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Yesterday Guy kick-started the Best Actor conversation on “Crazy Heart” star Jeff Bridges. The film, recently acquired by Fox Searchlight, is currently scheduled for a Spring 2010 release but seems to be all but begging for an autumn awards run given the buzz circling Bridges’s performance. I imagine similar discussions are happening at Searchlight, and without any real muscle in the lead actor race so far (I’m not sure Joseph Gordon-Levitt can survive the year), it would make some sense to jerk it into a qualifying release pattern.
Bridges, of course, is well overdue for some Oscar glory. He’s cranked out worthy performance after worthy performance, going all the way back to his first nomination for “The LAst Picture Show” and his first leading bid in “Starman.” His work in Rod Lurie’s “The Contender” (another nomination) still stands as my favorite presidential depiction on film yet. Nathaniel Roges over at The Film Experience is thinking along the same lines today, but offers sound reasoning for the actor’s consistently bleak Oscar track record.
To boot:
He’s considered by many to be one of the great American actors but it’s easy to understand why he hasn’t ever come close to winning the big one. He’s effortless onscreen or appears to be which amounts to the same thing. Other actors huff and puff away to achieve greatness but Bridges just seems to stroll right up to it, casually running his fingers through his hair. While this doesn’t make his work any less than wonderful it does make it more invisible when it comes time for the industry back-patting. We saw this recently with The Door in the Floor in which he was just superb as a selfish womanizing author (my vote for Best Actor of 2004). He received not one nomination for his work… only a career tribute trophy from the National Board of Review.
Read the rest at The Film Experience.
15 responses so far
1 7-23-2009 at 7:51 am
Mike said...
Couldn’t agree more about Bridges being overdue… but “Starman” was actually his third Oscar nod, after Supporting Actor nominations for 1971’s “The Last Picture Show” and 1974’s “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot.”
2 7-23-2009 at 7:59 am
Kristopher Tapley said...
Meant first leading of course. Thanks for the catch though.
3 7-23-2009 at 8:03 am
Zac said...
My favorite performance of his is Jeffrey Lebowski. The Dude abides!
I guess the Academy didn’t want to nominate an actor for playing a pothead who doesn’t really do anything. Maybe if the Dude had been a studio musician with a heroin habit? :)
4 7-23-2009 at 8:33 am
Gustavo H.R. said...
This may be a little off-topic, but when it comes to THE CONTENDER, it was time for good ole Gary Oldman to have been nominated, IMO.
5 7-23-2009 at 8:38 am
Kristopher Tapley said...
YES.
6 7-23-2009 at 8:45 am
Derek 8-Track said...
I think he was great as The Dude as well but I think the real tragedy was John Goodman not even getting a supporting nod for his role as Walter in The Big Lebowski.
7 7-23-2009 at 9:27 am
Bing147 said...
How enough members saw Fearless to nominate Rosie Perez (who was very good herself admittedly) but didn’t even nominate Bridges blows my mind. He should have won the freaking thing.
8 7-23-2009 at 9:38 am
James D. said...
The Dude, and Walter, are classic characters. He was so perfect in Lebowski.
9 7-23-2009 at 1:53 pm
P-Dawg said...
The Dude is definitely overdue. I’m sure an Oscar statue will really tie the room together. How ironic, Tony!
10 7-23-2009 at 3:25 pm
El Rocho said...
Always been a huge Bridge’s fan. Him, along with Robert Duvall, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Drefuss and, occasionally, Robert De Niro, I feel are our greatest living thespians.
Bridges was brilliant in ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’, ‘The Iceman Cometh’, ‘Fat City’, ‘Trucker: The Man and His Dream’, ‘Blown Away’ and, well, pretty much everything he’s ever been in. Even a bad movie like ‘Arlington Road’ he was great in. I love the roles he chooses. ‘Tideland’ was a neat change of pace. Very effective. In ‘Iron Man’ he played a great villian. Even ‘ok’ films like ‘White Squall’, ‘K-PAX’ and ‘8 Million Ways to Die’ he was great in.
But my personal favorites have got to be his brilliant (and sorely underrated) role in ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’, his amazing turn in ‘Fearless’, the brave and eccentric ‘The Fisher King’ and my all time favorite role: The Dude in the Coen Brothers’ madcap masterpiece ‘The Big Lebowski’.
Boy, what an actor!
11 7-23-2009 at 3:52 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
Isn’t labeling someone “overdue” playing in to the idea that other factors outside of individual performance account for who wins Oscars. And don’t we all dislike that?
12 7-23-2009 at 4:51 pm
Derek 8-Track said...
I know I dislike that!
13 7-23-2009 at 5:49 pm
Colin said...
@Chad: There’s no merit (other than idealism) to the idea that only individual performances count towards an Oscar win. If AMPAS operated as we wished, then the best individual performances would have won anyway and we wouldn’t have as much to gripe about. But the truth is that AMPAS never awards Oscars solely based on one performance, but on entire careers. The “overdue” label then turns up when we question why some actors get make-up Oscars, but others are often snubbed (in this case, Jeff Bridges).
14 9-09-2009 at 1:30 pm
GIOELE said...
I hope that the films with G.Clooney,the men …the goats and Crazy Heart can OFFERS to Jeff Bridges the right opportunity to win an oscar like lead role or supporting actor,when the Accademy tries to waken up perhaps ….
To remember great actors like
Richard Harris,Peter O’Toole,Peter Sellers never oscar winner.
15 11-21-2009 at 9:48 am
Madison said...
Sort of reminds me of another actor who made it look effortless…Spencer Tracy.
Bridges is long overdue for recognition. Hope this is his year.