Jack Nicholson names the most unfairly treated movies of his career: “When they go after me, they go after me big”
As miserable as it sounds, there will always be people salivating at the prospect of someone who’s mastered their chosen field to come crashing back down to earth following a catastrophic failure. On the plus side, Jack Nicholson enjoyed a more successful career than most actors, even if he suspected critics were out to get him for a specific set of reasons.
It all sounds a little paranoid, especially for someone who smoked as much pot as Nicholson did, but maybe they really were out to get him. After all, can it be a coincidence that the three movies he singled out as the most unfairly and harshly treated of his storied filmography all had one significant unifying factor? The answer depends entirely on personal preference.
When he was struggling to make a name for himself in the industry, Nicholson initially believed that his future lay away from the camera. He was a semi-prolific screenwriter for a while and soaked up as much knowledge as he could from his mentor, Roger Corman, and it wasn’t until the release of Easy Rider that he finally arrived as a star.
That was his 18th feature film appearance and a role he only landed because a producer essentially blackmailed Dennis Hopper into hiring him, so it wasn’t like Nicholson exploded onto the scene as an undeniable talent from the beginning. Still, he couldn’t fully scratch his filmmaking itch, even if his efforts could generously be described as sporadic.
Nicholson made his feature-length directorial debut on 1971’s Drive, He Said, which was also the last time he was credited with a script. He’d helm 1978’s Goin’ South and 1990’s Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, which were the only three pictures he directed.
They each had their moments, but none of them were particularly great. Still, Nicholson harboured suspicions that because he was such a big star and a fixture of the Hollywood circuit, the critical knives had already been sharpened before anyone could see the results.
“The reviewers were ruthless,” he told Vanity Fair of the shared response to his behind-the-camera sojourns. “But then, I don’t think any of the films I directed got their due. Of course, I may be under a complete misapprehension about my abilities. I’m not so megalomaniacal as to think they are just being vicious, not accurate. But when they go after me, they go after me big.”
Nicholson directed three films that range from underwhelming to passable, so it’s not as if he was being torn down for daring to pull double duty. That said, he could never shake the feeling that, because he was Jack Nicholson, Academy Awards stalwart, vaunted thespian, generational talent, and hellraiser extraordinaire, he wasn’t given as much leeway as another filmmaker might be.
Does he have a point? It’s hard to say, especially when none of the three could reasonably be called unsung, underrated, overlooked, or unheralded. They’re fine for what they are, but because he was so talented as a performer, perhaps he was being held to a higher standard as an auteur, which he failed to deliver.
