Lebowski Fest Chicago

The Coen brothers' reigning Best Picture winner, "No Country for Old Men," may be the toast of Tinsel Town right now, but for thousands of fans around the world the filmmaker siblings hit a high-water mark a decade ago with the stoner-noir/bowling comedy "The Big Lebowski."

And last weekend, Chicago's "Achievers" -- as the growing community of fans of the movie are called -- finally got their wish when the traveling Lebowski Fest made its first-ever stop in the Windy City.

A critical and financial dud for the Coens in 1998, "The Big Lebowski" soon caught on as a cult favorite thanks to its quotable dialogue, charmingly meandering whodunit plot, and especially, its indelible characters, such as Jeff Bridges' laid-back '60s holdover "the Dude" and tightly wound Vietnam veteran Walter, played by John Goodman.


"Chicago seems like a Lebowski kind of town," Russell said just before the Saturday night party. "It's a bowling and drinking kind of town. It just seems like a perfect fit, so we decided to kick off the 10-year anniversary of the film in Chicago as kind of a 'we're sorry it took us so long to get here.'"

In some ways Lebowski Fests can be compared to "Star Trek" conventions, "Rocky Horror Picture Show" midnight screenings or other obsessive fan communities in the sense that Achievers are devoted to a single piece of pop culture.

And just like any other uber-geeks, the Lebowski fanatics on Saturday night at Waveland Bowl took pride in donning costumes not only of the film's main characters -- indeed, there were plenty of long-haired, bearded guys in robes or crazy-patterned sweaters in honor of His Dudeness. But attendees also were dressed as bit players, such as the multiple men wearing purple unitards and hairnets like John Turturro, who plays the Dude's flamboyant bowling adversary, Jesus.

And then there was Jennifer Jackson, 25, of Lake View who (spoiler alert!) referenced a major plot point by dressing as an oversized toe.

"I made this costume for the second Lebowski Fest in Louisville," said Jackson, who has been to five fests and has seen the movie 25 times. "I thought nobody else would think to be a toe. But when I got there, I was one of four toes."

The biggest cheers of the night went to Mark Whittington, 49, a first-time fest attendee from Geneva who was a dead ringer for actor David Huddleston, who played the "Big" Lebowski of the title -- an arrogant multimillionaire in a wheelchair who hires the Dude as part of the Raymond Chandler-esque plot. The crowd followed Whittington from one end of the alley to the other and erupted in laughter each time he blurted out lines from the movie like, "Get a job, Lebowski!" and "The bums always lose!"

Certainly the highest-achieving Achiever of the night was Stormy Lange, a 30-year-old mom from Portage, Ind., who goes by the name Bunnie (after another character in the movie) at Lebowski Fests. Chicago was her ninth such fest, and her walrus outfit won her first place in the costume contest. (The costume honors a scene in which Donny [Steve Buscemi] confuses the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin with former Beatle John Lennon and repeatedly utters the song title "I Am the Walrus.") She also took second place during the Saturday night trivia contest.

The Dude Abides.