Jagged Edge (1985)

A good film with great performances and even greater music

Well, Jeff Bridges was sexy as all get out, but when is he not?

Even better than Basic Instinct

I remember thinking it was an awesome film back in the 80s and I wanted Jeff Bridges inside me. I thought he was equally perfect on a horse or in a business suit. I was so jealous of Glenn Close. A bit of shame about the murder part.

My best girlfriend went with me to see it. She happened to be an attorney and she thought Glenn Close's tight skirt were ridiculous. She hardly noticed Bridges.

Did G win the Oscar for that role?

R5 o, but I did

The one with Cher as the lawyer(lol) was better.

The typewriter, right? Or am I mixing up my legal thrillers? And yes, when is Jeff Bridges not hot?

Jeff Bridges in his prime. So good-looking and great screen presence.

He is innocenT

"Fuck him, he was trash."

Still a great line.

Jeff Bridges was probably the sexiest actor I’ve seen on screen. And I’m of a younger generation then he’s from so he’s not even a contemporary. Any 80s film I’ve seen him in he’s drool worthy. I’ll always watch Against All Odds if it’s on because of him.

JE was a good film. She really got played.

R8, correct. Typewriter.

Roger Ebert wrote a positive review. In one of his books he said that in his early screening, the audience didn't understand who the killer was. The "unmasking" was so brief some people thought it was Jeff Bridges, while others recognized Peter Coyote or Robert Loggia.

Since Robert Loggia was standing over the dead body as it was unmasked, that would have been quite the trick.

R14 and R15 or the tennis pro.

The typewriter with the faulty 'T' told everyone it was Jeff.

So was this the original slick “sec thriller” before they reversed genders and put Michael Douglas in all of them?

I mean, basically right? Joe Esterhaz even wrote it.

While I think Glenn Close was terrific in the film, it was originally written with Lucie Arnaz in mind and she turned it down because she didn't want to shoot on location and wanted to focus on her new sitcom. It would have been interesting to see the sexual dynmaic beteween Lucie and Jeff Bridges as I think it would have been Basic Instinct before Basic Instint. Lucie is also a more nuanced actor than Close so could have brought a whole nother level to the film.

Agreed, r7.

Glenn Close didn't dress like a lawyer. Her skirts were too tight.

I didn't like the last line of the movie.

[Quote]The typewriter with the faulty 'T' told everyone it was Jeff.

Contrivance with a C. Why would he keep that typewriter?

[quote] could have brought a whole nother level to the film.

Nothing made you hesitate about typing that?

R14

I saw the movie ages ago, but I do remember being briefly confused by the reveal.

R21

I meant, I DID like the last line of the movie.

“Sex thriller” , duh

Yes to Leigh Taylor Young! What a whore on the stand!

First I’ve heard of Lucie Arnaz’s nuanced acting skills. I guess I haven’t seen her in anything.

I was in love with Glenn's gorgeous high-1980s power-lawyer professional clothing, including the era's longer skirts and high cha-cha heels. You know, the meat of what made the movie important. ;)

I liked the way Glenn dressed in the film

Lucie Arnaz a better actor than Glenn Close?

[quote] "Fuck him, he was trash." Still a great line.

Maybe my favorite ending line of all time.

And I remember very well exiting the theater with lots of people asking was that him? Who was that? That reveal was really was poorly shot. I can't believe no one caught that in editing or previewing it.

I was never a fan of Basic Instinct. Hated it in fact, but this movie was good. I had no idea Joe E wrote it.

I thought Basic Instinct was too convoluted story-wise but I liked the acting dynamic between Douglas and Stone. And of course the music was outstanding.

Jagged Edge, Black Widow The Mean Season all good films within a few years of each other…

R34 You cannot forget Jeanne Tripplehorn too!

I’ve never heard of The Mean Season before your post, R35. Wikipedia says it’s a thriller with social themes. Would you mind giving a brief synopsis of what that means? I love Black Widow and I respect Jagged Edge.

R37 the Mean Season refers to hurricane season. I think it took place in Florida?

Correction, just shitty hot weather, not hurricabes

The You Must Remember This pod cast did an episode recently on Jagged Edge.

You could get that rope at any Safeway.

Peter Coyote was sex on a stick in that movie.

I love this film. I'll watch it any time I see it listed on the telly.

Glenn was trying to transition into sexier roles.

