Jerry Black: The sinister character Jack Nicholson said was “easy to identify with”
Throughout his career, Jack Nicholson has often played characters with a dark edge. Sure, on occasion, the New Jersey-born actor has detailed hopefulness and kindness in his characters, but some of the best have seen him show an underlying sinister quality in some truly brilliant performances.
Whether in the dark realities of the crimes of Randall McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the blue collar shirking of responsibility of Five Easy Pieces, the dishonesty of A Few Good Men, the madness of The Shining or the sheer terror of Batman, Nicholson’s filmography is bathed in nuanced darkness.
In 2001, several decades into his brilliant career, Nicholson once again portrayed a character with a dark quality. Directed by Sean Penn and also starring Patricia Clarkson, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke and Benicio del Toro, The Pledge saw Nicholson once again dive into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.
Based on Friedrich Durrenmatt’s 1958 novella The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel, Penn’s mystery thriller film has Nicholson play Jerry Black, a retired police detective who makes it his personal mission to find the killer of a murdered young girl, leading to a descent into obsession and mental unwellness.
In an interview with Cinema, Nicholson admitted that he found the “dark character” of Jerry “easy to identify with”. The legendary actor explained, “There’s a sense of hopelessness and absurdity to his life and those are philosophical kinds of issues that have always been very close to my heart.”
Nicholson stressed that he doesn’t take a “dim view of the world” but that he merely understands the “feelings and moods” of the most introspective kind of people. With that in mind, Nicholson found it easy to throw himself into Jerry and detail the kind of malaise that rested on his mind during the investigation.
In fact, Nicholson thought that the reason that Jerry took on the case in the first place, despite his retirement, was because it provided him with a purpose. “It’s his way of fighting back against all the shit in the world and all the meaninglessness out there,” the actor said. “He’s trying to find some purpose and vindication in a life that’s become a black hole.”
Nicholson went on to explain that life can often “beat you down over time” and remind us that we have “limitations”. According to the actor, life doesn’t always turn out the way that we hope it will. In that light, Nicholson sees Jerry as a metaphor for the pains of life and the need to fight back against it.
“In Jerry’s case, he’s come to the conclusion that as he’s about to retire, he doesn’t have anything else to hang on to in his world,” Nicholson explained. “He doesn’t have the happy family and the picket fence. He feels lonely and isolated and alienated from everything.” With that in mind, Nicholson believes that Jerry takes on the murder case as a “last chance” at redemption.
Pouring his personal pain and frustrations of life, even a life spent in the glamourous spotlight, Nicholson delivered a moving portrayal of a man on the brink of depression, a nihilist who has lost faith in the world but with just enough of a glimmer of hope in order to do the right thing one last time.
