The Dudes Abide

The Coen Brothers and the Making of The Big Lebowski

By: Alex Belth

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

In the autumn of 1996, Joel and Ethan Coen were a few months from filming their seventh feature film, The Big Lebowski. Their sixth, Fargo, had been released that March to acclaim; awards would follow. Alex Belth, a 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker, landed a job as their personal assistant on Lebowski--and for the next year was the fly on the wall as the Coens created the movie that would become an enduring classic. First as their personal assistant and then as an assistant film editor, Belth observed everything from the preproduction work of location scouting, casting, and rehearsals all the way through filming and postproduction. Belth witnessed when Jeff Bridges and John Goodman met for the first time and rehearsed their iconic roles as The Dude and Walter; when a private screening was held for Alan Klein, the Rolling Stones' notorious former business manager; and long sessions with the Coen brothers in the editing room, as they tied their movie together.

The Dudes Abide is the first behind-the-scenes account of the making of a Coen Brothers movie and offers an intimate, firsthand narrative of the making of The Big Lebowski--including never-before-revealed details about the making of the film and insight into the inner workings of the Coen Brothers' genius.

©2014 Alex Belth (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Interesting but narrow focused

This book would’ve been a lot better if they had some interviews or some quotes directly from the filmmakers. Or interviews after the movie left the theater. Instead we get a
behind the scenes perspective of one person. And honestly, I don’t I think the filmmaker’s cool with it.
They are know to be very private with this stuff. Maybe he didn't sign an NDA so they couldn't stop him and he gave them the courtesy of review ? I've been in this kind of assistant to someone before and this seems cringy. With that said, I enjoyed it ? So yeah.

Wonderfully written and very interesting

Wonderfully written and very interesting inside knowledge of the movie making process. highly recommend if a fan of Lebowski or not.

Deserves to be re-recorded!

This is a fantastic book read by someone who does not capture the vibe of the author whatsoever. Insult to injury: the reader is clearly not a fan of the works of the Coen brothers, stressing wrong words in sentences and even mispronouncing things like Llewelyn Davis. The author’s experience is so fascinating, and this book is very engagingly written, so this audiobook deserves to be re-recorded. There are so many brilliant voice actors out there who would really CARE about this work- hire one of them! The publishing house and certainly Amazon’s Audible have the money to do so.

Loved this

Amazing. Always want to hear this story. I need all of this for “Oh Brother Where Art Thou.”

enjoyed the peek behind the curtain

it was nice to get an idea of what goes on behind the scenes but, it was s pretty abbreviated look. I would have like to get more than an hour and 46 minutes.