Crazy Heart

I just finished watching Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I think Jeff Bridges deserved the Best Actor Oscar he won based on this performance as Bad Blake. The movie showed the modern Southwest as Bad Blake performed in small town bars and bowling alleys. It also showed the contrast between the old style of Country Western music and the new style of country music. Bad Blake represented the old cowboy type of musician who drove around with his guitar, drank, smoked and wrote music. Colin Farrell's character, Tommy Sweet, showed the new style of country musician by traveling around in a tour bus and having people write songs for him. I liked how the movie portrayed Tommy Sweet as appreciative and content enough in his success to thank Blake for helping him along the way instead of as a snotty rich musician. The themes of this movie were the old style of the country musician versus the new style of the western musician. This related to the "New West" as opposed to the "Old West". The old musician and the old west represent simplicity, freedom, individualism and American ideals, while the new represents flashy buildings, money, industry and the loss of individualism. Overall I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would and would recommend it anybody who likes movies that focus primarily on a single character and his quest to find himself.