The Relation of Film, Literature, and Music: The Big Lebowski’s Soundtrack as a Means of Significance Beyond the Anglophone World

Considering films as semiotically “multitrack” texts that integrate elements from different arts —writings—, this chapter analyzes the relationship between The Big Lebowski (1998), Carter Burwell’s soundtrack selection for the film, composed mainly of preexisting songs, and Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep (1939). In such a varied soundtrack, featuring well-known names like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, we can discern the meaning behind the Gipsy Kings’ cover of “Hotel California.” The reason is that, like a cover song, the double cultural background of the music styles —rock and Spanish rumba —could connect the Coen brothers’ parodic film with other cinematographic genres, such as the Spanish quinqui films, contributing to the film’s memory and significance beyond the Anglophone world.