best film: Chinatown, The Passenger, and The Shining, are the blue-chip films for Jack Nicholson – but the depth here is beyond belief. There are nine (9) films here with a must-see or masterpiece grade. Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece is Jack’s best film. Kubrick’s audacious visuals and dedication to the Steadicam tracking shot aesthetic ever so slightly trumps Chinatown’s retro polish and genius screenplay (it is truly one of the all-time finest) with The Passenger and that jaw-dropping, penultimate long-take shot right there as well.
writer’s block, cabin fever, and alcoholism from Jack in The Shining. “I’d give my God damn soul for a glass of beer”
best performance: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is Jack’s finest sustained brilliance on screen. He is darker in Five Easy Pieces and the “hold the chicken” scene in it may be his greatest single moment (and that is saying something from the guy who gave us “You can’t handle the truth” and “Heeere’s Johnny”) but Cuckoo’s Nest makes better use of his bad boy charm. He is utterly captivating just sitting around the group meetings, in the opening interview, his battles with Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched, and the torture sequences with the electroshock therapy. Nicholson is an enormous screen presence – he cannot really disappear (The King of Marvin’s Gardens is a solid attempt) or hide his smile and charismatic personality so Forman’s film is his finest vehicle (and a damn film with an all-timer of an ending). It is just slightly more suited to his talents than the rest of his best work.
Jack as the antihero R.P. McMurphy in Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
stylistic innovations/traits: Jack Nicholson is both The New Hollywood’s golden boy and bad boy at the same time. He is more talented than Warren Beatty, and more leading man handsome than Dustin Hoffman. He is often playful (1950s Mifune comes to mind), anti-authority, and full of sex and rebellion. Jack has twenty-seven (27) total archiveable films – and his resume is overwhelming. His twelve (12) Oscar nominations is the most for any male actor (and he won three times). His top ten (10) performances below is so loaded that six (6) of the Oscar nominations (and two wins) do not make the cut. That is a legendary career’s worth of leftovers. Michael Caine, for example, has six (6) nominations and two (2) wins. Just to give one example, Jack is stealing scenes in Reds (1981) as Eugene O’Neill, which is a must-see grade film, and that performance does not make the list below. Jack began in the 1960s working his way up in low budget films before breaking through with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda (dusting the two off the screen in a supporting role) in Easy Rider – a massive hit and landmark film for The New Hollywood. Nicholson would be scorching hot from 1969 to 1975 with ten (10) archiveable films in seven (7) years giving one of the best performances of the year five (5) times. To add to that run, he is lead in one of the best films of the entire 1980s (The Shining) and is pure fire in Batman and A Few Good Men. At that point, films like As Good as it Gets, The Pledge, and About Schmidt just add to the legend.
Jack in Chinatown – the smirk from Jack is so good – overall, he underplays the role – mostly, like F. Scott Fitzgerald says he is a man defined by his actions, but there are moments for Jack that are undeniably Jack – him calling the hall of records kid a “weasel” under his breathe. Jack’s “your wife crossed her legs a little too quick” line. “Too tell you the truth, I lied a little”.
directors worked with: Mike Nichols (3), James L. Brooks (3), Bob Rafelson (2) – and this is in contrast to the other actors so far on the list where they each have multiple archiveable films with a giant like Scorsese (De Niro), Hitchcock (Stewart), Coppola (both Brando and Pacino), or Kurosawa (Mifune). Jack has a strong and long list of one-time archiveable collaborators though including Hal Ashby (1), Roman Polanski (1), Milos Forman (1), Michelangelo Antonioni (1), Elia Kazan (1), Arthur Penn (1), Stanley Kubrick (1), Warren Beatty (1), John Huston (1), Tim Burton (1), Rob Reiner (1), Alexander Payne (1), Martin Scorsese (1).
