Films

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J. Herzog" <zogboy911 at hotmail.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Films


> But go ahead and watch The Last Detail. Profane as Pig Bodine and
> Nicholson's greatest turn.
>
>

"The Last Detail fits very nicely into its early 1970s milieu: distinctly
anti-authoritarian, the film is chock full of cursing, sexual language,
rowdiness, and downright rudeness. Of course, Jack Nicholson's devilish grin
was the perfect vehicle to carry this sort of pointedly subversive material,
because he was so likable doing it. From Easy Rider to Five Easy Pieces to
The Last Detail to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Nicholson made the role
of the (often hilarious) nonconformist his own. Reclusive director/editor
Hal Ashby was also a perfect fit for the film and the time period. Fresh
from the offbeat critical success of the serio-comic Harold and Maude, Ashby
brought an "experimental" feel to the film, most obviously in the jump cut
editing borrowed from the French New Wave. Screenwriter Robert Towne was
nominated for an Academy Award (his second of three in a row, following
Chinatown and preceding Shampoo). Towne's f-word-strewn dialogue had
Columbia shaking in their boots, and they refused to release the picture. It
was only after Nicholson won the best actor award at the Cannes Film
Festival that they gave it a run. But they never supported it much, and it
died an unnecessary death at the box office. It has since come to be
regarded as one of Nicholson's best, if not best-known, performances." -
Brendon Hanley
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=A28312

My favourite Nicholson!

Otto