Forgotten Film Friday: Fearless

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

Jeff Bridges is Max Klein, a man who survives a plane crash. When he walks away from the crash basically unharmed, he begins to think he is indestructible and that life needs to be lived to the fullest and not wasted. That's as basic an explanation I can give for a film like Fearless, released in 1993 and directed by Peter Weir. It's more of a character study than anything but it's a fascinating one. This is a film one should just kind of experience for themselves. Depending on someone's religious or spiritual beliefs, whatever you want to call it, reactions to this film will be different.

Fearless will not work for everyone. I could see someone being pissed off by it, to be frank. But to me, it's a study on our connection to both this world and whatever is next. What happens when someone has a near-death experience? When they peak behind the curtain so to speak? Max comes close to the brink of death and when he comes back, he knows he's a changed man.

Jeff Bridges is the number one reasons to see this movie. This is one of Bridges finest performances, as he plays a man who is both free of earthly concerns and also a prisoner to the trauma he has experienced. Bridges finds the balance between a man with no concern for anything and a man who is a second away from a full mental breakdown. It's not unlike the performance he gave in The Fisher King but here I think the performance is a little stronger. I love The Fisher King to be sure but the madness Bridges is playing in that is also due to the fact it's a Terry Gilliam movie and that comes with the turf. A character might be made in a Gilliam film but so is the world around them. In Fearless it's a little more reserved. Max has changed but the world has not.

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