5 - The
Contender
4 - Starman
3 - The Last Picture Show
2 - The Fisher King
1 - The Big Lebowski

I was heartened by the response to our most recent Top
Five, because it tells me that people do pay attention to character actors. Jeff
Bridges has been the star of many movies, but he's not a "movie star." He isn't
John Travolta or Will Smith. But he has been very reliable for going on 40 years
now, and I think we've got a pretty representative list, so thanks for
remembering The Last Picture Show in your voting.
There were only a couple performances I felt really
could've made this list that didn't, Fearless and Tron. But his also-rans are
highlights on most other resumes: The Door in the Floor, Wild Bill,
Fat City, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Seabiscuit, The Fabulous Baker Boys,
Iron Man, Arlington Road, Blown Away, The Vanishing, Jagged Edge, The Morning
After, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and The Iceman Cometh.
Our list begins with The Contender, in which he's
playing a kind of fictionalized Bill Clinton. Now, he looks more like a
Clinton-Bush hybrid. Bridges has always played comedy well, and this is one of
the better examples, in a movie that's way too damn serious for its own good.
Starman is probably the least heralded title here,
even though it's the only Oscar-nominated performance to ever come from a John
Carpenter movie. The truth is, the movie doesn't hold up around his performance
very well. It's clearly a one-man show, but in terms of his command
performances, it might be fourth on that list.
The Last Picture Show is the role that signaled
Bridges' true arrival in Hollywood at the age of 21. All of a sudden, he wasn't
just Lloyd Bridges kid, anymore. I like the book more than the movie, but I
thought Bridges and Oscar winner Cloris Leachman were quite good in the film, as
was Ben Johnson, who beat Bridges for the Best Supporting Actor award that year.
But how Bridges missed getting a nomination for The
Fisher King is beyond me. Robin Williams and Mercedes Reuhl received
envelopes for their work, but in a Best Actor field that included Hannibal
Lecter, Bugsy Malone, De Niro from Cape Fear, and regrettably, Nick Nolte
from The Prince of Tides, there just wasn't enough room for both Bridges
and Williams. I think the Academy would switch Fisher King nominees now
if they could.
Personally, it's my favorite Bridges performance, though I
understand why The Dude tops our list. He also didn't get nominated for
Lebowski or Fearless, and you figure one of those should've been in
the mix. He has four nominations to date, but he probably deserved at least two
more.
Finally, there's The Dude. Why? Because he's The Dude.
For
next week, we have a big ol' grab bag of movie passes and DVDs. Here's the way this works, as always.
If you're a local - meaning, if you live in or around Phoenix - we'll hook you
up with movie passes, either to The Express or to Clint Eastwood's The
Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie.
As for the DVDs, we've got a bunch of one-offs, so if
you're interested, let me know and I'll send you a list after you win.
To get in the running, you just need to help us with next
week's Top Five List, which should be as good as this week's: The Top Five
Ridley Scott Movies.
Talk about a career. Man, I can think of some hall-of-famers
right off the top of my head.
Help us out and win.
Shoot us an e-mail with your votes, and please
include your mailing address, and you'll have until Thursday night October 9th at 10pm Pacific
to get us your lists (Monday night the 6th if you want to see The Express). Please remember to include your mailing address.