“You can’t handle the truth!”: How Jack Nicholson made cinema history
Dialogue has been heralded as Aaron Sorkin’s speciality since long before he first rose to mainstream prominence as the creator of The West Wing, but prior to his seminal TV series, he was already a respected playwright who had already flirted with Hollywood, serving as the conduit for a Jack Nicholson masterclass along the way.
His 1989 play A Few Good Men was brought to the screen three years later with a powerhouse team in place on either side of the camera, with the film rights having been sold before the stage production had even been performed live in front of an audience.
With Rob Reiner directing and uncredited rewrites from screenwriting savant William Goldman – alterations Sorkin admired so much he would then incorporate them into the play – the ensemble was every bit as esteemed after Tom Cruise and Demi Moore found themselves pitted against the formidable Nicholson.
For his role as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, Nicholson was only required to be on set for ten days, netting himself a princely sum for doing so after his salary equated to $500,000 per day. It was worth it and then some in the end, though, with the legendary actor unleashing one of cinema’s most iconic soundbites during the climactic courtroom showdown.
It’s ironic that for a writer so inextricably linked with expertly crafted rapid-fire exchanges between characters, the most memorable line from A Few Good Men was partly improvised. In the script, Jessup says, “You already have the truth”, but Nicholson instead opted to go for the more powerful and fiery, “You can’t handle the truth”.
Suffice to say, the star made the right call, with A Few Good Men‘s signature outburst widely acknowledged as one of the most unforgettable lines in the history of cinema. It wasn’t an off-the-cuff thing, either, with Reiner revealing that Nicholson was so committed to his performance that he would even give it his all when the cameras weren’t trained on him or his reactions.
“Before we started shooting, I asked Jack if he wanted me to shoot his angles first or Cruise’s reaction shots first so that he’d be off-camera,” the filmmaker explained to Yahoo. “Every time we did the scene, Jack did it perfectly.”
While that’s hardly revelatory for a performer of Nicholson’s standing, calibre, and reputation, Reiner was nonetheless concerned his big moment would eventually lose its lustre. “After a couple of takes, I said, ‘Jack, maybe you want to save a little bit for when we’ve got the camera on you.’ And he replied, ‘Rob, you don’t understand – I love to act,'” he continued. “When the camera came around to him, he did the exact same performance that he gave off-camera. And it was great every time.”
A Few Good Men‘s standout barb wouldn’t have landed quite the same way had it followed the screenplay to the letter, in what stands as just one of many examples displaying how effortlessly Nicholson mastered the art of acting.
