Want to map how a cult movie phenomenon is created? Look no further than The Big Lebowski.

When the Coen Brothers’ stoner-comedy-meets-film-noir classic arrived in cinemas in 1998, some just didn’t get it.

After the crowd-pleasing, Oscar-winning Fargo, Lebowski took a hairpin leftfield turn. “Everybody was like ‘So what?’” remembers Julianne Moore, “People didn’t seem to think it was that funny…”

But it grew. And it grew. Today, being a Lebowski fan isn’t just a movie rental choice, it’s a way of life. There are festivals where the faithful dress as The Dude (Jeff Bridges), or Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), or in outrageous costumes inspired by a single line or prop (Donny’s “I am the Walrus” gag, or Bunny’s severed, green-nail-painted big toe).

Not since The Rocky Horror Picture Show has cult cinema been such a pantomime. John Goodman says when he’s recognised on the street people “either point at me and scream ‘Roseanne!’ or they’ll whip out a line from Lebowski. The lines are very whippable. ‘Shut the fuck up Donny!’ That’s a big, big one…”

Quotable lines are only the beginning of The Big Lebowski’s cult appeal. At the centre is The Dude (based on real-life movie producer Jeff Dowd – see interview, right), a slacker dropout in whom “casualness runs deep,” who gets caught up in a bizarre kidnapping conspiracy after he’s mistaken for a rich millionaire with the same surname.

Channelling Elliott Gould’s slobbish Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye with just a whiff of stoner comedians Cheech and Chong, Bridges delivers what may well be the most iconic role of his career.

Dude, where’s my extras?

Every cult gets commodified eventually, though. Previous Lebowski DVD sets have come with bowling towels, Oriental-rug mouse mats and even a bowling ball-shaped case.

This Blu-ray is no different, packaged with a 28-page digibook and full of gimmicks from interactive maps to U-Control bells and whistles that bombard you with trivia while you watch the movie. Want a counter to track F-bombs? Or a pop-up to remind you who Donny is? Well, then, hallelujah Lebowski fans, your wish has been granted.

Everything else on the disc is tired, man. It’s packed with seen-them-before extras from the 10th anniversary DVD including a doc on the Lebowski Fest phenomenon, a featurette on the surreal Busby Berkley inspired dream sequences and a Ten Years Later outing that polls the cast for their memories.

Like a White Russian made with full-fat milk, these old extras are full of goodness (high points: John Turturro confessing he receives sex mail from men and women obsessed with his bowling ball-licking pederast; and Jeff Bridges’ story about how the chorus girls tricked him during the bowling-alley dream sequences by stuffing their pants with fake pubic hair).

Owners of the previous DVD editions are likely to feel cheated, though. To be honest, we were hoping for more – something that would tie the Blu-ray together like The Dude’s rug. Failing that even just a commentary track would have made this a reason to upgrade.

The Dude may abide, but even the king of slackers would call this Blu-ray out for being an underachiever.

What makes a Goodman

Still, it’s The Big Lebowski, right? The movie itself – in a spiffing, remastered transfer – has never looked better.

Thirteen years on, it’s still a stone(d) cold classic. The more you watch it, the more you appreciate just how much of its joy comes from Goodman, whose scene-nicking performance as ’Nam psycho Walter turns him into Travis Bickle’s fatter, dimmer redneck cousin (“I didn’t watch my buddies die face down in the mud in ’Nam for this to happen…”).

If The Big Lebowski is about anything – and it’s about a lot – it’s about friendship. The Dude and Walter are the Coens’ Laurel and Hardy, forever driving each other insane but linked at the hip like conjoined twins of a past-its-sell-by-date ’60s psyche: the ’Nam vet and the hippie dropout. It’s in their bond that the movie’s sheer joie de vivre comes out.

Cult classic it may be, but the core of The Big Lebowski is the universal human comedy we’re all actors in. As Goodman jokes, “You don’t need marijuana to watch the movie, kids. It’s good without it.” OK, then, now let’s go bowling...

DVD Extras:

• Making Of
• Featurettes
• Interactive map
• Photo gallery
• U-Control options
• Booklet