For five decades, Tron: Aresstar Jeff Bridges has seasoned himself into a beloved leading man in cinema. From his early years as a twenty-something heartthrob in The Last Picture Showto his iconic turns as The Dude in The Big Lebowski and Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, the actor embodies a unique essence of cool unlike anyone in show business. Long before his days playing aging heroes of the old west and Hollywood slackers, Bridges steamed up the screen as a burned-out ex-football star romancing his old friend’s flame in Taylor Hackford’s Against All Odds.
Best remembered for its Oscar-nominated title track by Phil Collins, the 1984 romantic thriller was a loose remake of the 1946 novel Build My Gallows High by Daniel Mainwaring, which was adapted to screen as 1947’s Out of the Past, starring Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas. Though the original film played as a traditional detective film noir filled with betrayals and flashbacks, Against All Odds is completely driven by an emotionally compromising love triangle between stars Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James Woods. Within a world full of sun-soaked beaches and upper-class people caught up in waves of corruption is a performance by Bridges that puts his acting versatility and sex appeal on full display.
What Is ‘Against All Odds’ About?
In Southern California, Terry Brogan (Bridges) is down on his luck. Once a talented athlete, years on the football field have taken a physical toll on Terry, resulting in his being cut by the fictional pro team, the Outlaws. Not even the team owner, Mrs. Wyler (Jane Greer), and her business partner Ben (Richard Widmark) are willing to keep Terry on. Desperate for money, Terry takes up an offer from a former friend and shady nightclub owner, Jake Wise (Woods), to find his missing girlfriend Jessie (Ward), also the daughter of the Outlaws’ owner.
Terry’s search takes him to Mexico, where he ultimately finds Jessie at a market. After initial attempts to avoid him, Jessie ultimately develops a whirlwind romance with Terry, with the latter not alerting Jake about his discovery. Just as the love affair heats up, however, a tragedy in Mexico unfolds that splits Terry and Jessie apart. But not for very long when they reunite back in the States, just as Jake catches on to the romance.
‘Against All Odds’ Represents ’80s Excess
Against All Odds was released at a time in the ‘80s when movies like Scarface carried the theme of compromise and seduction in the dark side of Ronald Regan’s America. If Tony Montana was driven by the mirage of achieving the American dream, Bridges’ internally broken Terry needs football to survive. The muscular protagonist of Against All Odds, who rides a red Porsche and designer clothes, represents so many football stars who find themselves tossed aside and lost when their playing days are over. Terry’s desperation to be on the field, extending to his constant threats to the sleezy Outlaws lawyer (Saul Rubinek), is so intense that he’ll sink low for Jake not only to avoid being blackmailed for a past point-shaving incident, but also the slim chance of playing football again.
What changes Terry from a bitter athlete to finding something greater than himself is his encounter with Jessie. Ward’s role as Against All Odds’ femme fatale echoes her previous role as the alluring prostitute who Burt Reynolds obsessed over in Sharky’s Machine because she possesses the radiant natural beauty with shades of internal darkness. Jessie’s romance with Terry is far from heartwarming, as the imagery of their tropical-set love scenes may suggest. It’s the case of the athlete baring his soul without the materialism of the game and the woman trying to escape Jake’s cold grip, who finally discovers someone she can trust with her life. Together, the magnetic energy on screen with the forbidden romance between Bridges and Ward’s characters is reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall dynamic as seen in The Big Sleep and Key Largo.
Jeff Bridges Oozes Charisma in ‘Against All Odds’
At age 34 at the time of Against All Odds’s production, Bridges grew out of his youthful looks from The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to be an incredibly physical leading man in all his tanned glory. Yet, beneath the gladiator physique is a man in decay, both personally and professionally. He manages to balance two images at once, as Terry Brogan, one being an athlete in great shape, but extremely bitter about his time passing by. The other image is this highly sensual man whose love scenes with Ward are as raw and sweaty to the eye, but still manage to convey the sense of danger to the romance at the same time.
If there’s any moment in Against All Odds that foreshadows Bridges as a future Oscar winner, it has to be a crucial moment following Terry’s return to California when he confronts Jessie about the death of his former trainer (Alex Karras). Pinning Jessie against the wall, Terry seeks the truth both for his friend and the need to know the reality of their passionate feelings for each other. Bridges uses the physicality of his on-screen presence to express the intense emotions Terry has for Jessie and still manages to find a subtle nuance in the performance to show how any hope he had for a future has faded.
Bridges would get his share of other handsome leading man roles, ranging from the compassionate alien in Starman to the lonely math professor in The Mirror Has Two Faces. But his fine acting work in Against All Odds captured the edge of the morally compromised hero that served as a microcosm for ‘80s excess and greed.
Against All Odds is streaming on Sling TV in the US.
- Release Date
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March 2, 1984
- Runtime
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128 minutes
- Writers
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Daniel Mainwaring
- Producers
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William S. Gilmore
