As a lover of all things Lebowski, I’ve heard for years that the Coens stoner opus had drawn significant inspiration from Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep, and Howard Hawks’ film of the same name by proxy. After hearing it from multiple sources, I decided that I really needed to see The Big Sleep (1946) to determine the depth of the similarities. Despite the best of intentions, I never actually got around to seeing Hawks’ film–after five or six years–until this past weekend. And sure enough, the people who had told me of the similarities were telling the truth. The similarities are amusing, striking, and served to add to the enjoyment of both films. Here’s an infographic that illustrates just how similar the two films really are:



