What is a cult film? And what is fandom?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a cult film should have "enduring appeal to a relatively small audience", and be "non-mainstream".

A common trope of cult films is that their theatrical releases are disappointing. For instance, The Big Lebowski (the film that I will be analysing) flopped at the box-office: it amassed a devoted following only when it was rereleased on VHS and DVD, cable and satellite TV, and at midnight venues.

Cult followings are often associated with niche markets or subcultures. As such, cult films tend to be associated with underground culture, and are considered too eccenctric, bizarre, controversial or anti-establishment to achieve mainstream appeal.

Fandom, on the other hand, has typically been depicted as a scandalous, emotionally charged form of attachment to media culture. It can be defined or explained as the state of being a fan or all that encompasses fan culture and fan behaviour in general, or the study of fans and fan behaviour.

In this case, it is about how people become fans how they devote themselves to the media products they seem to adore. It encompasses consumption and production, resistance (i.e. they are staunchly devoted to a beloved show, for instance) and collusion. It is about shared participation and experiences, about sharing thoughts and ideas.

Fan Guide

 

 

I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski is essentially a go-to guide for fans of The Big Lebowski. The fact that it features photographs, real locations and interviews with the stars of the film, including John Turturro, John Goodman and Julianne Moore - and a foreword by the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges - emphasises the painstaking lengths the writers went to in order to make something that their fan community would be proud of. The book also contains a glossary, trivia questions and the ultimate soundtrack listing, which suggests that fans would expect nothing less of the writers, as they created the Lebowski Fest and therefore it follows that they have greater access to behind-the-scenes information, given that they were able to get most of the original cast on-board.

 

Furthermore, there is also the implication that the content is factual and that the facts seem to be in order, which emphasises how a key role played by these high-status 'superfans' involves ensuring that the fans feel secure, as they can take everything in this book at face value and therefore it helps them to confirm or otherwise strengthen their devotion to the phenomenon that is The Big Lebowski.

 

It also helps them to attract new fans to The Big Lebowski, as they already have all that they need to do regarding the phenomenon.

 

 

 

The theory of 'textual poaching', first developed by French scholar Michel de Certeau and later developed by Henry Jenkins, asserts that fans are not obsessive nerds who are out-of-touch with reality, which was how they were perceived, but instead appropriate texts for themselves.

 

De Certeau argues that audiences are not passive consumers but instead active interpreters. In his book, The Practice of Everyday Life, De Certeau talked about how people individualise mass culture by interpreting texts beyond the dominant meaning which has been decided by the elite (academics, teachers, authors etc) who monopolise the readings. They take elements "poached" and reworked from popular media in order to construct their own alternative culture. For example, many 'fans' did not like the ending of The Sopranos and tried to explain how its protagonist, Tony Soprano, actually died, and so made videos on YouTube analysing the final scene of The Sopranos in some detail. This can also be applied to the aforementioned book,  I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski, as the way the fans of The Big Lebowski have interpreted the film would not have been how the film critics would have interpreted the film on its original cinema release.

This ‘poaching’ is a resistance strategy for the individual, however it is inherently weak compared to the dominant culture and will generally be an act which is pushed underground. Jenkins’ book then takes the active audience theory and applies it to fan cultures which ‘poach’ from their beloved text to create new texts such as fan fiction, filk (folk songs) and manuals/dictionaries to ‘fill-out’ further details not originally explained in the text. For instance, in  I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski, they made an English-Achiever translation guide. Jenkins' extension of the term “poaching” discusses how a fan can simultaneously interpret a text through both the dominant and oppositional reading, allowing readers to stick as closely to the ‘canon’ (official rules and principles put forward in the original text) as they wish. Poaching blurs the line between producer and consumer by giving the reader power to produce their own work based upon their own interpretation. It also offers a form of escapism from reality through the sub-cultures and fan communities created.

Dudeism

Dudeism is an online religion that was founded in 2005, and which is based on The Big Lebowski. Perhaps a key component of fandom is that you need highly dedicated fans who will lead the others, and therefore it follows that you need those high-status 'superfans' to give those fans a sense of belonging.

