Jeff Bridges names the most unique movie of his career: “It’s nothing like anything else”
Jeff Bridges has been in some pretty serious movies. He played Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers’ version of True Grit, a role previously taken on by John Wayne. He won an Oscar for his part in Crazy Heart, that of an alcoholic country star who vows to turn his life around. These are all very stoic, very dramatic parts, but he’s also been in some pretty odd stuff, too.
The Big Lebowski is pretty weird, but that’s only the half of it. He’s been in a number of films made by Monty Python icon Terry Gilliam, including The Fisher King and the absolutely bonkers Tideland. Bridges really has made the most of his movie career, but, in his own words, one picture alone stands out as the most unique.
In an interview with Observer, the second-generation star pointed to 1971’s The Last Picture Show as the great standout of his filmography. “That was an absolutely thrilling experience,” he said. “[Peter] Bogdanovich was a great filmmaker – a great spirit. Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn, Timmy Bottoms – it was cast to perfection. We were all starting out in those days, and we got the idea that this film felt special. It was, too. If you look at it today, it just hangs there by itself, being beautiful. It’s nothing like anything else.”
The Last Picture Show is based on a 1966 novel of the same name. It follows the lives of two high school friends, Duane (Bridges) and Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), as they contemplate their lives in the early 1950s. It captures a specific moment in American history when the country was in the throes of its initial rise to global dominance but wary of what a turbulent future might bring. It shrinks these gigantic questions down to a manageable size. The town of Anarene, Texas, has been left behind by modernity, leaving its inhabitants with nowhere to go. Both teens, as well as their friends and older figures in their lives, experience the ups and downs of learning more about the world that is determined to forget about them.
The movie helped establish Bridges as a major player in the Hollywood sphere. It earned him his first of seven Academy Award nominations and pushed him into the orbit of big names like John Huston and Clint Eastwood, both of whom he would work with over the next few years. 19 years later, Bridges and most of the rest of the cast reunited with Bogdanovich for Texasville, a direct sequel to the original film.
“It was like we had had a long weekend,” Bridges said of this experience. “We had a great time.”
Texasville didn’t reach the lofty standards of its predecessor, but it helped an entirely new generation discover the original. The Last Picture Show is held up these days as one of the great American movies. Interestingly, Bridges and Bogdanovich never worked together outside of these two films; strange considering what they did for each other’s careers.
Even over half a century on from its release, The Last Picture Show clearly still holds a special place in Bridges’ heart. Without it, he may well have never found himself in the position he’s in today, and many avid filmgoers would have been robbed of one of their favourite movies.
