Jeff Bridges has not aged all that well. The face is puffy. The jawline has slackened. The eyelids hang limp. And is that an age spot on his cheek? Despite all that, at 61, he is still magnificent.
That's certainly what the recently-released "American Masters" documentary on Bridges wants us to conclude: that he remains "the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor that has ever lived." As the PBS season-opener is aptly subtitled, "The Dude Abides." (Bridges starred as a slacker nicknamed "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski.)
It wasn't hard to get on board with all that. And then his co-stars began weighing in. Cybill Shepherd, Mercedes Ruehl, and Karen Allen. I noticed that they, too, are still magnificent. And yet I haven't seen them starring on the big screen lately.
Then again, in what roles could a woman possibly be "natural" and un-"self-conscious" in later life? In what roles could she sympathetically present herself as puffy, slackened, and limp?
Hollywood narratives simply cannot accommodate women beyond the marriage plot. Once she passes Dora the Explorer age, at puberty, a woman's story (note the singular) revolves around sex and romance. She is handmaiden to heterosexual men. When Clint Eastwood reinvented himself in "Unforgiven," her territory suddenly expanded. Lucky her, now she can serve as savior to the washed-up, burned-out anti-hero seeking redemption -- whether he is a country singer (like Bridges in Crazy Heart) or a wrestler (like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler). The Dude gets to grow up and take on the serious stuff. Our cultural fascination with adolescent boys now extends to his late-life meditations on mortality. Or else, what would Clint and Mickey and Jeff do?
Even today, in our supposedly "post-feminist" age, this entrenched storytelling tradition appears impossible for women to buck. When Ulysses set off on his epic quest, Penelope sat home weaving, diligently putting off those annoying suitors. And then, when from Tennyson the aged king received his best role ever, Penelope was nowhere in sight.
Hollywood acting "masters" can snag Academy Awards for their memento mori ("remember you shall die") roles of Shakespearean magnitude, while "middle-aged" actresses face a choice between comic sex stories or the chaste matriarch. The Dude does indeed abide in our cultural imagination, and the best we can manage for his leading lady is a cameo appearance in his PBS documentary.
There have been notable exceptions to the script, of course, but it didn't end well for Thelma and Louise. Helen Mirren is taking her shot at it, but by appropriating the male lead in Julie Taymor's gender-bending remake of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Hollywood still hasn't been able to provide Mirren with a magnificent female role equal to the Jane Tennison she portrayed on British TV's "Prime Suspect" series.
Alas, if Jeff Bridges were a woman, there would be no late-great roles to play, no Oscar to win, and no PBS documentary to film.
Follow Ann Daly, PhD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/anndaly
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But too often, the takeaway is Hollywood is a sexist (or racist, ageist, homophobic) place. It's easy and satisfying to blame a faceless institution for inequity rather than look inward. But the underlying fact is that Hollywood is a monetocracy: money rules; in the hearts of film executives money trumps prejudice and ideology every time.
Somewhere there is market research saying a well-made movie starring Bridges or Eastwood will turn a tidy profit, so that's what we get. If the spreadsheet suggested audiences would flock to movies about aging black lesbians, they'd give us that ad nauseum. If it showed we'd pay to see movies about alcoholic hermaphrodites from outer space, "Return to the Planet of the Alcoholic Hermaphrodites" would be in post-production for a Valentine's weekend release. Hollywood is as neutral as your bathroom mirror; it merely reflects those who gaze into it.
So, why do we audiences--both male and female--allow a Bridges or Eastwood to carry big blockbuster films in ways we don't allow a Mirren or Streep? I'm not sure. But I do know that the fault lies not in our movie stars but in ourselves. Discovering why this unreasonable prejudice lurks within so many of us would say a lot about who we are.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2010/11/patti_smith_national_book_award.php
It's called conditioning. Then they tell you how "natural" the behaviour is.
If Jeff bridges was a woman, we'd be acutely disappointed, he's one of those actors we really like!!
But you do make a fair point. Things are out of sync. And female life is most-ly about "sex and romance" and pleasing the male mind. In real life. And on screen.
Even though it's now the 21st Century!!
If one wants to keep one's job/career/man/marriage..... One has to please the male mind.
Of course this means we reward their bad behaviour without meaning to and keep the very problem going. So it goes.... But if you wont do it, another woman will. And that's the a whole other problem!!
The Matriarchal thing is still good for Jewish descent, but the World is a Patriarchal society for everything else.
For all the advances Feminism/Women have made, yes, there's still areas that need some balance.
Perhaps what we need are good men like Bridges to champion that...?? Or men who love their daughters dearly??
Julia Roberts does not want to do romantic comedies, Meg Ryan let it all slip through her fingers, Debra Winger got distracted by life, you see where I'm going with this? Sandra Bullock seems game to do the stuff that is needed to keep her core audience happy: essentially make the same films over and over. Female Stars get Oscar fever and never look back. It's ironic that Meryl Streep started courting the mass audience late in her career, essentially doing a reverse. Now what about TV? CSI, Damages, Army Wives? See, your argument is silly. Middle aged and older women work all the time. When they make broad, mass appealing fare, they have a shot at boxoffice. It's ironic that Jeff Bridges is finally being applauded for 'True Grit' (gun in hand) at the boxoffice. Crazy Heart of course did not make big boxoffice (no gun in hand). Bridges avoided the mega-budget "hero" roles most of his life (King Kong, Blown Away being exceptions), and quietly assembled an amazing body of work. If you want to watch an amazing older woman in action I suggest you check out Kathy Bates in Harry's Law this season on TV. It should rock!
And you know what? He actually doesn't look that bad.
Why not just let him enjoy his late life glory rather than try to bring him down to make a feminist point?
A good story is what it would take to get those young males in to see a mature woman.
But good scripts seem to be few and far between in the Hollywood of little imagination these days.
I had a son in that desired age bracket for awhile and he went to see Fried Green Tomatoes for a line in the ad that made him laugh and the stars were two older women, he was not disappointed.
I am happy to see that the same big stars that used to pull them in the first weekend are failing.
Would be a welcome change to have the script rather than the star drive the success of the film opening weekend.