Glenn transitioned at last when she played Albert Nubes in 2011.

Just watch this cheesy, preposterous B movie. It seemed like an episode of a Perry Mason.

Jeff Bridges' psycho is the blandest and most uninteresting psycho I've ever seen in a thriller.

Bridges and Glenn Close have zero chemistry.

Close's defense attorney makes Cher in Suspect seem intelligent.

The subplot involving a client of hers who committed suicide in prison and all the scenes with her ex-husband and their children feel expendable and drag the film's pace.

The last act falls apart. What was she planning to do with that typewriter?

and BTW who keeps and leaves a hunting knife in their locker at a Country Club?

Not to derail the thread, but The Mean Season is pretty good. Kurt Russell's a burnt out reporter getting phone calls from serial killer Richard Jordan. Richard then gets jealous of Kurt's fame in presenting the story and kidnaps his girlfriend, Mariel Hemingway. All this, and a cameo from Edna Buchanan.

You sluts might enjoy this:

In 1985 Close starred in the legal thriller Jagged Edge, opposite Jeff Bridges. Initially, Jane Fonda was attached to the role, but was replaced with Close when she requested changes in the script. Producer Martin Ransohoff was against the casting of Close because he said she was "too ugly" for the part. Close eventually heard about this and said she didn't want Ransohoff on set while she was making her scenes. Director Richard Marquand stood by her side and sent Ransohoff away. Infuriated, Ransohoff went to the studio heads trying to get Close and Marquand fired from the picture. The studio refused, stating they were pleased with their work in the film. Jagged Edge received favorable to positive reviews and grossed $40-million on a $15-million budget.

No, she doesn't come to "doubt his innocence." She FINDS THE TYPEWRITER. EOS, no interim time for "doubt."

Particularly after she types out letters and finds the one off-centered key as on the weird notes. (I watched this movie again this year, but forgot some things.)

I thought this was a good thriller. The twist is clever.

R48 that's really nasty of him

Isn't this the one with the courtroom scene in which Glenn's outfit keeps changing, but no one notices?

I love this movie and I loved Suspect with Cher. I loved Glenn's wardrobe! Absolutely. Why doesn't anyone ever talk about Liam Neeson's homeless guy in Suspect? Oh. Because in THIS thread we're talking about Jagged Edge, and honey I adored Robert Loggia. I loved Glenn's relationship with him, too. I mourned his passing. Leigh Taylor Young was really good. She played her part well. And so did that Tennis Pro. He was menacing. Jane Fonda would have been wrong for this.

R52, But did you adore Robert Loggia as long as I did, from his "T.H.E. Cat" days?

I think "Suspect" is excellent. Courtroom scenes as well as outside-courtroom scenes maintain a good pace; the clues and red herrings are clever; the guilty person is satisfying.

Why not Cher as a Public Defender?

Jagged Edge was actually kind of scary. The whole ski mask intruder. Shudder. I thought Suspect was weak when I saw it in the theatre with my friend Paul but we supported anything Cher. We also saw Big Business at the theatre near the Ansonia…all the gays were there for Bette and the dykes for Lily and the crowd was primed. The best was seeing Hairspray at the old Waverly on Sixth Avenue where it was sold out and we actually sat in the aisle. Can you imagine? We were 17 or 18.

R49 why wouldn't the killer have ditched that typewriter and why did he use a typewriter with a faulty F to begin with? To make it easier to identify him as the one who was sending her notes? Preposterous!

I want you to look like your life has been shattered.

My life has been shattered!

Jeff Bridges was extremely hot in King Kong.

El Feugo Bacca!!!! Disney. Robert Loggia.

Elfego Baca.

[quote]The best was seeing Hairspray at the old Waverly on Sixth Avenue

Actually the best was seeing Six Degrees of Separation there, r54. It was a meta moment when you see the theater you're sitting in suddenly up on the screen.

Joe Eszterhas had a thing for Jane Fonda. He wrote this and Music Box for her.

He writes a lot about her in his book Hollywood Animal.

R55, Maybe to type more letters. Also, it's possible he never noticed the wonky letter. Furthermore, ego.

Criminals often blunder!

R61/r62 do tell. He’s a creep but a creep with a lot of great stories.

I had the same experience R60 at the Waverly

He wrote a script called Rowdy that Alan J Pakula wanted to do with Jane and Burt Reynolds. but both stars passed on it.

