This is a big departure from my usual subject, canine behavior. But I have a few things to say about Jeff Bridges that go back to my days as a working actor.
In case you haven't heard, the Oscar telecast is almost upon us. And Jeff Bridges if favored to win for his performance in Crazy Heart. If he wins (and I hope he does), it won't just be for his acting in this one particular film though. As a student of acting in general and film acting in particular, I've been keenly aware of how "the academy" likes to reward certain actors who they feel "finally deserve" a statuette. The clearest example was giving John Wayne an Oscar for his self-spoofing, cartoonish performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, even though Paul Scofield, who was nominated for A Man for All Seasons that year, gave a much deeper, more nuanced performance.
One of the reasons I think Wayne won was, frankly, the eye-patch, a sort of masculine equivalent to glam-goddesses like Charlize Theron or Halle Berry winning a statuette for not wearing any make-up. (I like both actresses a lot, but I didn't think their performances in those films was anything close to Oscar-worthy.) John Wayne, meanwhile, probably should have won for his supporting role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or for playing the anti-hero Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. That's probably the other reason they finally awarded him a statuette for playing Rooster Cogburn, a character who was slightly outside the box Wayne usually acted in.
Crazy Heart's Bad Blake is not outside Jeff Bridges' box; it seems a perfect fit. But then again, maybe nothing is outside this man's box. He's simply the best screen actor we've ever had.
Here's why.
Bridges was first nominated for playing the role of Duane Jackson in The Last Picture Show. They showed a clip from it the other night on one of the entertainment shows, and what you'll see in this one clip says it all.
If you don't know the story, Duane is a small-town Texas, high-school football star, who's cocky as hell, and sure of himself, wants one thing in life more than anything else, to go to a motel with ice-bitch Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepard) and, you know, "do it" with her. Things don't go as Duane hoped and imagined they would. In fact, Jacy completely humiliates him.
Then, as he comes out of the motel room, he sees that some of his buddies are there, grinning, angling to find out how it went. And the look on Duane's face is like a whole Larry McMurtry novel in itself: He gives his buddies his best imitation of the usual cocky smile, but behind it is an amalgam of teetering emotions: shame, desolation, anger, fear, longing, the crush of disillusionment, and a whole lot more. In that one shot we see - though we can't really verbalize it because we're caught up in the same flush of feelings Duane is - that this was a defining moment for this character, one that would shape the rest of his life. He'd completely lost his innocence, though not in a good way, and definitely not in the way he'd intended. And the real kicker is that it's almost impossible - whenever we're watching Bridges act on film - to be aware that he's acting. Those were Duane Jackson's eyes, that was Duane Jackson's face, telling us that story, Jeff Bridges just happened to be the guy wearing Duane's skin that day. That's what makes him so good.
When I used to tell my acting buddies (many of whom couldn't get past the fact that Bridges had a famous father, and that's how he "lucked in" to getting all his roles) why Bridges is the greatest film actor we've ever had, I'd put it this way: when you come out of a film like Serpico, you think, "Wow, Pacino is a great actor." When you come out of a film like The Last Picture Show, you think, "Wow, poor Duane."
That's a huge difference. And it's part of what has kept Bridges from attaining the kind of recognition he deserves. (The other part is his choice of material.)
So Sunday night, when Jeff Bridges (hopefully) takes home an Oscar for the first time, in theory it'll be to recognize his performance in Crazy Heart. In actuality, it'll be to recognize his performances in all the other movies he's done but you've probably never seen: Fat City, Hearts of the West, Rancho DeLuxe, Somebody Killed Her Husband, Heaven's Gate, Winter Kills, American Success Company, Cutter's Way, Kiss Me Goodbye, See You in the Morning, Texasville, The Vanishing, White Squall, The Door in the Floor, and on and on.
LCK
Incidentally, Jeff Bridges is set to star in a remake of True Grit, produced and directed by his Big Lebowski pals, Joel and Ethan Coen. He'll be playing the John Wayne role. Now that'll be something to see...
