Actor Jeff Bridges Says "Thank you, Santa Fe" in film "Crazy Heart"

“Crazy Heart,” a musical drama, isn’t the first, and it isn’t the last of stories where a reporter falls in love with someone she interviews. It’s also a classic screenplay of a good girl becoming entangled with a bad boy.

This point is driven home with Otis “Bad” Blake (Jeff Bridges), the 57-year-old country singer in “Crazy Heart” who travels from one gig to another in bars and seedy nightclubs in one-horse towns throughout the Southwest.

Bad Blake ends up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s broke, fueled by booze, bored, and he’s had no creative inspiration for song writing in years. Women throw themselves at his feet without him lifting a finger. You can almost smell his sweat, his dirty clothes, ripe cowboy boots and bad breath every morning as he drags himself out of bed. Bad Blake gets by with the seat of his pants by relying on his former success.

Bad Boy and Good Girl Theme is Played to the Max

Enter Miss Clean: Jean, the character, and Maggie Gyllenhaal who plays the part (she was nominated for an 2010 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in "Crazy Heart"). Jean is the earnest reporter who falls in love with Bad Blake. During the first interview, she suffers through sipping several rounds of whiskey with Bad as she’s taken in by his talent. She can’t say “no” to his advances, and so the story goes.

Blake is often too plastered to sing on stage. He wrecks his truck and is lectured by his physician who tells him what the audience already knows. Bad Blake's an alcoholic and if he doesn’t clean up his act, he’ll be a dead drunk very soon.

Bad Blake Pushes Things Too Far and Hits Bottom

The relationship between Jean and Bad survives numerous tests until Blake pushes the boundaries just a little too far when Jean’s four-year-old son Buddy wanders off and gets lost in a shopping mall while under Bad’s supervision. Jean packs her bags and leaves. Blake hits bottom, and the rest of the film is about his struggle to turn his life around by permanently putting the cap on his whiskey bottle and writing songs again.

“The Weary Kind," the movie's theme song, was co-authored by T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, who's originally from Hobbs, New Mexico. Governor Bill Richardson declared February 18th as Ryan Bingham Day in the state, and it isn't often that a movie's theme song is performed at the state capitol.

For movie audiences throughout the state, the film's high points include ample shots of New Mexico’s open highways to balance the smoky dark interiors of clubs where the music is dynamic and the foot-tapping rhythm, compelling. The filming locations include Albuquerque, the Santa Fe Opera, Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, and Galisteo.

"Crazy Heart" Plays Cozy With Santa Fe Audiences

On at least two occasions during the film, Bad Blake tips his hat to the bar audience and announces, “Thank you, Santa Fe.” It’s as if he’s anticipating the next state legislative session's budget balancing act when there’s yet another debate about the large investment the State of New Mexico has made in film production subsidies and whether or not there’s a payoff in it for the taxpayers.

There was no public outcry when the 2010 Academy Awards were handed out and “Crazy Heart” walked off with recognition for acting and music. The governor took advantage of the opportunity to highlight the more than one hundred films made in the state. As far as tourism dollars are concerned, there’s no doubt that a film like “Crazy Heart” ranks high in public relations value, as much or more than the New Mexico float in the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena.

Now that the film industry has established such a foothold in New Mexico, the members of the state capitol media corps are following stars like Robert Redford around when he’s in Santa Fe to meet with the governor. They’ve been discussing the plan to establish a training center for aspiring young Hispanic and Native American screenwriters and filmmakers called Milagro at Los Luceros, north of Espanola; it is scheduled to open in April 2010.

Film Industry Subsidies in New Mexico are Both Popular and Controversial

The subject of the New Mexico film industry keeps reporters, broadcasters and columnists busy churning out piles of copy about movie productions, stars and casts. Enough people are employed statewide to give the impression that New Mexico has a developing industry which will be sustainable in the long run.

This may be disputed during future debates at the legislature, but until then, New Mexico’s hosting of Hollywood and independent productions has been attracting the attention of a large audience statewide and elsewhere. And when a film like “Crazy Heart” is award winning, it will become even more difficult for disgruntled elected officials to pull the rug out from under film subsidies in the future.