“If Frank Capra made porn”: the Jeff Bridges movie “financed by a crook” that became his biggest regret
It should hopefully go without saying that Frank Capra and pornography exist at polar opposite ends of the cinematic spectrum, but Jeff Bridges believes he combined them both in the same movie.
That’s one way to sell a picture: on one hand, you’ve got the four-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker and ‘Golden Age’ icon responsible for several of the greatest, most beloved, and enduring films of his era, from It Happened One Night and Mr Deeds Goes to Town to Mr Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life.
On the other hand, you’ve got… Well, you’ve got porn, it doesn’t really need an explanation. In the middle, though, you’ve got Jeff Bridges, one of Hollywood’s most decorated veterans and an Oscar winner who cornered the market on grizzled gravitas, effortless cool, and wrote the book on Dudeism.
Put those three disparate elements together, and what do you get? The biggest regret of the actor’s career, as it turns out. Written and directed by Michael Traeger, Bridges headlined the cast of 2005’s The Amateurs, alongside a veritable who’s who of character actors, with Tim Blake Nelson, William Fichtner, Joe Pantoliano, John Hawkes, and Ted Danson on board.
The plot, which illustrates his point, finds Bridges recruiting five of his friends to try and break into the multi-billion-dollar pornography industry, despite all of them being middle-aged folks who have no idea what they’re doing or how to go about achieving their goal, before the picture morphs into a pseudo-documentary of sorts about the making of the porno flick itself.
Unfortunately, the critical reception was vicious, and the box office was virtually non-existent, with The Amateurs bringing in a paltry $64,000 from cinemas. It’s one of the worst movies he’s ever been in, but Bridges would disagree. “Wonderful movie,” he stated. “Great cast. Terrific story. If Frank Capra made a porn movie, that’s kind of the essence of it.”
It’s nothing if not an eye-catching elevator pitch, not that many people were aware that The Amateurs even existed. “But it was financed by a crook,” Bridges added. “And it didn’t get a proper release as a result.” He didn’t name names, but he might have been referring to the distributor, First Look Studios.
After all, the outfit specialised in acquiring independent films for licensing and distribution, and despite premiering in February 2005, it would be another 34 months before the movie finally made it to American cinemas, where it promptly died a death, leaving Bridges to rue the day it slipped through the cracks.
He considers The Amateurs the single most underrated and overlooked entry in his filmography, but in classic Bridges fashion, he didn’t let its failure get under its skin. “You know what?” he asked, rhetorically, of course. “Shit happens, man.”
