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.)
― Tuomas, Sunday, 29 March 2009 13:16 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 29 March 2009 15:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Agreed. Ellen Burstyn gives the best performance in KOMG anyway.
― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 March 2009 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't think I saw this poll, but Prizzi's Honor deserved a vote. Too bad it was misspelled.
― Zero Transfats Waller (Oilyrags), Sunday, 29 March 2009 22:44 (fifteen years ago) link
poor easy rider
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Sunday, 29 March 2009 23:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Nothing for Batman :(
― billstevejim, Monday, 30 March 2009 07:24 (fifteen years ago) link
missed this, would have gone Shining.
yeah null points for batman, bit surprised
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Monday, 30 March 2009 08:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Really good in Hoffa, which, I was surprised to remember, had some good bits.
― Bud Huxtable (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 May 2009 23:46 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― ℳℴℯ ❤\(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Saturday, 26 February 2011 13:34 (thirteen years ago) link
75 today. Sad scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vys2K_18uk
― clemenza, Sunday, 22 April 2012 12:56 (twelve years ago) link
http://life.time.com/culture/jack-nicholson-unpublished-photos-1969/?iid=lf%7Clatest#1
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 April 2012 11:37 (twelve years ago) link
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
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 4 May 2013 23:30 (eleven years ago) link
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
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Sunday, 5 May 2013 00:09 (eleven years ago) link
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~
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 5 May 2013 01:09 (eleven years ago) link
otm
― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Sunday, 5 May 2013 04:34 (eleven years ago) link
don't think I've seen it since '82 so it's time I spose
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 5 May 2013 13:56 (eleven years ago) link
his best from that dark post-Cuckoo's Nest pre-Reds period.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:04 (eleven years ago) link
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?
― clemenza, Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:07 (eleven years ago) link
You're right!
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:09 (eleven years ago) link
His performance? Yeah. Whether the movie is better than The Shining I'll leave for the Kubrickiphiliacs.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:10 (eleven years ago) link
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).
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 5 May 2013 14:28 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Aimless, Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
well it's been 21 years, Aim.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:38 (eleven years ago) link
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, 5 May 2013 20:46 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― just dude intonation (wins), Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
― the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Sunday, May 5, 2013 4:46 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark
lmao
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Sunday, 5 May 2013 20:54 (eleven years ago) link
The point at which he starts imitating himself is Cuckoo's Nest. Though he doesn't always.
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
Gotta disagree there. Every actor has mannerisms--he's already doing Jack stuff in Easy Rider--but McMurphy is a fully realized character.
― clemenza, Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:26 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:38 (eleven years ago) link
*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.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 5 May 2013 21:39 (eleven years ago) link
agreed on postman, from that post-cuckoo pre-reds period i am very fond of the missouri breaks.
― balls, Sunday, 5 May 2013 23:06 (eleven years ago) link
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/09/04/jack-nicholson-retires/
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 17:55 (ten years ago) link
He needs to do a voice-over role or something so that How Do You Know? doesn't become his Buddy Buddy.
― bad bad disco (Eazy), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:00 (ten years ago) link
or his Welcome to Mooseport or whatever the fuck it was
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:02 (ten years ago) link
he shoulda done that third Jake Gittes film really low-budget, maybe w/ Joe Swanberg
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:03 (ten years ago) link
Haha, yes, and poor Hackman needs to do Krapp's Last Tape.
― bad bad disco (Eazy), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:08 (ten years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:09 (ten years ago) link
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.
― the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:10 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:12 (ten years ago) link
Hackman retired too.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:13 (ten years ago) link
no it was league of extraordinary gentlemanxpost
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:13 (ten years ago) link
woops – I need lunch.
Nicholson is so rich he can pay these actors' pensions.
oh in that case, nm. xp
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:14 (ten years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/73/SirBilli_Poster.jpg/220px-SirBilli_Poster.jpg
― fit and working again, Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
STAY RETIRED!
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
I keep thinking Connery was in Skyfall because that dad/Scotland role was so clearly meant for him.
― bad bad disco (Eazy), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:18 (ten years ago) link
James Cagney hated Billy Wilder so much he retired after One, Two, Three, then came back 20 years later for Ragtime.
Pretty sure Cary Grant announced his retirement 20 years before his death, too.
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 September 2013 18:18 (ten years ago) link