In recent years, Jeff Bridges has been enjoying his status as a veteran actor who specialises in grizzled leaders (see The Giver, Seventh Son or of course True Grit).
Now with Hell or High Water Jeff Bridges has his best role since his Oscar-winning turn in Crazy Heart. Bridges plays the curmudgeonly, savvy Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton, quietly chasing down bank robbers Chris Pine and Ben Foster. "What I liked about this movie is that it's not all so cut and dried," Bridges says. "You just never can quite figure out who are the so-called good guys and who are the bad guys. I think there's a bit of good guy and bad guy in almost everyone in this film. Marcus is a man who not only is underestimated by other people, but I also think he, like a lot of us, underestimates himself."
The script is by Taylor Sheridan, who also wrote Sicario, and Bridges loves the way the story transcends the genres. "It's about these times today as much as the classic theme of the West fading," he says. "I guess all times change - that's a rule - but this movie's about these specific times and the power of money and banks and what that's doing to our society."
Bridges says these themes run deep through the culture. "I was reminded of the old Pogo cartoon: 'We have met the enemy and he is us!' It's an aspect of being human, constantly running into the darker sides of human nature. That includes selfishness and greed."
This idea of blurred morality made the project much more attractive to Bridges. "Morality is blurry, and so is reality," he says. "This is about two brothers who love their families and want to make sure their loved ones are taken care of. And they're willing to do anything to do that. And they end up robbing banks. That's interesting."
For the past 30 years, Bridges has been documenting his life on-set by taking black and white panoramic photographs, then presenting a book of the photos to the cast and crew at the end of the shoot. "You could say I'm kind of hooked on this particular camera," he says of the mechanical swing-lens gadget his wife Susan Geston gave him in 1984. "The Widelux is the bridge between motion pictures and still photography, almost like a 70mm cinematic projection. And this time the photographs are about hanging out with the guys."
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