-dude-abides/ think|ink Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:27:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Nathan http://andersonpost.org/2009/10/15/the-dude-abides/comment-page-1/#comment-1918 Nathan Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:54:07 +0000 http://andersonpost.org/?p=855#comment-1918 Hey Dan, The reply, when it came, was worth the wait. Hey Dan,

The reply, when it came, was worth the wait.

]]> By: papermind http://andersonpost.org/2009/10/15/the-dude-abides/comment-page-1/#comment-1870 papermind Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:03:41 +0000 http://andersonpost.org/?p=855#comment-1870 Hey Nathan, sorry for the slow reply - was away on NTE then moving house. I saw the film a few weeks ago. It's hard to characterise. The key moment is the ending of the film: a tornado bearing down on the characters. If you didn't know Job you would naturally read this as the culmination of the disastrous events that keep happening to Larry and as the ultimate exposure of the futile answers given to Larry by the 3 Rabbis. However, in the context of Job the 3 Rabbis are pretty clearly the 3 unhelpful friends and the whirlwind is the place from which God finally speaks for himself (Job 38:1). Breaking off with the whirlwind on the horizon means that the film is left open to profoundly different readings depending on which text it is read against and the sympathies of the reader. For my money, what the Coen's have produced is a reading of Job from the perspective of Ecclesiastes. It's an examination of suffering from a position 'under the sun', where God's purposes are hard to see and he doesn't show up in a whirlwind to defend himself. But this doesn't necessarily mean that it is all pointless or that one day the whirlwind won't appear on the horizon or what will happen if it does. We just don't know. What makes this a great movie is that it's answer is just as ambiguous as life. A simple existentialist polemic would have none of the power or the subtlety. Hey Nathan,
sorry for the slow reply – was away on NTE then moving house.
I saw the film a few weeks ago. It's hard to characterise.
The key moment is the ending of the film: a tornado bearing down on the characters. If you didn't know Job you would naturally read this as the culmination of the disastrous events that keep happening to Larry and as the ultimate exposure of the futile answers given to Larry by the 3 Rabbis. However, in the context of Job the 3 Rabbis are pretty clearly the 3 unhelpful friends and the whirlwind is the place from which God finally speaks for himself (Job 38:1). Breaking off with the whirlwind on the horizon means that the film is left open to profoundly different readings depending on which text it is read against and the sympathies of the reader.
For my money, what the Coen's have produced is a reading of Job from the perspective of Ecclesiastes. It's an examination of suffering from a position 'under the sun', where God's purposes are hard to see and he doesn't show up in a whirlwind to defend himself. But this doesn't necessarily mean that it is all pointless or that one day the whirlwind won't appear on the horizon or what will happen if it does. We just don't know.
What makes this a great movie is that it's answer is just as ambiguous as life. A simple existentialist polemic would have none of the power or the subtlety.

]]> By: Nathan http://andersonpost.org/2009/10/15/the-dude-abides/comment-page-1/#comment-1861 Nathan Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:39:07 +0000 http://andersonpost.org/?p=855#comment-1861 Have you seen this yet? It's prompted some interesting discussion between myself and an atheist friend who read Job because they'd seen the movie. Have you seen this yet? It's prompted some interesting discussion between myself and an atheist friend who read Job because they'd seen the movie.

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