"That Was Me, And, Uh, Six Other Guys"

That's how the pot-smokin', CCR-lovin', league-bowlin' Dude describes the real-life Seattle Seven in the funniest movie of all-time.

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges, was actually based former Seattleite Jeff Dowd, former instigator in the Seattle Liberation Front.

Vietnam was the cause that really tied the SLF together. A UW professor organized the student-based antiwar outfit in January 1970. The next month, on February 17, the radical group staged a demonstration outside the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle. Many of the 2,000 protesters turned violent, throwing rocks and paint at the cops and at the courthouse. Twenty were injured, 76 arrested. Two months later, a federal grand jury indicted eight SLF leaders for conspiring to incite a riot. One of them hid underground, while the remaining "Seven" -- Dowd included -- stood trial in late 1970. The unruly defendants' behavior caused the judge to declare a mistrial, and all seven were cited with contempt of court. However, the conspiracy charges were dropped in 1972, when the defendants agreed to not challenge their contempt citations. As for the SLF, it dissolved the previous year due to internal strife.

Though Lebowski depicts Dowd as a lazy slob – "high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide" -- a recent Seattle Times interview paints another picture: Post-activism, Dowd was a SIFF co-director. Then, after moving to El Lay, he helped los Bros Coen market their 1984 crime thriller Blood Simple. Now 55, Dowd continues to write, produce, and market films, and he's currently finishing his autobiography, called (what else?) The Dude Abides.

Incidentally, the "six other guys" line was apparently improvised by Dude portrayer Bridges, as it doesn't appear in the film's shooting script. Still, it's among Lebowski's many quotable quotes, albeit one without the film's some 398f-bombs.

Anyway, the SLF connection makes Seattle a worthy adversary for a future Lebowski Fest, and the Sunset Bowl would be perfect.

That's just, like, our opinion, man.