Crazy Heart Earns Top Oscar Nominations

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joe_Hansen/466845]Joe Hansen 

"Crazy Heart," the drama starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal earned top nominations at the recent announcement of nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards. The movie received three Oscar nods including no less than a Best Actor nomination for Jeff Bridges, Best Supporting Actress for Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Best Original Song for "The Weary Kind," which was co-written by T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham. 

Since its release last year, the movie has already sent the country music blog universe abuzz with its country music theme and of course, Bridges' performance as Bad Blake, a country music songwriter singing self-penned country songs. In the movie, Blake is down and out and already way past his prime but decides to turn his life around when he meets Jean, a young journalist played by Gyllenhaal. The screenplay was written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on the novel of the same name written by Thomas Cobb. 

Aside from the lead actors' stellar performance, the movie has also gained the admiration of country music fans for its authenticity and in fact, this is what drew Bridges to the project. Bridges admits he felt right at home while doing the movie. According to him, "Music's been a big part of my life for years. Did a record a while back. I really dig country music." Anybody who has seen the movie will also agree, and in fact this is the general consensus in the top country music blogs, that Bridges did play the role to a T. In fact, he enjoyed singing the country songs in the movie's soundtrack. "They were all damn good tunes, and damn fun to play. That 'Hold on You,' I just loved that. I loved that 'Fallin' and Flyin'' song, a Stephen Burton song. And Ryan Bingham wrote one called 'The Weary Kind' that sticks with me, too." 

When asked from whom he drew the inspiration to play the lead part, Bridges said, "Kris Kristofferson was one of the fellows I thought about for looking at how to play Bad Blake [his character in the film]. But my biggest role model was a fellow named Stephen Bruton, played with Kristofferson for years. He was a songwriter out of Austin, a guitar player who made these wonderful, sparse albums with Kris. He was my right-hand man, with me every step of the way, teaching me the songs. The movie is dedicated to him. We had a wonderful time, the last few months of his life, working on this together."

With his recent nomination, Bridges seem to be enjoying this unexpected bit of news. After hearing of the nomination, he said, "I'm so grateful to have the honor of a fifth Oscar nomination, but to share this with my Crazy Heart colleagues T Bone and Ryan and my amazing co-star Maggie is truly special - this film is near and dear to my heart and theirs. I want to thank the Academy for being so kind to me for the past 40 years, and I want to thank my director Scott Cooper for helping bring Bad Blake to life, and to my wonderful wife Sue for being there for me the past 33 years. Today is filled with blessings."

The country music blog community, the music fans and, and the whole community will surely be rooting for this film come Oscar night. 

The full list of nominees can be seen here: http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html

Joe Hansen is a music expert, specialized in country songs reviews.

For more tips and information about country music blog [http://www.countrymusicblog.org], please visit country songs [http://www.countrymusicblog.org].

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Crazy-Heart-Earns-Top-Oscar-Nominations&id=3731043] Crazy Heart Earns Top Oscar Nominations