The psychedelic 1968 movie that widened Jeff Bridges’ mind: “What the hell is going on?”
For better or worse, whenever you think of Jeff Bridges on the big screen, drugs will probably be the first thing that comes to mind, thanks entirely to the Coen brothers’ Big Lebowski.
The actor’s legacy has become defined by ‘The Dude’, one of the most iconic cult characters in cinema history, and a badge of honour he’s proud to wear. And to think, he was initially reluctant to accept the part because he wasn’t sold on the character’s defining trait being how stoned he was all the time.
Of course, Bridges is no stranger to the green herb in his private life, either, and it’s even assisted his career, with the veteran admitting that his grandstanding monologue in The Contender, which earned him a ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Oscars, was given while he was high as a fucking kite.
Funnily enough, he was also somewhat familiar with psychedelics in his younger days, with Bridges happily dropping LSD during the time he spent as one of the earliest test subjects for research into sensory deprivation, but at least he was tripping balls in the name of science.
As an aspiring actor and musician from the early 1960s on, it was almost inevitable that he’d come into contact or dabble with the illicit delicacies that ran rampant in Hollywood, especially when he had so many ins and connections to the industry anyway thanks to his father, Lloyd.
In 1976, fresh from his first Oscar nod for Michael Cimino’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Bridges worked with director Bob Rafelson on Stay Hungry, which featured an early role for Arnold Schwarzenegger. The erstwhile ‘Dude’ was already familiar with his work, though, having experienced a late-60s cult favourite that was like a fever dream come to life.
“I remember seeing the trailer for Head and feeling knocked out, and saying, ‘What the hell is going on?'” the star reflected. “The trailer ended with them saying, ‘You have just been given three minutes of head! I thought, ‘This is wild!’ I was a big Beatles fan, so the Monkees were an Americanised version of them, and seeing the Monkees in Victor Mature’s hair! Yeah, I was excited!”
The trailer had told him everything that he needed to know about Head, and when it was released in cinemas in November 1968, Bridges felt obligated to check it out. What he got was the film Jack Nicholson considers the greatest rock and roll movie ever made, but he would say that, seeing as he co-wrote it with Rafelson.
Is it possible to enjoy Head without being under the influence? It is, but that clearly wasn’t the way the filmmakers intended it to be viewed. Bridges was already dabbling at the time, so who’s to say he wasn’t one of the many who caught it on the big screen while absolutely rubbered out of their cupboard?
