Nicholson always cared about the visuals, always understanding that the shooter makes the film, having learned the beauty and lyricism that the “motion” and the “pictures” which define motion pictures come from master cinematographers such as Gregory Sandor, László Kovacs, Haskell Wexler, Sven Nykvist, Andrzej Bartkowiak and Néstor Almendros. He chose Vilmos Zsigmond, best known for Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller; Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand; John Boorman’s Deliverance; Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter; along with George Miller’s The Witches of Eastwick that of course featured Nicholson.
Tracey Walter called working with Nicholson again a great experience, “because I continued my relationship with Jack. I worked in two films on which he acted and directed,” Goin’ South and this film, adding that Nicholson did not show any difficulty dividing his attention between acting and directing as “it’s not that hard to do with playback, using a monitor.”31
“I think he went from actor to director and back and forth very well,” agrees James Hong. “I felt very comfortable with him in both roles. Knowing that he is also the director, I had to bring something extra to the scenes, and I think he saw that in the scene I did with him in the greenhouse with the plants.” Hong considered this one of the director’s favorite scenes because Nicholson showed it as part of an interview, “a great compliment to my achievement as an actor.”32
Nicholson’s acting in The Two Jakes appears tired at points, though there still is some directorial magic in his work with Zsigmond. Striking instances of attention to visual style include an array of tracking shots, interesting angles, a reflection shot with the Moon shown on a desk, a slow-motion explosion, a Psych-Out type of spin when his character is knocked out, and a multi-image view of Rubén Blades. There’s also a framing of Richard Farnsworth, this movie’s John Huston, that’s a sly reminder of Five Easy Pieces’ oil field scene.
Though the story doesn’t add up to much, the more discerning viewer might recognize that the director knows his stuff and has studied the filmmakers from around the world and around the Roger Corman universe (including the influential moving camera as practiced by Corman). Nicholson’s active camerawork is not overdone, but is more outwardly “directed” than originator Roman Polanski and his intrinsically immersed style.
No matter the added strain, he gave his full attention to the actors. Co-lead Harvey Keitel addressed the split focus as actor-director by acknowledging the difficulty of participating in a scene and setting up that scene, while emphasizing that he received all the attention that he needed, “because he’s an actor’s actor. Anyone who is an actor’s actor will give you full attention in a scene, even if they’re acting opposite you, because they have deep respect and awe and value of acting.”33
The actor’s interplay with Keitel provides most of Gittes’ highlights in the sequel. Nicholson the director’s most effective use of Nicholson the actor occurs when Gittes’ vulnerability is exposed, capturing how Jake handles the emotions and the pressure. This is a man who has become successful, but within the world of matrimonial betrayals and shady dealings. The war’s over, but everyone’s still a little on edge. They see things differently and Gittes sees things differently. Not better. Just different.
He’s older and slower, but not much wiser. His past clings to him and weighs every step and slackens every word. He is prosperous, yet his “future is all used up,” as Dietrich warned Welles in Touch of Evil.
Nicholson’s strongest, most impactful direction is also Nicholson’s most raw and emotional acting in the film, the unflinching close-up that records Jake as he looks through the Evelyn Mulwray file. Camera and editing restraint intensifies the pain, because like with pain in real life—looking away will not diminish it. One cannot be distracted from a pain this deep and a loss this true.
This pain triggers an explosive attack by Gittes on Detective Loach’s son, when the cop won’t let up. He tears at Jake’s wound until Jake flashes back to the Mulwray shooting and then forces Loach Jr. to suck the barrel of his gun until the errant policeman wets himself in fear. In these two scenes, we’re reminded of the masterful Nicholson, who can nimbly walk a high wire between tenderness and violence, exploring a character as frankly as the private eye explores Evelyn’s file.
