Ode to Jeff Goldblum: A Retrospective

After an especially lively and eventful night of (insert name of leisurely activity), blog master and I decided that the best cure for such crazy Saturday exploits was to enrich our minds with the dramatic stylings of NBC’s gripping television program, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. This particularly episode was about an international incident resulting in the murder of an African nation’s leader, police officer’s involvement in said murder, and the loss of one of NYPD’s own. On its cover, this episode seems like the standard, formulaic episode that I usually allow Dick Wolf to cram into my brain (I get it, Mr. Wolf, the murderer is always the neighbor), but this everyday episode of Law & Order caught my fancy with one rousing sequence.

Let me paint the scene: the two main officers are struggling to search the files of one of their superiors slain in the line of duty. As they attempt to put the pieces together, a tall, dark, and handsome gentleman materializes with his badge swaying nonchalantly like a pendulum across his chest as he says to the effect of, “you don’t want to dig any deeper, detectives”.

Who is this roguish actor who could take a seemingly average line, and make it into poetry? Who turned Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s 2010 season finale and brought it to its knees? Who has been nominated for not one, but THREE Saturn Awards by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, winning one for himself for his performance in “The Fly”?

Why, none other than Pittsburgh’s own Jeff Goldblum.

It was Jeff Goldblum who fought off killer aliens with Will Smith in “Independence Day”. It was Jeff Goldblum who fought off killer dinosaurs with Sam Neill in “Jurassic Park”. And it was Jeff Goldblum who fought off killer dinosaurs yet again with Vince Vaughn in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”. Such versatility in acting comes but once in a generation.

When you think of someone’s broad range of Hollywood roles, you think Jeff Goldblum. Whether starring as the loveable alien, Mac, in “Earth Girls are Easy”, voicing Dracula in the video game “Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland”, or guest starring as Leonard Hayes on “Friends”, Jeff Goldblum crosses both mainstream and independent film, and even today continues to challenge the idea of Jeff Goldblum, the actor, and Jeff Goldblum, the man.

However famous he is as an actor, it is his actions as a director that brought him to the attention of the Academy. His vision guided “Little Surprises” to an Oscar nomination for Best Short Film, Live Action in 1996.

For those who haven’t heard of one of cinema’s hidden gems, see what the Internet Movie Database has to say:
“Director: Jeff Goldblum”
“Plot Keywords: Wedding”
“Country: USA”
“Language: English”

So thank you, Jeff Goldblum, for the monumental footprint that you continue to leave on the movie industry. Your acting, your audacity, nay, your credo for life has inspired millions.
To close, it seems fitting to leave this entry with the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson in “Independence Day”:

“Must go faster.”

Must go faster, indeed, Jeff Goldblum. Most go faster, indeed.