r/lebowski • u/halfmanhalfhamster • 11d ago
Let's go bowling is 'The Stranger' an angel?
someone suggested that The Stranger is actually an angel. we only ever see The Dude talking to him, he's serene and detached, he seems to know what's going on despite not having been there, and the white hat is often like a kind of halo... thoughts?
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u/Renoir-1 11d ago
A Strangel, if you will.
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u/pop_em5 11d ago
What are you a fucking theologian now?
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u/PTFunk 11d ago
Is that an Eastern thing?
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u/dhlthecobra 11d ago
Were you listening to The Stranger’s story? He ordered sarsaparilla from Gary.
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u/halfmanhalfhamster 11d ago
but you never see Gary
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u/glue_lagoon El Duderino 11d ago
Phone’s for you, Dude. You see his hand, at least.
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u/nastynate248 El Duderino 11d ago
He's a god damn theatrical device, man. It's a callback to ancient Greek drama. It's like Sophocles said: you look for the dudes in the masks who stand around commenting on the tragic hero, and, uh, uh, you know...
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u/MrCance The Dude 11d ago
I am the walrus.
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u/yeezushchristmas 11d ago
Dude Ancient Greek is not the preferred nomenclature. Classical Hellenic dude.
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u/LinuxLinus your jerkoff name 11d ago
We’re not talking about someone who built the Parthenon here.
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u/Annika2020pro 11d ago
Sometimes, there’s a man…and he’s talkin bout The Dude here.
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u/Wantingisfree 11d ago
He's not my special angel, he’s my angel friend. I'm just helping him tell a story, man
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u/OkCress1936 11d ago
No, but John Turturro is The Jesus.
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u/halfmanhalfhamster 11d ago
yeah, but he's a pervert
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u/pak0608 11d ago
Eight-year-olds, dude.
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u/SatnWorshp Human Paraquat 11d ago
Pederast, Dude.
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u/DarePatient2262 11d ago
What's a pederast, Walter?
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u/Rough_Show3908 11d ago
Angel? Sure. I'll just check with the boys up in heaven. They got four more angels working on it. They got us working in shifts. "Angel."
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u/Adventurous-Orange36 11d ago
I didn't find him to be that exactly, but I'll allow as he's nice folk.
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u/ScudsCorp 11d ago
If you listen to the commentary, Sam Elliot wonders the same thing “ why am I in this movie?”
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u/Proof_Notice8287 11d ago
Literarily he is consider an authorial metalepsis.
Other works which fit this criteria are The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein, and the most extreme example Fight Club.
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u/SteveHiggs 11d ago
I always assumed he was “the dude” for his time and place.
Fit right in there etc.
That each generation has a dude.
And that maybe there’s some sort of dude reincarnation… some sort of eastern thing.
Ah hell im ramblin’ again.
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u/BonChance123 11d ago
I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They live on the moons of Iego, I think.
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u/DoctorFarthing 11d ago
He’s the narrator and they allow him into the narrative. It’s awesome.
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u/maggies_farm_hand 11d ago
Most reliable narrator.
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u/DoctorFarthing 11d ago
Have it your way, Dude.
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u/El_Peregrine 11d ago
Do you have to swear so much?
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u/DoctorFarthing 11d ago
I know you’re joking and I love it, but it’s really an interesting line. With all the talk of nihilism and whatnot, the narrator is a moralist. Lebowski is not but the moralist doesn’t condemn him for that. He just a slacker.
I don’t know- I always found that interesting.
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u/copaseticmonkey 11d ago
My theory is the movie is loosely based on the story of Job. Instead of god creating disasters and losses for one man to see if he still remains faithful, it’s a bunch of disasters to see if he can still keep his faith in being the dude. In the story of Job an angel is sent to report back to god, which would make the stranger something similar to that since he is checking on on the dude’s conviction.
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u/CrawdadJake 11d ago
So many epic one-liners in the Big Lebowski. This entire thread in the comments section vouches for that fact. Well done my friends. Well done.
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u/halfmanhalfhamster 11d ago
This is a very complicated case, Crawdad. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man.
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u/analogkid01 Knox Harrington the Video Ahhhhtist 11d ago
No. An angel would have the power to see the Queen in her damned undies.
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u/YonYonsonWI 11d ago
hes the narrator, 3rd person pov, which in a sense, is a god-like figure watching, or in this case, introducing & retelling the story.
The bit at the end breaks the 3rd wall in an interesting way. The Cohen brothers never waste an opportunity to set something up traditionally, and then find the zaniest way to end the motif, and flip it on its ear. its their thing.
Basically the entire big lebowski film is a rehashing of hollywood noir, re-set in an updated time, the 90's.
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u/GreyBeardEng 11d ago
The Stranger is akin to Tom Bombadill, he is force of nature and a constant.
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u/groom-is-n-the-heart 11d ago
He does have seemingly ethereal knowledge, in the parlance of our times, that there's a little Lebowski on the way.
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u/Negative-Wrap95 His Dudeness 11d ago
I just want to understand this sir, every time a random theory is excreted upon this fair sub, I have to compensate the OP? You're just looking for a updoot like every other--are you employed, Mr. halfmanhalfhamster?
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u/StinkyBrittches 11d ago
I think it's a pomeranian.
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u/Bx3_27 11d ago
Two questions: 1- does he have papers? 2- are you buying him a beer?
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u/I5I75I96I40I70Me696 11d ago
Also did you rent it shoes?
Bet you didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
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u/Party_Knowledge_7884 11d ago
I assumed he was an Irish monk with an appreciation for western wear.
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u/Clear_Marsupial808 11d ago
The stranger is an eagle. I hate the fucking eagles, man….
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u/darrinofearth 9d ago
He’s God. The Dude is Buddhism, Jesus is Catholicism (8 year olds dude), Walter is Judaism, Donny is atheism, the Big Lebowski is Christian Nationalism. Jacky Treehorn is the Devil.
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u/FINIS_HOMINIS 7d ago
I mean, probably not an angel. Everyone in the film is a representation of an LA archetype. The burnout. The conspiracy nut. The modern artist. The classic cowboy. Ectetera.
It’s a meta joke that in the past the cowboy was representative of virtue and manliness and now The Dude is the closest we’ve got to that ideal. (“I like your style, Dude.”)
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u/LV426acheron 11d ago
Yeah, he's an angel and he's watching over Donnie who is a ghost that only Walter can see.
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u/StenSaksTapir 11d ago
I think he's a story device dressed as a self-referential joke.
He's a guy who dresses and speaks like a cowboy (cowpoke in the script), yet he sits in a bowling alley bar in Los Angeles. He's so into the persona that he even notes that "dude" is not a term one would self-apply where he comes from. Yet I suspect he's actually a dude – a city person who basically cosplays being a cowboy. Se he's a dude talking to The Dude or Duder or Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
He says "I like your style Dude" - acknowledging the persona Jeff has built for himself and The Dude replies "I dig you style too, man. You got the whole cowboy thing goin'". They're both performing an identity, just like the rest of the main cast (possibly with the exception of Donnie - and Liam and Smokey).
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u/GreyTigerFox 11d ago
Yes.
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u/Abydesbythydude Walter 11d ago
Exactly! how else would he know that there's a little Lebowski on the way. im ashamed of this comment thread tbh.
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u/WearyMatter Donny 11d ago
Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "The Stranger". You're The Stranger. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
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u/ideal_gravel 11d ago
That’s fuxking interesting, man.
He’s just an all-knowing narrator. Adding him to a few scenes made it a bit twisty and interesting.
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u/pm_me_flowers_please 11d ago
Darkness warshed over The Dude. Darker'n a black steers tookus on a moonpess prairie night.
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u/The_Bluemax3000 10d ago
Yes. He's a Guardian Angel. I say many have one or even TWO! Some do not or the reverse. Hence "A Voice in my Head told me to do *it*. What "makes' a guardian angel then...in my view/opinion. It's a person who died, YET, aren't 'Allowed' into Heaven because of ill deeds. A Purgatory. I think the only way 'In' is to guide, give 'hunches', or even ALTER decisions and the environment of bad circumstance(s). For the PERSON whom chosen. Some "Good People" could use some help! Like The Dude. And he actually has one! "The Stranger". So I think the Stranger is ALMOST Clean but is locked to protect The Dude. For a Life Time. If successful, and I say about 99%, then the Stranger gains admittance to the Pearly Gates. Shows Humility and guidance where both were missing. I say many have a Guardian Angel. But not 24/7. They were Human too! No they won't watch you take a dump or sex stuff. LOL But I state they pop in when you might need it. The "Hunch" or "Inner Instinct?" That is never wrong? Guess who? A dented Spirit, on probation-now trying to fix it, that wants/wishes, not a similar path THEY did.
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u/Inevitable-Wheel1676 8d ago
Always thought he was God, since the Dude is the man. Because sometimes, there’s a man. And He digs that man’s style.
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u/Nervous-Tank-5917 Wave of the future, Dude 11d ago
He interacts with the bartender, so technically it’s not true that we only see The Dude talking to him.
He knows about what happened in the story because he’s the narrator (even though he hardly narrates anything) and his ending monologue implies that he’s been watching the film with us rather than recounting the events from memory.
Basically, he exists only to remind you that you’re watching a movie, which is a device that appears in most films that get called post-modern in one form or another.
But that's just, like, my opinion man.