A symbolic director’s touch concludes the film. Jake number one lets Jake number two commit suicide without seeming to commit suicide (protecting his wife’s insurance) when Keitel lights a cigarette to ignite a gas explosion. This takes place in a pleasant housing development meant for returning veterans, who survived World War II only to witness a fatal firebomb on Main Street. Nicholson ends The Two Jakes with a huge blast that resolves itself into a sundown in the background and an American flag in the foreground. The sequence looked like a war scene about two vets, but sets up the theme of the movie—that the past and its pain never go away.
* * *
Nicholson understood that film was a visual medium. He chose the best visual artists for his three directorial efforts: Bill Butler for Drive, He Said, Néstor Almendros for Goin’ South and Vilmos Zsigmond for The Two Jakes.
He called himself “very radical as a director,” explaining, “I have a lousy narrative sense and feel like I’m more of a poetic director.” Quoting French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, he added: “Of course film should have a beginning, middle and end, but not necessarily in that order.”34
In an interview with Beverly Walker, he said that he loved directing because the “imagery of a movie is where it’s at, and that is based on the director’s vision.” Nicholson pointed out that, despite the unbalanced attention to script in the importance of filmmaking, “in actuality, cinema is that ‘other thing’; and unless you’re after that, I’d just as soon be in another medium.”35
He cared about making a statement, addressing the Vietnam War, social shifts and sexual freedom in Drive; women’s liberation and the encroachment of predatory land-grabbing industrialists in Goin’ South; and a similar cautionary focus on land development and the assumed entitlement held by large corporate entities in their quest for natural resources and its valuable preserves (oil and gas in place of the gold of Goin’ South) in The Two Jakes.
His directorial career lasted only three films, yet spanned nearly 20 years. From a crackling debut to the thud of his finale, Nicholson showed he very well could have comfortably switched from acting to directing. Instead, he made meaning even out of the most limiting roles rather than fighting studios and poor storylines to take his chances as a director.
The final walk down the hall revealed the key visuals in this visual medium. Hector manipulates an orange, holding the Sun in his hands. Henry Moon grins broadly as he appeals to the townswomen to spare his life. The movie star saves a studio from disaster by starring as his noir detective one more time and directing the ill-fated sequel in his final such project. The Sun … the Moon … and the star all flicker with the whir and the wup-wup-wup, groaning slowly to a distorted, haunted sound until the last image of the last Moviola comes to a complete stop. The foot leaves the pedal and the director leaves the editing room. Forever.
Chapter Notes
Preface
1. Sandy Bressler, telephone conversation with the author, 2003.
Chapter 1
1. Millie Perkins, telephone interview with the author, February 20, 2011.
2. Beverly Walker, “Interview: Jack Nicholson,” Film Comment, May/June 1985, 9.
3. Cynthia Baron and Sharon Marie Carnicke, Reframing Screen Performance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2008), 5.
4. Dennis Bingham, Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 143.
5. Eric Morris and Joan Hotchkis, No Acting, Please (Los Angeles: Ermor Enterprises Publishing, 2002), 4.
6. Perkins interview.
7. Gary Kent, telephone interview with
the author, May 19, 2005.
8. Robert Vaughn, A Fortunate Life (New York: Thomas Dunne, 2008), 72.
9. Rainer Knepperges, “The Monologist and the Fighter: An Interview with Bob Rafelson,” Senses of Cinema, April 2009, 8.
10. Bruce Dern, comment to the author, April 28, 2007.
11. Martin Landau, comment to the author, April 25, 2015.
12. Jeff Corey, “The Jeff Corey Collection” (The Thompson Library Special Collection, The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute of The Ohio State University Libraries).
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Kent interview.
16. Shirley Knight, telephone interview with the author, October 17, 2010.
17. Perkins interview.
18. Salli Sachse, telephone interview with the author, May 12, 2011.
19. Perkins interview.
20. David Mamet, “Tell the Truth,” in The Twenty-Second Annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, March 3, 1994 (Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1994), 13.
21. Ron Rosenbaum, “The Creative Mind; Acting: The Method and Mystique of Jack Nicholson,” The New York Times Magazine, July 13, 1986, 2.