 

The fact that there is an online website for Dudeism and various rules and practices emphasises how focused these 'superfans' are on creating something for the other fans to rally around, and suggests that they are committed to meeting the needs of these fans.

 

 

As with Lebowski Fest, perhaps another key component of Dudeism is that fans are looking to form communities of like-minded fans who they can share their appreciation of The Big Lebowski with. The fact that it is greatly supported (supposedly, there are 200,000 ordained Dudeist priests) suggests that the fans have been looking for something like this for some time now. Furthermore, the fact that there are over 200,000 ordained Dudeist priests worldwide emphasises that they are bound to the online religion by a strong streak of competition and therefore want to give something back to their online fan community. 

 

 



 

 

 

This is an extract from an interview with Oliver Benjamin, the founder of Dudeism, in I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski. The fact that he created this online religion after getting hooked on The Big Lebowski suggests that such powerful expressions of devotion can, in turn, suggest that the fan in question was so transformed by the film that these expressions of devotion are warranted. The implication is that this person was very much unlike 'The Dude' suggests that people become fans for different reasons, and therefore the fact that he is giving this interview suggests that he wants to encourage fans to maintain their loyalty. 

 

Replay Culture

The idea of a 'replay culture' revolves around the ability to be able to watch a film after its initial release. A film that might have flopped at the box-office can be revived and garner a following through various forms of media including television, the internet and DVDs.

In the case of The Big Lebowski, it was a box-office failure, however soon gained a cult following when it went into circulation on the home video market. As this was a time when the home video market and video rentals were still important platforms for watching films, this suggests that The Big Lebowski.

Since The Big Lebowski was a financial and critical failure at the time of its initial release, the fact that it has a cult following can suggest that its fans seem 'genuine' as this was not a popular film and therefore it can be assumed that these fans didn't watch this film due to popular opinion.

 

 

The Big Lebowski had a studio re-release on Blu-Ray, which suggests that the studio had enough faith in the following to do so. Furthermore, since it was a limited edition release and therefore copies wouldn't be in great supply, this would have been a great way for fans to prove their loyalty as they would have to actively look for a copy.

 

Big Lebowski Documentary

 

The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans is a documentary looking at the cultural phenomenon of The Big Lebowski and how it has gained the following that it has. This is a great medium for fans of The Big Lebowski to express their devotion, as several fans were interviewed and therefore could have explained why they were fans. Furthermore, the people who made the documentary themselves could have been fans, and therefore this would have been a great way for them to share their love of the film with fellow fans.

 

 

The producers might have made this documentary because they understood that it would have already had an audience because of the cult following behind The Big Lebowski. Therefore, fans of the film might have watched the documentary as a means of acknowledging their attachment to The Big Lebowski.

The Big Lebowski Costumes

 

 

This is an eBay page for costumes worn by the main characters in The Big Lebowski. It is a key part of fandom, as the fans can be subjected to ridicule by others if they wear these costumes in public. Therefore, the fact that they wear these costumes out in the open emphasises how The Big Lebowski is a key component of their self-identity. Furthermore, the fact that fellow fans are willing to part with these costumes on sites such as eBay implies that they want others to feel the same way they do about The Big Lebowski.

 

 

 

 

 



Since fans at Lebowski Fest dress up as different characters, this harbours the implication that not everyone connects with the protagonist and therefore emphasises how fans can be drawn to different elements of the film.

 

The Big Lebowski Spoofs

One of the main ways in which fans can express their devotion to The Big Lebowski is through making parody versions of the film. There is the sense that these fans want to prove themselves, and therefore are becoming more active by making such media products.

Fans are highly critical and creative audiences; they don't just criticise their beloved shows or franchises when they fall short of their expectations, they also make their own fan films, or write their own fan fiction. They want to express how these shows or franchises resonate with them.

For example, the YouTube channel Funny Or Die made a spoof version of The Big Lebowski, which emphasises how fans are making the best use of digital media in order to find more creative ways of expressing such devotion.