After investigating the paranoid cinema of Alan J. Pakula; guest writer and co-host of Phoenix Film, Ray Hyland, explores the early work of one of the most prolific actors in American cinema, Jack Nicholson.
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| Jack in Carnal Knowledge |
There is a scene in Carnal Knowledge (1971) where Jack
Nicholson's Jonathan is talking with
Candice Bergen's Susan while the pair
are sitting in his car. He is wistfully explaining his troubled adolescence to
her, eliciting sympathy not only from his date but also from the audience.
By this time we already know that Jonathan is seeing Susan,
his best friend’s girl, behind his best friend's back. And yet it's not hard to
root for him, to hope it's him and his deviousness which will win out over Art
Garfunkel's strait-laced and honest sophomore.
It has often been argued that this is Nicholson's weakness. No
matter how evil, how unsympathetic his character is, the viewer still wants to
see him triumph.
Given what we know about the man now, perhaps that's no surprise.
There have been thousands of words written about Jack's private
life. Very little of which, he ever denied. Yes he walked naked around his home
for three months in front of his young daughter. Yes he took copious amounts of
drugs in the late 60s and different ones in the early 70s. No, he didn't ever
marry Angelica Houston, but he kind of regrets that. And yes, he definitely has
mommy issues but he earned them. Now that's all cleared up let's leave that
kind of tattle to someone else.
Jack Nicholson's first taste of Hollywood came in the late 50s
as an apprentice cartoonist. His superiors saw talent in the young man from New
Jersey, but despite their offer of a full time position Nicholson told them he
was keen to pursue an acting career.
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| Jack in The Little Shop of Horrors |
What followed was a frustrating period of near misses, poorly
produced Westerns and little promise, save perhaps an appearance in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
By 1967 Nicholson had been persevering with his acting career
for almost a decade before deciding his future might lay with script writing.
He teamed with Roger Corman to produce The Trip (1967), a psychedelic
weekend lost for lead star Peter Fonda. With its frenetic editing style and
acid induced subject matter the film was never going to go mainstream, but it left
a mark on many who seen it, not least Dennis Hopper.
The production of Easy Rider (1969) has been well documented as
somewhere between troubled and apocalyptic. In the end Nicholson came in as a
replacement for Rip Torn who like almost everyone else had fallen out with it’s
bat-shit director.
The feuds between the two main leads of Hopper and Fonda are
the stuff of legend. But before Dennis took Peter to New Orleans and made him
cry, he already knew that no matter how the rest of it turned out he had at
least twelve minutes of greatness.
Playing alcoholic lawyer George Hanson, Nicholson drawled his
way into the hearts of American audiences for the first time. Whereas the two
bikers divided opinion with their hypocritical capitalist drug dealer/happy go
lucky stoner duality, George conveyed something altogether more tangible.
His educated man of the law sees the country for what it is and
is happy to live amongst the cracks, a guy just living day to day, aware of his
place in society, hoping to earn enough to pay for his next quart of whiskey.
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| Jack in Easy Rider |
The performance instantly put Jack onto the radar of every
casting director in town. By the time the film won the Palme D'or he was
by-passing casting agents and receiving phone calls from the directors
themselves. This is the way Nicholson's career was going to be for the next
fifty odd years. He was in the club, fully paid up with a view to being
chairman at some point.
Covering Jack's entire oeuvre in one sitting would not do it
justice. For every decade he has worked, there's been plenty of high notes.
Maybe covering the first six odd years after Easy Rider might be sufficient
this time around. Even that might take two parts.
Bob Rafelson had been around Hollywood for a few years as an
associate producer before hitting on a winning formula with a weekly TV show
about a fictional pop group. Such was the success of The Monkees that the group
actually became a real living thing, with numerous top ten hits to go along
with a range of questionable merchandise.
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| The Monkees |
It is maybe difficult to reconcile how a man can go from Mickey
Dolenz to a tale of a virtuoso piano player but Rafelson was about to create
one of cinema's great contradictory icons.
Five Easy Pieces (1970) is often considered the most autobiographical
of Nicholson's work but given his modest upbringing that might be a stretch.
What probably does ring true is that Jack has done and
continues to enjoy the company of the working man as well as pseudo
intellectuals. Here he plays Robert Dupea, a child prodigy piano player in a
family of musical hermits.
Dupea has eschewed his artistic gifts to live life as a
drifter, making his living with manual labour instead.
After being estranged from his clan for a number of years,
Robert is called back from his roughneck duties to visit his dying father one
last time.