Jack’s famous “hold the chicken” diner scene from Five Easy Pieces. The scene speaks for a generation – and Jack’s confidence is chilling. He annihilates the waitress.
top ten performances:
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Five Easy Pieces
- Chinatown
- The Passenger
- The Shining
- Carnal Knowledge
- Easy Rider
- The Last Detail
- A Few Good Men
- Batman
The Passenger is a great off-speed pitch for Jack. It not only helps make up one one of the great years (1975) and stretch runs (1969-1976) for any actor, but it is a quieter Jack.
archiveable films
| 1966- The Shooting |
| 1969- Easy Rider |
| 1970- Five Easy Pieces |
| 1971- Carnal Knowledge |
| 1972- The King of Marvin’s Gardens |
| 1973- The Last Detail |
| 1974- Chinatown |
| 1975- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest |
| 1975- The Fortune |
| 1975- The Passenger |
| 1975- Tommy |
| 1976- The Last Tycoon |
| 1976- The Missouri Breaks |
| 1980- The Shining |
| 1981- Reds |
| 1983- Terms of Endearment |
| 1985- Prizzi’s Honor |
| 1987- Broadcast News |
| 1987- Ironweed |
| 1989- Batman |
| 1992- A Few Good Men |
| 1992- Hoffa |
| 1994- Wolf |
| 1997- As Good as It Gets |
| 2001- The Pledge |
| 2002- About Schmidt |
| 2006- The Departed |
Wow. I was sure About Schimdt was going to make his top 10. Jack is definitely my favourite actor. Btw, I think there are quite a bit films that are worth a look in his filmography that are not here.
Ride in the Whirlwind(1966)
Head(1968)
Goin’ South(1978)
The Postman always rings twice(1981)
The Border(1982)
The Witches of Eastwick(1987)
The two Jakes(1990)
The Crossing Guard(1995)
Mars Attacks!(1996)
Blood and Wine(1996)
Something’s Gotta Give(2003)
How many of these have you seen?
@Malith – Thanks for the comment. I have been able to catch all of these.
Can you picture Nicolson in Anthony Hopkins’ roles? Mainly in Silence of the Lambs? I think he was the first choice for Hannibal Lector.
@M*A*S*H- It would be a very different character and film wouldn’t it? Happy the role went to Hopkins
I think so too. Hopkins has an intensity Nicolson won’t have.
THE actor who makes me love CINEMA. I was a kid and obsessed with Batman (1989).
My top 10 of his performances :
1 – The Shining
2 – Chinatown
3 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
4 – Five Easy Pieces
5 – The Last Detail
6 – Batman
7 – The Passenger
8 – Easy Rider
9 – Carnal Knowledge
10 – About Schmidt
I think I brought this up on an earlier thread but I am surprised that his performance in The Departed (2006) is panned by some critics. It is true that he goes overboard, a little like some of those Pacino scenes in Heat (1995) but the difference is that they are far more appropriate in The Departed (2006) as they mirror some of the other performances, particularly Mark Wahlberg. Where as with Pacino its like he’s acting in a different film for a couple of his hamming it up moments, though Pacino does great work aside from that.
There’s a scene when the Damon character is talking on a cell phone to Frank (Nicholson) and suggests laying low for a bit and Frank replies with “Colin, laying low is not what I do”. This quote may as well be Franks’s Personal Maxim, the code he lives his life by. He’s about as subtle as Tony Montana, to use another Pacino reference. Frank is basically presented as pure evil, The Devil; I love Scorsese using the red lighting during the Opera Scene which then transitions to Frank grabbing and throwing a hand full of cocaine in his bedroom with a mistress about half his age. He also recruits young kids without fathers and corrupts them on top of selling out his own people to the FBI. He’s also sadistic as he seems to actually enjoy hurting/killing people. To be clear I don’t think its one of his best performances by any means but I think it works overall.
@James Trapp- The performance is uneven. Jack struggles in some scenes and he is better in at least ten other films
@James Trapp
I hesitate with About Schmidt. It’s at least top 11/12 for me. But I think Pacino is better in Heat (maybe the 2nd best performance of the movie). The problem with Nicholson in The Departed is DiCaprio, Whalberg and Damon are better.
@James-Nicholson’s performance in The Departed is hardly panned. He even got nominated for a Golden Globe. But I do think some critics and Drake here as well are not big fans of it. I think it’s very similar to the De Niro performance in The Irishman. Not the performance of course but the reception.
