Si James Bridges, (ipinanganak noong Pebrero 3, 1936, Paris, Arkansas, US — namatay noong Hunyo 6, 1993, Los Angeles, California), artista ng Amerikano, screenwriter, at direktor na pinakilala sa The China Syndrome (1979) at Urban Cowboy (1980).
Quiz
Pelikula ng Pelikula: Fact o Fiction?
Walang tahimik na pelikula ang nanalo ng isang Academy Award.
Sinimulan ng Bridges ang kanyang karera sa libangan bilang isang artista, at ang mga unang kredito ay nagsasama ng mga bahagi ng mga palabas sa telebisyon at isang pinagbibidahan na papel bilang Tarzan sa underground na film na Warren at Jane Regained
Pagsunud-sunurin ng (1964). Gayunpaman, sa kalaunan ay nakatuon siya sa pagtatrabaho sa likod ng camera. Isinulat niya ang mahusay na natanggap na sasakyan na Marlon Brando na The Appaloosa (1966), pati na rin ang maraming mga episode ng The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Noong 1970 Bridges parehong scripted at nakadirekta Ang Baby Maker, isang drama na may mababang badyet tungkol sa isang walang anak na mag-upa ng isang hippie (nilalaro ni Barbara Hershey) upang maglingkod bilang isang sumuko na ina, na may hindi inaasahang resulta.
Ang mas malawak na nakikita ay ang The Paper Chase (1973), isang dula tungkol sa isang freshman ng Harvard Law School (Timothy Bottoms) na nagpupumilit na mabuhay ang mga rigors ng kanyang gawain sa kurso kasama ang hinihinging Propesor Kingsfield (John Houseman, na nanalo ng Academy Award para sa kanyang papel) habang pinagmumura ang anak na walang bayad na anak na babae ng propesor (Lindsay Wagner). Ang pagbagay ni Bridges sa nobelang mapagkukunan ay hinirang din sa Oscar, at ang tanyag na pelikula ay kalaunan ay inangkop sa isang matagumpay na serye sa telebisyon.
Bridges next wrote and directed 9/30/55 (1978; also known as September 30, 1955), a dramatization of a fan (Richard Thomas) struggling to come to grips with the death of idol James Dean in 1955. However, it was the suspenseful The China Syndrome (1979) that became Bridges’s first breakout hit. Jane Fonda played a television reporter who stumbles onto a cover-up at a nuclear power plant that nearly suffered a meltdown, and Jack Lemmon portrayed the engineer who blows the whistle on his criminally negligent superiors. Both actors were Oscar-nominated, as was Bridges for cowriting the prescient original screenplay. The film received an enormous boost when, a few weeks after it opened, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Pennsylvania.
Bridges also scored big with Urban Cowboy (1980), a formulaic but entertaining story about a young Texas construction worker (John Travolta) who lets his marriage to independent Sissy (Debra Winger) disintegrate while he struggles to be accepted in the world of Gilley’s, the famed Houston honky-tonk, with its mechanical bull and competitive dance floors. Cowritten by Bridges, Urban Cowboy was a box office hit and spawned a best-selling sound track. Bridges next wrote the existential murder mystery Mike’s Murder for his longtime friend Winger, but the studio rejected the cut he delivered in 1982, and the film remained on the shelf until 1984, when a much-edited version was released to critical and commercial failure.
Bridges’s next film, Perfect (1985), centred on the new subculture of health clubs. It starred Travolta as a bright but unscrupulous Rolling Stone reporter on the trail of a story and Jamie Lee Curtis as the club instructor he first exploits, then falls in love with. Perfect, which was coscripted by Bridges, was widely panned and failed to find an audience. In 1988 he helmed his last film, Bright Lights, Big City, an intelligent but curiously flat adaptation of the Jay McInerney best seller about the club-and-cocaine scene in 1980s New York City. Two years later Clint Eastwood directed White Hunter, Black Heart, which was based on a script cowritten by Bridges. Diagnosed with cancer, Bridges died in 1993. In 1999 the main screening venue of the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media was renamed the James Bridges Theater.