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| Jack in Five Easy Pieces |
The visit is not without incident as Robert blows into the
family home like a hurricane, destroying the peace like some malevolent
teenager. There are themes of polygamy and his inability to cope in long term
relationships. This time it's Karen Black trying to pick up the pieces.
Despite its sombre nature there are a couple of scenes in
'Five' that are bordering on slapstick. Think singsongs, sandwiches and
wrestling matches with a Herculean male nurse.
It was to be the first of four collaborations between Rafelson
and Nicholson.
'Carnal Knowledge'
Mike Nichols had his ups and downs during the 1960s. Despite
success with The Graduate (1967) and the on the job marriage counselling sessions of
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), the one albatross around his neck was the
amount of money Catch-22 (1970) had lost.
Still smarting from that misfortune, Nichols had decided to go
back to basics and more comfortable territory; sex.
Enlisting one half of the biggest pop music duo in the country
was a big enough coup. And while many who had seen Art Garfunkel in Catch-22
were confident he could perform, the real capture was the firebrand Nicholson
however.
In the film the pair begin as college boys plotting out their
days as entitled lotharios who will dominate their female companions for years
to come.
The story spans twenty odd years and some praise must be given
to the make-up artists who managed to make the 33 year old Nicholson appear
like a guy still in University.
The film makes for uncomfortable viewing even now. The misogyny
and abuse hurled around render Nicholson's character as almost sociopathic,
certainly contemptuous of traditional American life. He has little interest in
making a family and less still of taking a wife.
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| Jack in Carnal Knowledge |
It is a picture that often sparks and sizzles. Nicholson's
character is accused by his buddy Sandy
(Art Garfunkel) of trying to screw everything his eyes land on. This, Jonathan feels is the only reason worth
living.
When he finally settles down with a dream girl, in this case
air hostess Bobbie, he becomes frustrated that he is no longer able to function
as the cold hearted alpha male he always has been.
One scene set in their bedroom sees Jonathan launch a tirade on her. It's callous and perfectly
captures the dangers of an unfulfilling relationship. Unable to see the sacrifices
she has already made for him, Jonathan's
petulant outburst is the first of many 'Jack goes nuts' scenes we all know so
well now.
This scene took almost a week to film but is near faultless. No
doubt Nicholson would've attempted to break the ice by inviting everybody to
his hot tub after wrapping. He had earlier got great laughs out of the crew by
christening his manhood 'Steve'.
All in all however it lacks the innovation of The Graduate.
There is little in the way of mise en scéne or high production values and while
a lot falls on Nicholson's shoulders to drive it along, he copes brilliantly.
It was around this time that Nicholson was evolving from a
talented up and comer to fully fledged A list material. Kubrick signed him up
to play the lead in his ill fated production of Napoleon. He was also cast as
the priest in Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) before a last minute change of heart.
In the interim Nicholson moved to a well appointed home in
Mulholland Falls. His new neighbours were Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty.
Jack's new home became a place of relaxed hedonism, a refuge for close industry
friends to come and recharge their batteries after their latest meltdown and/or
divorce.
The only thing that would coax Nicholson out of his cocoon was
a project back on the east side of the country.
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) was his second of four films with
Rafelson. This time his co star was Bruce Dern, a talented actor from the
Midwest who the world still hadn't forgiven for killing John Wayne.
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| Jack & Bruce in The King of Marvin Gardens |
The pair are cast as brothers. David, played by Nicholson is a radio DJ, financially comfortable
but underwhelmed by his profession. Dern plays Jason, a perennial schemer who lacks the patience to see any of his
get rich quick ideas through to fruition.
They shack up with a couple of broads inevitably. Ellen
Burnstyn, brilliant as always acting as a surrogate older sister both on screen
and off to the inexperienced newcomer Julie Ann Robinson.
Marvin Gardens was a film that highlighted the first great
commercial decline in America, that of Atlantic City. It also gave somebody
Jack could really bat around with in Bruce Dern.
The pair had long been friends since the mid sixties often
working on screenplays together whilst they drank, smoked and acid dropped the
night away. Dern nowadays is a super fit seventy something with an obsession
for long distance running.
Filming took place in a number of locations that were torn down
soon after, adding as a portent of ill fated doom for Jason's property
development business plan.
By 1973 Nicholson was perhaps the most sought after actor in
the world. He had received multiple award nominations without yet quite
managing to capture the big one. That was soon going to change.
He would also manage to maintain critical acclaim whilst the
films became more commercial.
And of course, he fell in love...
Words by Ray Hyland - Part 2 coming soon!
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