The TRON Dude

[Mild spoilers ahead]

Halfway between Tron and the December 17th sequel TRON: Legacy, the Coen brothers unleashed The Big Lebowski. FishbowlLA had the pleasure of catching a preview screening of the new film over the weekend on the Disney lot and was amazed to discover the Dude himself occasionally popping up on the Grid.

Overall, Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn is very Zen thanks to solicited script input from the actor’s pal Bernie Glassman. Still, it’s an unexpected joy to behold Bridges breaking into full Dude-speak at several points in TRON, provoking in each case hearty laughter from the audience.

“Biodigital jazz, man” Flynn Sr. raves while describing his vision of programmed utopia. Later on, in the midst of a furious action scene, he admonishes his son (Garrett Hedlund) with the gentle rebuke, “You’re messing with my Zen thing, man.”

While someone has already TRON-itized a Big Lebowski sequence on YouTube, let’s hope the Coen brothers-TRON creative short circuit isn’t also sparking in the opposite direction this holiday season. Otherwise, there will be some really strange Zen cowboy dialogue in True Grit.

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