Walter Sobchak, NeoConservative?

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Interesting take on this great film:

The prescient politics of The Big Lebowski. - By David Haglund - Slate Magazine


"The Big Lebowski, the seventh of the Coen brothers' 13 feature films, begins when two goons break into the modest home of Jeffrey Lebowski and one of them pees on his rug. They've mistaken Lebowski, who calls himself "the Dude," for another, wealthier man of the same name. So the Dude seeks out this other Lebowski in search of compensation for his rug. That meeting does not go well. A few days later, though, the rich Lebowski offers the Dude 20 grand to deliver a $1 million ransom to men who claim to have kidnapped his wife. The kidnapping involves some German nihilists and a porn tycoon, plus a few others. It's a simple story, really.
Just released">released" /> released">released for a third time on DVD, The Big Lebowski has, in a decade, inspired a following to rival all cinematic cults, complete with http://lebowskifest.com/, http://lebowskipodcast.com/, and http://www.dudeism.com/. At the heart of this denomination is the Dude, brilliantly incarnated by Jeff Bridges as a Zen slob whose three great loves are weed, white Russians, and bowling. And the Dude is indeed a fantastic character. Ten years on, though, the movie's most striking role belongs to John Goodman as Walter Sobchak: a hawkish, slightly unhinged Vietnam vet and the Dude's best friend and bowling partner. Watching The Big Lebowski in 2008, it becomes clear that appreciating Walter is essential to understanding what the Coen brothers are up to in this movie, which is slyer, more political, and more prescient than many of its fans have recognized. Perhaps that's because Walter, with his bellowing, Old Testament righteousness and his deeply entrenched militarism, is an American type that barely registered on the pop-culture landscape 10 years ago. He's a neocon."