Two Gentlemen of Lebowski: A Most Excellent Comedie and Tragical Romance Paperback – Illustrated, October 26, 2010

Love THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Love Shakespeare. There, bonafides out of the way.The concept for this book is really great. And some of the execution in it is absolutely laugh out loud funny. The best parts of the book are seeing the best exchanges from the film translated into Shakespeare's verse. Since language really is the strength of the film it really translates well into the Shakespearean construct. It is similar to a more recent entry into this sort of project, Ian Doescher's transforming of STAR WARS eps 4-6 into Shakespearean plays.Doescher's pieces are superior pieces of work for a few reasons. First, Doescher's pieces are licensed through LucasFilm, meaning that there was money involved and distribution lines. So there was probably more time to be able to flesh the whole thing out. Bertocci's work is clearly a labor of love. So some of TWO GENTLEMEN's failings are likely it being a victim of circumstance.But what hurts TWO GENTLEMEN most is that Bertocci chose to set the entire thing in Shakespearean times, instead of keeping the settings the same and simply putting a Shakespeare filter over the film as it is. The reason this hamstrings the book is because certain technologies play key parts in the film, phones, pagers, cars, guns. Even though they refer to a "car" several times in the play, there's no indication that anyone is actually driving a car. Example: Because we lose these technologies, the scene where Dude and Walter throw the ringer has been re-worked. No cell phone means no Walter shouting in the background. No car and guns mean no Walter jumping from the car with a bouncing uzi, one of the funniest scenes in the movie. Now, Walter just throws the ringer and they leave while the "kidnappers" wait in the dark. Gone is Walter's plan of grabbing and beating one of the kidnappers.Plus, scenes are run together in ways that are a bit jolting for fans of the film. The doctor shows up at Maude Lebowski's place to examine Dude. Walter shows up to go with Dude to drop off the ransom because he intuited something is wrong, taking away the wonderful opportunities for the various phone conversations that Dude and Walter had in the film. Some scenes are gone entirely. The scene where Dude is interviewed by the police and the answering machine kicks in is missing. The scene where Dude gets his car at the impound lot is referenced, but there's no "we got 'em working in shifts!" anywhere to be found. Walter paying tribute to Arthur Digby Sellers is gone (And a good day to you, sir!).Where Doescher's works really take the Shakespearean experience to a new level is when he applies "asides" to many of the Star Wars characters. From R2 to Vader, they'll all linger after a scene and deliver a great monologue that intuits something that may not have been in the films, but is consistent with the character. In TWO MEN, there's none of that. It's more of just a "direct translation" of the dialogue. Updating is always easier than retrodating. Personally, I think he made the wrong creative choice. Baz Luhrman updaing R&J worked because the technology could be updated easily. But going backwards is far more difficult, and in this instance did a disservice to the work.Bertocci clearly has a great grasp of Shakespearean language and verse. the iambs and rhymes are all there. The equivalents he chooses for many of the names and objects work well. And his usage of some of Shakespeare's most classic and beloved lines work very well in this context. Personally, I would love to see him re-work it in its modern context using the classic language and adding asides like Doescher does. This is a strong foundation, but there's far more to be mined here. Still worthy to bear the Lebowski name.

Let this passage from the book speak of its unduplicable greatness:"Behold thy car, the Corvette, crimson-stain’d,And see what befalls sinners evermore.[He raises his sword, and smites the car]This befalleth when thou firk’st a stranger ‘twixt the buttocks, Laurence! Understand’st thou? Dost thou attend me? Seest thou what happens, Laurence? Seest thou what happens, Laurence? Seest thou what happens, Laurence, when thou firk’st a stranger ‘twixt the buttocks?!"

If you're interested in entering a world of hurt (from laughing so hard), Smokey, this book's for you.

I am a theatre graduate and something of a Shakespearean scholar. I found this Shakespeare translation of The Big Lebowski to be a funny and well-researched book, well-bound and with durable pages, to be a really fantastic read. As a heads-up to any theatre practitioners looking to direct this play, be aware that it's not as simple as paying for performance rights, since rights to The Big Lebowski are not held by the author.

This is a work of genius. It is not a shallow spoof, but a fully formed translation of "The Big Lebowski" into Elizabethan/Shakespearean terms -- and times.Bertocci doesn't hesitate to poke fun at literary scholarship. The left-hand pages have explanations of those things a modern reader might not be familiar with, as well as an analysis of the author's choice of words. What is particularly amusing is his "naïve" ignorance of plainly sexual references (eg, back-door mine (p128); reading Ben Jonson manually (p146); fig eaters & bareback riding (p174)).It is impossible to recommend "Two Gentlemen of Lebowski" too highly. You'll laugh your back-door mine off.

If you are into the classical writings of the masters like Shakespeare and those of his life time, this book is not for you. This book is a up to date and modern story written in the style of the time of Shakespeare. The author of this kind of book, is a genius, if he ever had the chance to meet Shakespeare, Shakespeare would be laughing with the idea the author put into this book. If you as a reader want to study Shakespeare and stay awake doing it, this is the book for you to read.

Yeah, well, that's just, like, my opinion, man. My friend who is a big fan of Lebowski spent a drunken evening quoting out of this, and it was hilarious. Made a great Christmas present.

I belong to a group that occasionally gets together to read Shakespeare (or other Jacobean playwrights or Shakespeare-esque pieces) I'd been wanting to do this one for a while: boy did we have fun! Watched the movie again the week following the reading and (don't tell "The Dude", but) it actually felt a little "meh" after the reading of this!

Lots of great fun here, as "The Knave abideth". Sure it's basically a one-joke premise, but Bertocci's treatment feels so sympathetic both to Shakespeare (lots of quotes cleverly repackaged) and to TBL that it never outstays its welcome. You'll get through it in a couple of hours no problem, so perfect to keep you chuckling while waiting at the airport or on a train journey:- "Verily this be our concern, Knave", "Pray, naught is bespoil'd here -", "Naught is bespoil'd? Zeus's noble chariot hath crashed into yonder mount!" etc etc

Zum Inhalt gibt es nichts zu sagen, was nicht schon bekannt sein dürfte: die Filmhandlung wird in Form eines Shakespeare-Stücks wiedergegeben. Das spricht für sich.Wer den Film gut kennt, findet viele Details wieder; es wird selbst auf die Musiktitel der Szenen angespielt.Mir gefällt außerdem die Aufmachung wie ein Lehrbuch: Linke Seiten mit Erklärungen und Zeichnungen, rechte Seiten mit dem Text.

If you're a fan of the film.. if it's in your top 10, or top 5 ... you won't regret it.

Ich kann diese Art von Buch nur empfehlen.Die Sprache ist einfach sensationell.Ich habe auch schon ein ähnliches Buch von StarWars gekauft .Beide Bücher habe ich verschenkt und sie sind super angekommen.Toll,nicht nur für Fans

Our library has this little treasure. My husband and I enjoyed this cleverly written play so much that we had to purchase our own copy.