22. Joseph Turkel, comment to the author, February 16, 2007.
23. Kent interview.
24. Perkins interview.
25. Kent interview.
26. Richard Kaufman, telephone interview with the author, December 21, 2013.
27. Ibid.
28. Barry Dennen, Skype interview with the author, January 19, 2016.
29. Sonny Barger, interview with the author, May 5, 2002.
30. Kent interview.
31. Noah Wyle, comment to the author, April 11, 2015.
32. Nancy Allen, telephone interview with the author, March 27, 2011.
33. Dern comment, 2007.
34. Robert Dix, interview with the author, June 25, 2011.
35. Allen interview.
36. Rita Moreno, comment to the author, October 19, 2003.
37. James Hong, written interview with the author, November 7, 2016.
38. Kent interview.
39. Perkins interview.
40. Knight interview.
41. Dern comment, 2007.
42. Mews Small, telephone interview with the author, October 1, 2015.
43. Michael Margotta, interview with the author via email, September 3, 2011.
44. Ed Nelson, interview with the author, June 25, 2011.
45. Allen interview.
46. Kent interview.
47. Bert Cardullo, Playing to the Camera: Film Actors Discuss Their Craft (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 25.
48. Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (New York: Broadway, 2009), 344.
49. Margotta interview.
50. James Naramore, Acting in the Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 122–23.
51. Nelson interview.
52. Monte Hellman, response to the author via Facebook Messenger, December 31, 2013.
53. Patrick McGilligan, Jack’s Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994), 222.
54. Milos Forman, “He Called Me Meatloaf” in The Twenty-Second Annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, March 3, 1994, 12.
55. Meryl Streep, “The Outlaw Icon” in ibid., 9.
56. Jack Nicholson, “I Go the Hard Way Every Time” in ibid., 17.
57. Beverly Walker, Jack Nicholson: Anatomy of an Actor (London: Phaidon Press, 2013), 65.
58. Fred Schruers, “Jack Nicholson: The Badass Hollywood Star,” Rolling Stone, March 19, 1998, 3.
59. Dern comment, 2007.
60. Nelson interview.
61. Michael Caine, Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making (New York: Applause, 1990), 6.
62. Morris and Hotchkis, 1.
63. Ibid., p. 4.
64. Baron and Carnicke, 44–45.
65. Ibid., 186.
66. Ibid., 98.
67. Kent interview.
68. Shaun R. Karli, Becoming Jack Nicholson: The Masculine Persona from Easy Rider to The Shining (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2013), 9.
69. Kent interview.
70. Dennen interview.
71. Perkins interview.
72. John Farr, “Tough Guy: The Best of James Cagney,” The Huffington Post, huffingtonpost.com, July 17, 2012.
73. Naramore, 159.
74. Ibid., 220.
75. Peter Bogdanovich, Who the Hell’s In It: Portraits and Conversations (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 99.
76. Naramore, 235.
77. Knight interview.
78. Perkins interview.
79. Corey Collection.
Chapter 2
1. Arlen Schumer, telephone interview with the author, January 25, 2016.
2. Ibid.
3. Ve Neill, comment to the author, May 13, 2016.
4. Mike Sager, “What I’ve Learned: Jack Nicholson,” Esquire, Volume 141, Number 1, 2007, 66.
5. Schumer interview.
6. Ibid.
7. Jack Douglas, Jack, The Great Seducer: The Life and Many Loves of Jack Nicholson (New York: HarperEntertainment, 2004 [Uncorrected Proof]), 256.
8. Schumer interview.
9. Ibid.
10. Adam West, comment to the author, October 8, 2011.
11. David Boeri, telephone interview with the author, December 8, 2014.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Rusty Schweickart, comment to the author, June 5, 2011.
