10 Greatest Films of Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges was born in California in 1949 to Dorothy and Lloyd Bridges. Dorothy and Lloyd were both actors. She had starred in the silent film Finders Keepers in 1921. He was a star of both big and the small screen. It was natural for Jeff to enter the family business. As a kid, he appeared on screen with each of his parents.
Jeff Bridges has been nominated for an Oscar six times, winning one in 2010 for Crazy Heart.
Bridges is a true star with a career covering seven decades and almost 80 movies. He has a laid back disposition and easy charm but he’s a big guy and can turn on the imposing manner in a snap. He recently gave a great interview on the Howard Stern show. In that interview he talked about how even though he loves acting, he hates starting something and resists committing to every new job. Even with that resisting, there have only been three of the last forty-seven years that did not have a Jeff Bridges film in the cinema and in many years there are at least two films in which he appears.
10. The Contender (2000) — Bridges stars as the President of the United States. His VP has recently died and he’s nominated a woman (played by Joan Allen) for the role. The film is about her undergoing the attack of the hypocritical political machine.
“Mr. Chairman, let’s just say…”I’m guilty but not responsible”, hmm?” — President Jackson Evans
9. Fat City (1972) — This is the kind of film the 1970s is known for. Stacy Keach costars with Jeff Bridges and John Huston is the director. It’s an examination of failure in a small town. Each plays a boxer that didn’t quite make it and Bridges plays a beginner that probably won’t either.
8. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) — Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Gary Busey, and Catherine Bach star in this buddy/caper movie in which Eastwood is a thief on the run and Bridges is a drifter. The two cross Montana together, meeting women and stealing cars.
“A man can do whatever he sets his mind to. Now, me, I wanna’ walk in and buy a white Cadillac convertible. Actually walk in and buy it, cash.” — Lightfoot
7. The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) — Jeff and his brother Beau play brothers that have a lounge act. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the singer they recruit to join them when things start to get stale.
“What do you want from me? You want me to tell you to stay, hmm? Is that what you’re looking for? You want me to get down on my knees and beg you to save the Baker Boys from doom? Forget it, sweetheart. We survived for 15 years before you strutted onto the scene. Fifteen years. Two seconds, you’re bawling like a baby. You shouldn’t be wearing a dress; you should be wearing a diaper.” — Jack Baker
6. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) — A true life David and Goliath story where, because it’s true, David gets his ass kicked. Bridges plays Preston Tucker in this Francis Ford Coppola directed biopic. Tucker built an absolutely beautiful car, but Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler were not interested in having a new competitor.
“Aw, what’s the difference — fifty or fifty million. That’s only machinery!… It’s the idea that counts, Abe… The dream…” — Preston Tucker
5. Starman (1984) — Bridges plays an alien that came across one of the Voyager spacecraft, saw the messages from Earth and decided he’d stop by for a visit. And even though the film is directed by John Carpenter, this alien doesn’t eat everyone he meets, he just hangs out and falls in love with Karen Allen, like we all do.
“You are a strange species. Not like any other. And you’d be surprised how many there are. Intelligent but savage. Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you?” — Starman
4. The Last Picture Show (1971) — If you can take your eyes off of Cybill Shepherd, you’ll see Jeff Bridges playing the captain of the football team in this adaptation of the somewhat autobiographical Larry McMurtry novel about life in a small Texas town in the early 1950s.
“I’ll see you in a year or two if I don’t get shot.” — Duane Jackson
3. Crazy Heart (2009) — If the film sounds a bit like the 1983 film Tender Mercies, this film confronts and accepts that comparison by bringing in Robert Duvall to co-star with Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Bridges won a well deserved Oscar for this role as an aging and alcoholic country western singer.
“Whole worlds have been tamed by men who ate biscuits.” — Bad Blake
2. The Big Lebowski (1998) — The Coen brothers’ funniest film. There has never been an example of more perfect casting than Jeff Bridges as the Dude.
“This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder’s head.” — The Dude
1. True Grit (2010) — When I first heard that the John Wayne film, True Grit, was being remade, I thought it was a pointless idea. But, the Coen brothers didn’t remake that film, they went back to the source novel and reinterpreted it. In this one, even with a star like Jeff Bridges and supporting actors like Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, the real star is fourteen year old Hailee Steinfeld. This is a brilliant film, and one that makes every idiot that has been saying the western is dead, eat crow. Damon is hilarious as LaBoeuf, the alcoholic Texas Ranger, played by Glen Campbell in the 1969 film.
“I thought you were going to say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your EYE.” — LaBoeuf
Other films considered for this list include: Sea Biscuit, Iron Man, The Fisher King, Fearless, Jagged Edge, Against All Odds, The Door in the Floor, Blown Away, Arlington Road, and The Iceman Cometh. What would make your list?
