A career in three acts: the movies that define Jack Nicholson
A towering figure in American cinema, Jack Nicholson may have bowed out of acting in 2012, but by that time, his legendary career had already spanned seven decades and earned him more Academy Award nominations and wins than any other male actor.
One of the ‘New Hollywood’ movement’s definitive figures on either side of the camera and an icon of the counterculture era, Nicholson embraced both sides of cinematic stardom to equal effect. On set, there were few better at the craft, and away from it, not many knew how to party harder.
Despite accumulating one of the greatest filmographies in history, Nicholson initially didn’t view his long-term future in acting. A fairly prolific screenwriter in his early years, the star eventually realised that his talents were much better suited to performing than writing. Once he put down his pen and focused solely on his acting exploits, it didn’t take him long to rise to the top.
Embracing his persona in public but expertly subverting it onscreen, his performative style dug beneath the concept of masculinity. He could play romantic leads, tortured protagonists, scenery-chewing villains, subtly broken men, and much more: there was nothing Nicholson couldn’t do and nothing he couldn’t do incredibly well.
He’s responsible for several of the finest performances ever committed to celluloid and became that rarest of things in Tinseltown: an all-rounder who mastered it all. Nicholson once called himself the single most successful actor there’s ever been, and while it’s a statement that carries the scent of ego, he gladly pulled out the receipts to back it up.
The films that define Jack Nicholson:
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
For many, Chinatown is Nicholson’s finest work. Lauded as arguably the greatest screenplay ever written, the actor is the perfect fit for Robert Towne’s anachronistic, hard-boiled dialogue, and it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.
Nicholson is magnetic in all of his good humour and brooding intensity. A deeply influential film and performance, Chinatown presents a riveting detective story where the protagonist and audience unravel the mystery in tandem. By design, there’s no way to solve the puzzle before JJ Gittes does. It makes for a powerful viewing experience and the perfect example of how effective the audience surrogate can be, with Nicholson appearing in every single scene of the film and discovering the story’s intricacies at the same pace as the viewer.
Nicholson portrays Gittes as an everyman with distinct shades of Humphrey Bogart but makes the archetypal role of a private investigator entirely his own, exuding a world-weary cynicism typical of the job but with the actor’s unmistakable idiosyncracies.
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Five Easy Pieces, released a year after 1969’s Easy Rider, cemented Nicholson’s screen persona as the discontented counterculture hero of ‘New Hollywood’ and earned him the first of eight Oscar nominations for ‘Best Actor’.
Nicholson’s Eroica Dupea is a man who abandoned his wealthy upbringing as a young piano prodigy to work as a labourer. When his estranged father suffers a stroke, he’s forced to return home. The film’s most iconic scenes occur in the opening half: playing the piano in the middle of a crowded highway and his outburst in a diner when a waitress refuses to serve him plain toast: “No substitutions!”
It’s an incredible performance and utterly definitive. By his own admission, Nicholson pointed to Five Easy Pieces as the moment his life changed forever: no longer was he a recognisable and undoubtedly talented actor, he was now a full-fledged leading man, with one of Bobby’s most memorable lines – “I guess you’re wondering what happened to me after my auspicious beginnings” – created by Nicholson and carrying a much deeper meaning looking at where he was before and after the film.
Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton, 1996)
In this dual role, Nicholson is a delight. Indicative of the switch to more comedic fare he made in the final years of his career, the actor hams it up for Tim Burton in Mars Attacks! and barely leaves any of the scenery unscathed, which is every bit as fun for the audience to watch as it clearly was for him to perform.
Impeccable timing, line delivery, and complete control over each character and their eccentricities combine to make it Nicholson’s standout comedy turn. Actors playing two parts in the same picture can often backfire, but there was no danger of that happening in Mars Attacks!
President James Dale and casino owner Art Land are two brash, cocky types, which in a lesser actor’s hands, could have made them indistinguishable from each other. Of course, Nicholson is far too talented for that, with Burton cutting him loose and providing the perfect playground for the star to create two wildly different but equally memorable larger-than-life personas.