17. Michael Collins, comment to the author, June 11, 2016.
18. Cindy Lee Berryhill, email response to the author, December 8, 2011.
19. Schweickart comment.
20. Alan Bean, comment to the author, June 5, 2011.
21. Al Worden, interview with the author, June 2, 2012.
22. Cardullo, 257.
23. Dave Scott, interview with the author, June 4, 2011.
24. Dick Gordon, comment to the author, June 5, 2011.
25. Bean comment.
26. Jim Lovell, comment to the author, June 5, 2011.
27. Worden interview.
28. Scott interview.
29. Worden interview.
30. Collins comment.
31. Marion Ross, comment to the author, April 9, 2016.
32. Ibid.
33. Perkins interview.
34. Kent interview.
35. Perkins interview.
36. Monte Hellman, response to the author via Facebook Messenger, May 9, 2016.
37. Peter Tork, comment to the author, March 2, 2013.
38. Elisa Leonelli, “The Visionary Journey of Bob Rafelson,” Los Angeles Arts and Entertainment Magazine, February 1997, 34.
39. Caine, Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making, 68, 43.
40. Michael Caine, Michael Caine: The Elephant to Hollywood (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2010), 206.
Chapter 3
1. FeatsPress, “The Pledge: Interview with Jack Nicholson,” Cinema.com. http://cinema.comarticles/601/pledge-the-interview-with-jack-nicholson.phtml (2001), 1.
2. Ibid.
3. Tom Noonan, comment to the author, October 26, 2013.
4. John Savage, comment to the author, October 25, 2013.
5. Anjelica Huston, Watch Me: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), 268.
6. Graham Fuller, “New Again: Sean Penn,” Interview Magazine, October 1995, 3.
7. Kari Wuhrer, comment to the author, April 24, 2014.
8. Fuller, 4–5.
9. Cardullo, 291.
10. Jimmie Rodgers, telephone interview with the author, February 17, 2014.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
Chapter 4
1. Adrien Joyce and Bob Rafelson, Five Easy Pieces (Los Angeles: BBS Productions, 1969; Original Revised Script 12/4/69 #8974 w
ith Excised Content, Annotated by Karen Black), 132.
2. Don Schiach, Jack Nicholson: The Complete Film Guide (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1999), 54.
3. Walker, Jack Nicholson: Anatomy of an Actor, 30.
4. Joyce and Rafelson, 131.
5. Schiach, 52.
6. Robert Crane and Christopher Fryer, Jack Nicholson: The Early Years (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012), 168, 25.
7. David Toussaint, “The Color of Hollywood: Karen Black’s History of Might,” New York Guyd. http://www.guyspy.com/the-color-of-hollywood-karen-blacks-history-of-might/, April 19, 2012, 5.
8. Sally Struthers, comment to the author, October 2006.
9. Crane and Fryer, 88.
10. Morris and Hotchkis, 44.
11. Joyce and Rafelson.
12. Jordan Riefe, “Jack’s Back: Hollywood Rogue or Hollywood Royalty? Jack Nicholson Returns Enigmatic as Ever,” Gene Simmons Tongue, Spring 2003, 43.
13. Riefe, 41.
14. Rebecca Murray and Fred Topel, “Jack Nicholson Talks About About Schmidt,” About.com Hollywood Movies, http://movies.about.com/library/weekly/aaaboutschmidtinta.htm, 2002.
15. Leo Adam Biga, “Alexander Payne Discusses About Schmidt Starring Jack Nicholson, Working with the Iconic Actor, Past Projects and Future Plans,” Leo Adam Biga’s My Inside Stories, https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/06/from-the-archives-alexander-payne-discusses-his-new-feature-about-schmidt-starring-jack-nicholson-working-with-the-star-past-projects-and-future-plans/, December 6, 2011 (originally published in the Omaha Weekly), 4.
Chapter 5
1. Noah Wyle, comment to the author, April 11, 2015.
2. Bingham, 157–158.
3. James Marshall, comment to the author, October 9, 2010.
4. Ve Neill, comment to the author, May 13, 2016.
5. Dan Moldea, email response to the author, April 3, 2012.
6. Neill, comment to the author.
7. Mamet, 15.
8. Nelson interview.
9. Dern comment, 2007.
10. Kent interview.
11. Knight interview.
Quintessential Jack Page 35