He and Jane tried to make her Karen Silkwood film.

He wanted Jane for Jagged Edge but producer Martin Ransohoff didn't like her.

Such a good film! Underrated

and I think it's overrated Mrs. Chadwick!

no tension, no thrills, plodding and unconvincing

Wasn't this Glenn's first major role as a leading lady? All her movies before had been supporting roles or ensemble casts.

Well, there's Maxie (1985)

She starred in The Natural alongside Redford and Duvall in 1984

Siskel and Ebert.

POURING rain, flashing lightning, scary music: 'Jagged Edge' begins with all this and more at a lonely beach house, and seems to be signaling at least a hint of irony in the midst of all this crashing melodrama. However, the sequence is in deadly earnest, and it proves to be no less graceful for the rest of the movie. 'Jagged Edge' has harsh lighting, blunt performances, and artless, no-nonsense dialogue relieved by the occasional bit of excess color. For instance, a judge addressing trial lawyers: 'I'll tell you now, I see this trial degenerating and I'll hit you like a freight train coming down the High Sierra!' Janet Maslin NY Times

Joe E seemed to use a plot device that he repeated in Basic Instinct. Have someone commit a crime that is later duplicated and used as a defense.

^ at least Stone was an interesting and ambiguous character whereas Jeff Bridges is wholesomely dull

Absolutely enjoyable film that holds up to repeated viewings.

My only qualm is that Jeff Bridges didn't show his dong.

Of course, r58, r59! Elfego Baca was the most handsome RL ever was!

Topic: The idea of a "practice" or "red herring" murder was in Agatha Christie's "Three Act Tragedy" (aka "Murder In Three Acts").

I miss films like this and Suspect and others mentioned, Black Widow: thrillers for adults.

I also miss good courtroom thrillers.

I want to like this movie more than I do. But it’s flat and uninteresting and too much like Basic Instinct, which is way more entertaining and benefits from the gender swap.

Glenn is also an unattractive and bland lead.

^ and Close and Bridges have absolutely no chemistry. Their scenes don't sizzle, and Bridges is a bland, unmemorable psychopath.

R68, "...no thrills, no tension" because there is almost zero time-lapse and build-up to the final unmasking. Oh, there's a tense moment at the car, post-typewriter discovery, but so transitory as to be worthless. Frankly, I expected the reveal to be a different person (tennis boy, maybe)!98

But even so, I still really like this film!

R80 she wasn’t “fuckable enough!”

Glenn Close showed off her fantastic booty in those business skirts.

You murder your wife to take all her money. That is the oldest crime in the world. Only you're real smart so you make it look like some fucking Charlie Manson did it. You want people to say Jesus, You think he could have done that to his own wife? If I was gonna kill my wife that's the way I'd do it.

Jeff likes to brush his hair with his hand. is that revealing?

My favorite of those legal thrillers was Prime Suspect with Richard Gere and Edward Norton.

Robert Loggia is over-the-top here.

I'll take the case on one condition. If you lie to me or if I think you're guilty I'm gonna drop out/That's not a professional attitude, and you know it!

Did your mother every wash your mouth out with soap and water?

Yeah but it didn't do any fucking good.

I'm gonna nail you to the wall!

If only Glenn could have done Showgirls for Joe E.

[quote]Starring Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Robert Loggia, Peter Coyote, John Dehner, Lance Henrisken, Marshall Colt, James Karen, and Leigh Taylor Young.

I'm sorry. Would you please not arrange the cast list in reverse order?

The '80s was really the decade of the erotic thriller, wasn't it?

Really good movie. Jeff Bridges... gorgeous.

too bad Jane Fonda didn't play the defense attorney. Fonda would have been a more interesting and believable choice for the role and would have created the necessary tension. It would have reunited her with her Morning After costar Jeff Bridges They had more chemistry than Close and Bridges.

He's either telling the truth or the kind of ice-cold psychopathic that even the machine can't melt.

Can a lawyer still represent her client once she starts sleeping with him? Isn't that a conflict of interest?

Karen Austin was terrific as Julie Jensen.

She tells him to wear a blue suit in court but he wears a brown one and she doesn't comment.

Jagged Edge was made the year before The Morning After.

The prosecution gets scared - "Jesus Christ, how did you miss this?!/ She came to us. How was I supposed to know?!"

[Quote]Jagged Edge was made the year before The Morning After.

true my mistake though I saw the Morning After in 1986 and The Jagged Edge only recently and otherwise what I said holds true.

