The film Paul Thomas Anderson called “the best movie in history”
In 2014, Paul Thomas Anderson delivered an adaptation of one of the works of legendary American author Thomas Pynchon. His version of Pynchon’s 2009 novel is a mystery comedy defined by one of the most bizarre plots and a thick cloud of weed smoke puffing from the mouth of Joaquin Phoenix’s Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello.
Taking place in 1970s California, Anderson dived into a surreal sense of neo-noir and perfectly captured the paranoia and conspiracy that often dominates many of Pynchon’s works. As Doc makes his way through a case surrounding the disappearance of his former girlfriend, he comes across some of the most eccentric and memorable characters in the history of modern cinema.
Naturally, Anderson was deeply inspired by Pynchon when adapting his work, but there’s also the idea that Inherent Vice shares common ground with some of the best movies in the stoner comedy and mystery genres. In fact, the director once admitted that he found a kinship with Pynchon’s novel and one of the Coen brothers’ most celebrated movies.
In an interview with Vice, Anderson noted, “I also remember thinking, when I read the book, ‘This is like The Big Lebowski.‘” The 1998 film saw Jeff Bridges play a Los Angeles stoned slacker called Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski, who becomes embroiled in a kidnapping after he is mistaken for another wealthier man also called Jeffrey Lebowski.
Interestingly, Anderson had actually thought that Pynchon’s novel and the Coen brothers’ film were so alike that he’d thought about not taking on the adaptation. The director said, “That was a reason to say, like, ‘Why would I have to do something like The Big Lebowski? Why would I even come close?'”
It’s fair to say that both Inherent Vice and The Big Lebowski share many similarities. Both take part in the sun-soaked environments of Los Angeles, and both centre on a protagonist most often stoned out of their mind and becomes wrapped up in a conspiracy despite their foggy understanding and chilled-out attitude. Perhaps the two works could even take place in the same universe, with Inherent Vice’s story occurring some 20 years before The Dude rolled into town in his dressing gown and jelly shoes.
Anderson couldn’t let the opportunity to adapt Pynchon go, though, and he admitted that he largely had to forget about Inherent Vice being even remotely similar to the iconic Coen brothers movie. “The more I looked at it, the more I loved the book, and I had to kind of ignore that and pretend like it didn’t exist,” he said. “Because, you know, The Big Lebowski is the best movie in history. So I just ignored it and thought about it a different way.”
Clearly, Anderson has a deep respect for The Big Lebowski, and he understands that audiences might notice the similarities between it and his own film. However, it’s fair to say that Inherent Vice has a mood and flavour entirely of its own, undoubtedly owed to the stoned conspiracy leanings of Pynchon himself.
By contrast, The Big Lebowski perhaps leans more into the comedy genre with Bridges, alongside John Goodman, John Turturro and Philip Seymour Hoffman, delivering some of the most iconic moments of 1990s cinema. It remains possible that, by extension, the two films could be related, but they undoubtedly possess their own strengths.
