Pop Smart - The Bear Lebowski: The Golden Compass vs. The Big Lebowski

(Photo courtesy New Line Cinema)

I can’t be the first person to notice a certain similarity between Sam Elliott’s roles in The Big Lebowski and The Golden Compass (reviewed here). Sure, Elliott seems like he walked out of the Wild West no matter what movie he’s in, but in both of these films he’s got the same mustache and folksy way of drawling. For that matter, both take pleasure in putting the cowboy out of his usual context. He’s an ironic narrator of the (in)action in Lebowski and an incongruous but welcome ingredient in the Compass’ pop-adventure stew of airships, witches and armored bears. When I hear Elliott’s “aeronaut” Lee Scoresby say things such as, “I’d hire myself an armored bear,” or see scenes like the ones in this trailer –

kml_flashembed movie=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/86opgGhRVLg%22 width=%22425%22 height=%22350%22 wmode=%22transparent%22 /

— I can’t help but have Lebowski flashbacks. You can easily imagine lines from Lebowski in Scoresby’s mouth, amended only a little: “Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you.

“And then sometimes you ARE the bar, and have to fight another bar to the death in single combat.”

The first five minutes of The Golden Compass are online, but frankly, instead of that introduction, I wish they’d begun with a little something like this. (Note: If you haven’t seen either movie or read The Golden Compass, most of the references will be lost on you):