Fonda would have been a more interesting and believable choice for the role and would have created the necessary tension. She and Bridges had more chemistry in The Morning After than Close and Bridges in The Jagged Edge

Fonda has had sort of an odd career if you look at her filmography. She worked rarely in the 1980s and the films aren't as good as they might have been. She's ten years older than Close, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I watched this movie on VHS when it came out in the eighties, and I had no problem identifying Bridges when the mask came off. When I read what Ebert wrote in Movies on Video book, I was like "huh"?

I agree, R104. I never had any trouble identifying Bridges in the unmasking. I remember in college my best friend and I going to movies with other students. We'd always be surprised at all the stuff they missed or threads they didn't tie together. So many Americans seem to need everything overly explained to them or they just don't get it.

R86, Slow clap.

Yes, Jane Fonda. Ten years older and 2 Oscars richer.

Great ending

It's not "The Jagged Edge." It's "Jagged Edge."

^One thing is for sure it's not edge of your seat

It has one of those scenes where someone drives off in anger and leaves the other person having to find their way home. Hey - You're my ride!

Another movie for Joe E set in Frisco. Also I think the judge lived in same hilltop house used in Basic Instinct and Sudden Fear.

[...]

Peter Coyote was hot in this

I found Peter Coyote really hot in the '80s, especially in this and Outrageous Fortune. r114

R115 and ET

How can you defend me if you think I'm guilty?/ It happens all the time. It's how our legal system works.

I bet you're a cold fuck.

What do you want, Mr Slade?

You really think you're something, don't cha? You twist everything around, don't cha? You just don't give a shit. I bet I can warm you up. I bet I can make you feel hot.

R71 She was in The Natural for under 15 minutes.

Glenn Close was in a Merchant Ivory film.

She left The Bostonians to be in The Natural. Vanessa Redgrave replaced her. She was then in Le Divorce.

He didn't do it/ Is that your head talking or another part of your anatomy? Hey, ok. What the hell? Fuck me!

He's not a psychopath. He is an ice man. He is a monster!/ You're the monster!!

R51 - there is a jump from the opening statements to the prosecution's first witness with Glenn, Jeff and Peter Coyote all wearing different clothes.

Something I recall in connection with this movie is that People magazine's movie critic of that era seemed to hate Glenn Close, for some reason. He made fun of the scene in Jagged Edge in which her character is surprised by unfavorable testimony and covers her mouth in horror, in full view of the jury. Then, in his best/worst list of 1985, he credited Close with giving three of the year's worst performances (Jagged Edge and her dual role in Maxie).

Suspect, which has come up a couple of times in the thread, was a good B-movie, IMO. It wasn't inherently great material, but it was a better movie than it could have been: well acted and atmospheric. I remember Roger Ebert's observation (in a mixed review) about how the movie underlines that all of the characters are "homeless," not just the literally homeless man. They have places they sleep and exist, but their lives aren't full.

It's basically preposterous and has the feel of a Lifetime woman in peril movie

Bridges in "Winter Kills" (1979) is flagrantly hot. Not much of a movie, but it really doesn't matter.

R126 looks big

Glenn just isn't sexy. She's what they call a "handsome" woman. I recently re-watched Fatal Attraction, and I found the sex scenes gross.

^ = Cher.

R60 R65 It happened to me too at the Waverly, but this time the movie was Mean Streets.

Jagged Edge is an example of a movie that seems to come to an end (with Bridges’ acquittal) but instead of a wrap-up scene or two, keeps going. By the time we see Close doing some routine chore, it is clear that there is another twist on the way, and at least to me, since Bridges had been acquitted, it seemed obvious what it was going to be. When she goes searching through the closet, I suspected what she would find. But don’t get me wrong—seeing something play out as you think is enjoyable, as long as they keep it fairly tight, as it is here.

R32 I could never understand how the confusing reveal made it to the screen, either.

R76 The movie in which Bridges did shoot a full frontal scene is, of all things, the genial comedy Hearts of the West. There is a scene when a couple of petty criminals break into his motel room while he is in the bathtub, and Bridges stands up, for a Jason Segel-like laugh, I guess. Unlike the Jagged Edge reveal, it never made it to the screen, but you can see the movie suddenly turn grainy for the single shot, meaning it had blown up to lose anything below the waist.