Achievers, The - The Story of the Lebowski Fans

"What a  cool world this would be if everyone woke up everyday and said, 'Today is the day that having one thing in common is enough'."

                       - Alisha, Achiever and internet enthusiast

I was in the theater, about midway through watching A Serious Man, when I chortled once again at a throwaway bit of dialogue in the film. A line so subtle, so clever, so "no one in this audience got that but me" that I came to realize that I would have given up on movies long ago if not for the work of Joel and Ethan Coen.

I have been a film fanatic for all of my life. But in the last ten years or so, my old dog of cinema had gotten sickly, growled too much, taken to nipping at my ankles and started shitting all over my house. There was no love left any longer. I began contemplating putting the old girl down. Movies had become a burden where once they were my one true pleasure.

Most of my directorial heroes were dead (Kubrick, Welles, Huston, Bergman) and the few who remained (Allen, Waters, Coppola) had been making absolute crap in recent years. But the prolific and twisted work of the brothers Coen had nullified all that death and disappointment. They became the only filmmakers besides Terrence Malick for whom I would eschew the wait for DVD and head directly to the theater to catch their latest release.

It's good to know my enthusiasm is shared by a few.

Which brings us to The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans. A documentary about a motley cabal of Big Lebowski enthusiasts who gather in costume and attitude for annual fun and games in celebration of what has been dubbed "the first cult film of the internet era".

Named after the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers ("And proud we are of all of them"), the group has expanded from a small gathering of a dozen or so people in a bowling alley in Louisville, Kentucky to thousands of devotees across the country. But unlike Trekkies or Ringers or whatever the fuck you call dorks into Star Wars or Twlilight, the Achievers seem coolly snide, relatively hip, intelligent and not at all disturbed. Well, most of them anyway. Cults will always have a few bad apples. However, if you need to choose a snippet of popular culture on which to base an unhealthy obsession, you could do a lot worse than The Big Lebowski.

The Achievers meet at Lebowski fests in various cities to re-watch the film, shout out lines of dialogue (a la Rocky Horror), meet actors from the cast, listen to live music (My Morning Jacket and Jeff Bridges' band have played), mingle with fellow enthusiasts, partake in trivia and costume contests (the Queen in her damned undies was my favorite), curse, bowl and drink heavily (other distinct separations from the sci-fi nerds).

One woman ("Stormy") even went so far as to name her dog "Donny" so, when he barked, she could shout, "Shut the fuck up, Donny!".

Now, that's dedication to a cause.

Watching The Achievers is a lot like visiting with an old drinking buddy you haven't seen in years. The familiar chatter comes back easily, especially as the drinks flow steadily again. As the laughs and backslapping compound, you can't seem to recall just why the hell you fell out of touch in the first place. It's a fond and righteous reunion and you remember why life doesn't suck so much after all when you have someone else to share a cynical chuckle and a White Russian ("caucasian") with from time to time.

The Achievers is a short documentary (70 minutes) and rather crudely made but it needs be nothing else. It achieves its purpose beautifully. It makes you want to immediately watch The Big Lebowski again and it piques the interest as to when that darn festival might roll into a town near you. Be clever with your costume though. These people are sharp cookies.

To whet the appetite, I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes from the film:

You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me.

Please see him Jeffrey. He's a good man... and thorough.

Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax... You're goddamn right I'm living in the fucking past!

This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!

Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

That rug really tied the room together.

Smokey, my friend, you are entering a world of pain.

Shut the fuck up, Donny.

Nobody fucks with the Jesus.

The Dude abides.

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus.

Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost.

Am I wrong?