Jack Nicholson
August 7, 2009
I ended up having to retract my long-held-to aversion to Jack Nicholson last night following a screening of Easy Rider at San Francisco's Red Vic movie theatre. I have seen the film several times before. But it had been years since my last viewing. One of the best things about the film is Jack Nicholson's performance as a drunk and muddled momma's boy of a small-town lawyer. He brings such vitality and sweetness to the role. His death in the middle is the cruelest moment of the entire film.
I think, perhaps, that there was something inspired about Nicholson in his early years. Then he became typecast as a weirdo and his performances became increasingly one-dimensional. I couldn't get more than 20 minutes through About Schmidt. Jackson's approach to acting has become a caricature of itself of late. It was wonderful, through reacquainting myself with Easy Rider, to remind myself that he was once a great actor.
posted by Chloe Veltman at
10:53 AM
3 Comments:
I think he still is. I know this is silly (because the film is terrible), but the moments in Something's Gotta Give where Nicholson and Keaton have no lines - they're just on the beach together - are really lovely. Of course, they had their moments together in Reds also, but it was a reminder how amazing the two of them are. '
It's a shame they get type-cast and that no one writes/or no one puts up the money to make intelligent scripts for mature actors or audiences.
By
E. Hunter Spreen, At
August 7, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Here's to Mr. DH Lawrence.
By
Patch, At
August 8, 2009 at 12:16 PM
whaaaat? Some of his later work is sooo good. About Schmidt? The Departed?
By
Anonymous, At
August 9, 2009 at 8:54 PM
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