Jack Nicholson

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Ironweed got a vote?!

far less scandalous than motherfucking Shining -- quintessential bad Jack, save for red bathroom scene.

aw come on it's a great, funny flick.

hmm, i just watched carnal knowledge. great film.

I saw it while ago, I hadn't even heard about such a film before, and was pleasantly surprised. Great performance by Nicholson as a smug bastard. I think it's quite rare to see Hollywood films where none of the protagonists are really sympathetic at all. (Though did feel sorry for Ann-Margret's character.)

Strikes me as one of those culturally necessary films after the kind of Mad Men era, and I love Ann-Margaret so it was sort of both compulsory and painful viewing. But like a lot of films from that time, it's just so clearly WRITTEN but without the joys of good writing--the worst of naturalism and mannerism, if that makes sense. I just watched The King of Marvin Gardens and had a slightly similar reaction, again with great performances in a game that seems both dreary and rigged. Nice study of classic '70s-film atmosphere though.

Agreed. Ellen Burstyn gives the best performance in KOMG anyway.

I don't think I saw this poll, but Prizzi's Honor deserved a vote. Too bad it was misspelled.

poor easy rider

Nothing for Batman :(

missed this, would have gone Shining.

yeah null points for batman, bit surprised

Really good in Hoffa, which, I was surprised to remember, had some good bits.

Hoffa's pretty ridiculous, but mostly enjoyable - devito's the best dude in that movie though

i think i would've voted for The Border

75 today. Sad scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vys2K_18uk

http://life.time.com/culture/jack-nicholson-unpublished-photos-1969/?iid=lf%7Clatest#1

watched both the border & the passenger today -- similar disconnected vibe in both, but hes consistently compelling to watch in p much every scene of each, think i actually preferred the border a little

the border's really good.

a few good men was on tv the other day so i watched it, jack's great in the 'i eat breakfast' scene. horrible score

it's nicely subtle in that nicholsons character isnt the boy scout cop caricature outraged @ his corrupt colleagues &/or w/ a crusading woody for mistreated brown ppl but more i think that he just realizes that even going along w/ it, getting $ & w/e would only mean his wife would buy more worthless furniture & whatnot so y not do the "right" thing~

otm

don't think I've seen it since '82 so it's time I spose

his best from that dark post-Cuckoo's Nest pre-Reds period.

Just to be thoroughly annoying, The Border came out after Reds...I've never seen it (meant to at the time); better than The Shining?

You're right!

His performance? Yeah. Whether the movie is better than The Shining I'll leave for the Kubrickiphiliacs.

I think you know my answer....

Does anyone like Goin' South? Never saw that one. In an alternate reality he could've been a comedic stalwart, as in The Fortune (or the Little Shop cameo).

I walked out on The Border after the first 50 minutes or so, ages ago, when I saw it in a theater back when it was released. I don't recall Nicholson's performance as being the main problem so much as the script and direction. I felt I was being intensely manipulated and I didn't like it. Still, it makes me wonder at all the favorable remarks that film gets on this thread. I couldn't stand it.

well it's been 21 years, Aim.

incidentally his commentary track for The Passenger, which I praised here years ago, is still one of my favorites -- one of the few actors who understood exactly what the director wanted him to do as well as having perfect insight into the director's methods, period.

in the as good as it gets commentary nicholson doesn't say much for a while and then there's a shot out a window of some boats and he makes a HRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM foghorn noise. best part of as good as it gets, obviously.

xps hated goin' south so much! not just an early showcase for all his worst tendencies as an actor, but just excruciatingly unfunny & irritating. I mean I don't really rate his comedy performance in the shining either, but he does at least make me lol in that.

in the as good as it gets commentary nicholson doesn't say much for a while and then there's a shot out a window of some boats and he makes a HRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM foghorn noise. best part of as good as it gets, obviously.

― the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Sunday, May 5, 2013 4:46 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark

lmao

Looking over his filmography, I don't see Reds as any kind of demarcation point the way Alfred does. The point at which he starts imitating himself--sometime slyly, sometimes clunkily--and his films don't seem like such a big deal anymore, that seems to come a few years later. I'm not sure exactly when--I haven't seen everything in question--but maybe sometime in the mid/late-'80s? I would agree that Cuckoo's Nest ends his great period.

The point at which he starts imitating himself is Cuckoo's Nest. Though he doesn't always.

Gotta disagree there. Every actor has mannerisms--he's already doing Jack stuff in Easy Rider--but McMurphy is a fully realized character.

I only mentioned Reds as his first Academy-recognized Good Performance since Cuckoo's Nest, and for once the Academy is right: that 1976-1982 period is dismal.

*mentioned Reds BECAUSE it was

he was awful and miscast in The Postman Always Rings Twice and - well, I won't say much about The Shining.

agreed on postman, from that post-cuckoo pre-reds period i am very fond of the missouri breaks.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/09/04/jack-nicholson-retires/

He needs to do a voice-over role or something so that How Do You Know? doesn't become his Buddy Buddy.

or his Welcome to Mooseport or whatever the fuck it was

he shoulda done that third Jake Gittes film really low-budget, maybe w/ Joe Swanberg

Haha, yes, and poor Hackman needs to do Krapp's Last Tape.

Wow--remember directors making such an announcement, not an actor or actress. (Bet he can be coaxed out of it.) Just loaned Five Easy Pieces to someone this morning.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTgwMDUxOTg2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTAyODUyMw@@._V1_SY317_CR2,0,214,317_.jpg

Going out on a high note apparently not these guys' style.

Connery's last was that reclusive author/inner city prep school movie, right? It was probably the most respectable bow-out of the three of them.

Hackman retired too.

no it was league of extraordinary gentleman
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