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djross wrote:On Saturday, Jack Nicholson will turn 80. No actor has embodied a spirit of freedom, individuality, intelligence, romance, vulnerability, culture and charm in quite the way he did, both in art and in life, and in particular in the remarkable series of performances he gave between 1970 and 1975:

Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
The Last Detail (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Nicholson in his prime was both a Hollywood star and an outsider, and I would venture to say that there has never been an actor whose persona has contributed to the quality of a movie in the singular way that Nicholson's did – not only, but especially, in the half dozen films listed above, made with Rafelson, Nichols, Ashby, Polanski and Forman. More than anything, what he exudes is something like a feeling for life.

I like the last two on the list the best, but The Departed should be on there too, though he didn't have a leading role in it (because there wasn't *a* leading role). And if you search for him on IMDb, you'll see The Shining below his name as the movie they think most people would associate him with. Yeah, he says "Heeeer's Johnny", but still, it's pretty much just a horror movie and my least favorite of Kubrick's stuff. And Shelley Duvall should have used her head like Anna Kendrick did in The Accountant, and laid the toilet tank lid into his face at that precise moment. OMG!.....scenes we'd like to see.

Favourite thin Jack is Cuckoo's Nest
Medium size Jack is the Shining
Full on Jack whatever from Albert Brooks

Stewball resisting the urge to bring up The Accountant.....scenes we'd like to see

Maaxwell wrote:Stewball resisting the urge to bring up The Accountant.....scenes we'd like to see

Hey, no problem, but thanks for keeping my place.

And ya gotta admit, it would have been cool as hell if Shelly had used the toilet lid à la The Accountant.
And ooo, elevators were used in both The Shining and The Accountant for nefarious purposes. And it should also be pointed out that The Accountant didn't live up to the example of The Shining in how it used a word backwards. I think it's probably fair to say that Redrum may now be on mind of Llewxaam by this point.

djross wrote:On Saturday, Jack Nicholson will turn 80. No actor has embodied a spirit of freedom, individuality, intelligence, romance, vulnerability, culture and charm in quite the way he did, both in art and in life, and in particular in the remarkable series of performances he gave between 1970 and 1975

Here here! Nicholson is a kind of walking legend - an entire era of film, film history, and film craft living and breathing as a real person, putzing around somewhere in Los Angeles, intimidating local residents with a wink and a smile. It is a tall order to arrive at a persona so ubiquitous. It's such a unique position, I don't necessarily blame him for embodying the stereotype his mid-career films only alluded to (who else could do what he did in The Departed and make it seem so natural? We don't question a thing.)

I'll always remember his smiling Joker on the back of the VHS tape for Batman, giving me nightmares in my toddler years I'm still recovering from as an adult. That's cinematic authority. I'm now enjoying going back to his lesser-known work (like The Shooting/Ride in the Whirlwind) and seeing even then there's a nuance of generosity evident even in smallish roles.

Chinatown is a great movie!

Stewball wrote:I think it's probably fair to say that Redrum may now be on mind of Llewxaam by this point.

I think it's probably fair to say... huh?

Superb! Hey Jack, c'mon, spirit of the Joker. What...can't handle the truth. ("We are not amused"). Give him a portrait of Castro with your sig...

And if we asked him what he thought about our stirring tribute, he'd probably answer, in character, "I didn't ask".