Arthur
Swift
Jeff
Bridges for President. At least, for
Governor of California. But I’d like to
think big and say President. Jeff
Bridges may be the only actor who actually makes me believe that his on-screen
persona is the same as his off-screen life.
I know, he’s just an actor, a mere performer, but damn if he doesn’t
make you believe that he’s the nicest, most reasonable guy in the world. I don’t for a minute believe Arnold
Schwarzenegger is a terminating, predatory, last action hero. I don’t think the gang on Friends are
all chummy with each other either. The
folks on ER probably understand less of the medical lingo than I
do. But Jeff Bridges … I believe that
he is as genial, reasonable, good-natured, intelligent and soulful as the
characters he plays.
Does
he pick these characters because he knows they show off his personality? Or do the characters pick him? (Don’t say he is probably an abusive, moody,
incompetent in real life because that simply cannot be possible). In Seabiscuit, he is Charles Howard,
the visionary behind the Buick automobile.
Bridges is playing what must be the friendliest captain of industry
ever. It’s not possible that a businessman
who muscled his way into the fledgling car industry could be this benevolent
and decent, but somehow Bridges makes him so.
In reality, I’m sure the actual Howard was a snake in the grass, ruining
people’s lives as he put “little guys” out of business. How do I know this? From the example of every industrial success
story I’ve ever heard. People don’t
make it to the top without stepping on others!
Yet
with Jeff Bridges, he’s purely an innovator who accomplished with the car what
he couldn’t do with a bicycle. And when
cars interest him no longer, he moves on to horses, where, naturally, he
succeeds fantastically. This is not
meant at all to be sarcastic – I loved watching all the breaks go his way. They could have had him testing a prototype
for the first television set in Seabiscuit for all I cared, and I would
have gladly bought that he could also make that work.
Bridges
has been down this road before, in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988),
to be specific. Then he was Preston
Tucker, the glad-handling auto inventor who dreamed of making a groundbreaking
“car of tomorrow.” Once again, Bridges
does not play a schemer, but a dreamer … though he is also a realist. Being a realist is very important in being a
president. Jerry Brown, for all his bad
press as a kook, was Governor of California for eight successful years and if
he hadn’t had the misfortune of his chance for the Presidency arising in 1980,
when fellow Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter was running, he might have been
formidable in a national race. As he is
proving in the city of Oakland right now as Mayor, Jerry Brown mixes a
friendly, innovative spirit with hands-on realism. I think Brown and Bridges could be interchangeable. Twenty years of watching Mr. Bridges on
screen tells me so. Don’t tell me he’s
playing roles; he’s speaking directly to me.
As a voter.
Let’s
look at other examples of Bridges’ work to prove my thesis. In Arlington Road, he protected his
family (and the World at large) from terrorists. Fully two years before September 11 mind you! In Blown Away (1994), he was an
accomplished member of the Boston bomb squad, once again foiling terrorists,
bombers, and ne’er do wells. I’m
feeling safer already. In Fearless
(1993), he saves everyone in his reach from a fiery airplane crash. With a clear Jesus-like parallel, people
feel at home when they are in his presence.
And he extracts the only good acting Rosie Perez has ever done. So good that she was nominated for an
Academy Award and our hero was left out.
No matter. I’m sure Jeff Bridges
would have been right at home with the “Let’s Roll!” crowd on that heroic and
tragic flight that crashed on September 11.
And
of course there’s the big one. He
already has experience being the President because he actually played
the President in The Contender (2000).
This time rewarded with an Oscar nomination, Bridges was Clinton without
the screw-ups. An authentic liberal
fantasy that I bought hook, line and sinker.
Imagine if Bill Clinton had not pissed everything away by Monica’s
chowder. You would have Bridges’ President
Jackson Evans. Not as nice as Charles
Howard in Seabiscuit, Evans deals with far nastier people and situations
and still retains his charm. There’s no
feeling of seaminess watching that flick.
Clinton had such potential that everyone knows Bush wouldn’t even try
for. Jeff Bridges fulfilled the
reachable dream and let us see him in the Oval Office, where he belongs.
Jeff
Bridges must be President. He is our
only hope in 2004. He could be a model
of decency to us all and set an example for young men and women
everywhere. Wouldn’t it be nice to say
to your child, “Bradley (or whatever your tyke is named), look at the
President. That’s whom you should be
looking up to, dressing like. He says
we need to raise taxes to close the deficit, then that’s what we’re going to
do. Jeff Bridges would not lie to us.”
I
vaguely remember that Bridges played a killer in Jagged Edge (1985) and
had a wee bit of a drug problem in The Big Lebowski (1998). You know, what’s great about Jeff is that he
knows that he has to provide for his family by acting once in a while. He takes those roles so he can make the
money he needs to be himself in The Fisher King (1991) and K-PAX (2001). Shrewd man, that Jeff. I don’t think he’d mind if I called him
Jeff, so I’m going to do that from now on.
A President and his constituents should be on a first-name basis
anyway.
Whether
or not he actually makes it past the Corruptor in Chief we have now (of course,
Bridges is a Democrat. Sheesh.), I will
be always content watching Mr. Nice Guy on screen. Seabiscuit was lucky to have an owner like Jeff.
Copyright
2003 Arthur Swift. Originally published
August 20, 2003.