@Drake – I agree he has 10 better performances I guess I just like it more than most. Just out of curiosity, are there any scenes in particular that you really did not care for aside from the really obvious ones?
@Malith – maybe panned was not the best word choice, but in Cinephile circles it seems to attractive criticism. I did not love De Niro in The Irishman but I don’t think he hurts the film either. This may sound like a bizarre comparison but I found some similarities between that performance and Ryan O’Neals in Barry Lyndon. In both cases you have passive characters characters who become entangled in historical events almost by accident. I think you have underacting with both performances though more so with O’Neal. Maybe the only time De Niro’s character seemed to function as a narrative vehicle than an indepth character.
@James Trapp- The rat scene with DiCaprio in particular is tough to watch and rewatch.
In both cases with De Niro in The Irishman and Jack in The Departed- we are talking about one of the all time great directors (Scorsese for both), casts (where the other actors really excel) and, of course, this is De Niro and Jack we’re talking about. The stakes are high. Anything less than one of the best performances of the year (and neither delivers here) with that good of a set up for an actor- is a disappointment.
@Drake – okay I hear what you’re saying, yeah that line and the faces he makes is rough in an otherwise strong scene, it breaks the tension a little but not really in a good way. Apparently Nicholson improvised in a number of scenes which makes sense given that some of the hamming it up scenes don’t feel like typical Scorsese.
@James-I didn’t have much problems with De Niro’s performance in The Irishman. I think some of the scenes with him de-aged are distracting. That was the main issue for me here. I didn’t find this issue in Pacino or Pesci. Maybe Scorsese should have taken more care not to show some of the physical limitations of De Niro while playing a 30 something. I am yet to see Barry Lyndon. So I can’t really comment about that. Although I have seen Ryan O’Neal in A Bridge Too Far(1977). And he didn’t really look like a talented actor there. Of course Barry Lyndon should be a much better film than A Bridge Too Far of course.
@James Trapp
Just my opinion but I think O’Neal is great as a narrative vehicle. But The Irishman could be better with another actor than DeNiro (& I love him)
@KidCharlemagne – agreed, my point was that he is a passive character not that I didn’t like the performance. He certainly underacts much of the film but it works perfectly for this particular film as O’Neal’s Barry stumbles his way from one historical event to another, often in ways that he did not intend. Furthermore, his emotionally detached demeanor for 95% of the film, makes the few scenes where Barry is highly emotional that much more powerful, specifically when his Uncle dies and later when his Son dies. Barry may be shallow and lack values and integrity but he’s certainly not a monster and its impossible to not feel anything for him during those scenes.
As for De Niro, just out of curiosity who would you have wanted to play that role instead?
@Malith – yeah, Pesci calling DeNiro “kid” was a little much. Regarding De Niro’s physical limitations that scene early on when he brings young Peggy with him and beats up and stomps on the store owner is tough to watch; De Niro just looks so unnatural there. Most of the scenes where he carries out hits are fine since they only require him pulling a trigger but beating someone to a bloody pulp is another story.
@James Trapp
Ray Liotta. Or even younger actors. The first hour with younger actors for DeNiro/Pesci roles. Why not Jon Bernthal ?
@KidCharlemagne – Liotta or Jon Bernthal would both be great choices for sure especially Bernthal. I’ve only seen one of his film’s but I was really impressed by Alessandro Nivola in The Many Saints of Newark aka The Sopranos Movie. He plays probably the closest thing to a lead protagonist in the film which is an ensemble cast.
@Malith – Thank you for the fix help here, for some reason the top ten did not pull the rankings over from my previous Jack page.
4 archivable films in 1975.. Fassbender has 4 in 2011 too.
Is it the highest. Probably won’t be keeping track of something like this but can you think of anyone who has more in an year.
@AP- Not on the same level as far as screen time goes of course – but I see 7 for Ward Bond in 1939
1939- Dodge City
1939- Drums Along the Mohawk
1939- Gone With the Wind
1939- Son of Frankenstein
1939- The Oklahoma Kid
1939- They Made Me a Criminal
1939- Young Mr. Lincoln