The pleasure of an actor's company often makes a nondescript movie seem great. Call it the Jeff Bridges Boost. Every time Bridges is on screen in Men Who Stare at Goats, Grant Heslov's satire about a top-secret cadre of military intelligentsia, the movie pops. Bridges plays Bill Django, a warrior for peace dedicated to psychic (and perhaps psychedelic) means of ending war, a character so far outside the mainstream that he seems to redirect the way the water flows. Django is a spiritual cousin of Bridges' cult hero, The Dude, in The Big Lebowski (see here for Bridges' thoughts on that movie and its belated success.) One might consider Goats an example of Lebowskism, that philosophy of process without an object.
Ironic and iconic, Bridges combines the elements that made Robert Mitchum so appealing: He's eternally the guy who doesn't give a damn, but who cares deeply. (See The Last Picture Show, Fat City, Winter Kills, Cutter's Way, Fearless, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Fisher King.) While his tarnished charisma often seems misused in more conventional movies such as King Kong and Jagged Edge, he did a hell of a job as the extraterrestrial posing as a human in Starman , as the cagy U.S. president in The Contender and the monstrously egomaniacal author in The Door in the Floor. Your thoughts? Favorite Bridges performances? Why?
I love Bridges in WINTER KILLS and the way he takes his oxford shirt off in CUTTER'S WAY is something I've emulated ever since I saw that great film. But AMERICAN HEART is the performance that Bridges should have won an overdue Oscar for. And that Mary Ellen Mark photo of him shirtless, buff and with his long hair flowing isn't the best image of Bridges EVER.— garyk- Bridges is one of those actors who make it seem so effortless that you never even realize they are acting - which may be the reason Bridges hasn't ever won an Oscar, nor has barely ever been nominated for one. My favourite Bridges performances are Fearless, Starman, Last Picture Show, Cutter's Way, Fat City and especially The Door in the Floor. Hell, I even enjoyed Tron - and now a sequel!?— KevynKnox
- I'm a huge Tron fan, too.— carrierickey
- Bridges has played two of my favorite characters in American cinema: Lightfoot and The Dude. The Dude will forever shape my perception of Bridges as I now see almost all of his roles as different incarnations of the Dude. I see Lightfoot as the young Dude just before he was part of the Seattle Seven (with six other guys.) I think he's just doped up at the end of the movie. As the President in "The Contender" I see him as the Dude who has cleaned up his act, apologized for his "youthful indiscretions" and captured the heart of a nation through his natural charm. You have already pointed out the Dudeness of Bill Django. Not even the Dude had the power to save "K-Pax" but no Earthly force could. I count Bridges among my favorite actors of this or any other era. I can't think of many actors I look forward to seeing more.— ChristopherL
- His performance in CUTTER'S WAY is my favorite.— Tony Dayoub
- I agree with ChristopherL about both Lightfoot, and the Dude, classic roles and classic acting. I liked him in Arlington Road, as he showed some real sides of a tormented victim. He really is an overlooked gem of an actor. I would love to sit down and have a beer with him, and there ain't that many dudes in that business, I would say that about.— Ratdog
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