One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at 50, Top 5 Jack Nicholson Scenes

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Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Peloton break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training tread Plus powered by Peloton Iq. With real time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Treadplus at one Peloton dot com.

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Speaker 2: What kind of a show you guys putting on here today?

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Speaker 3: You're not interested in art?

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Speaker 4: Now?

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Speaker 3: Well, look we're going to do this thing.

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Speaker 5: We're going to have a.

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Speaker 2: Conversation from Chicago. This is Film Spotting celebrating our twentieth year.

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Speaker 3: I'm Adam Kempinar and I'm Josh Larson.

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Speaker 6: Chief voted, now, will you please turn the television set on.

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Speaker 7: Mister McMurphy. The meeting was adjourn and the vote was closed.

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Speaker 3: But the vote was ten to eight. The chief, he's got his hand up.

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Speaker 7: Look no, mister. The meeting was adjourned. The vote was nine to nine.

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Speaker 2: Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratchet with Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Milos Foreman's Best Picture winner is fifty this year, and we've got a.

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Speaker 3: Review plus the top five Jack Nicholson scenes.

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Speaker 6: All Right, here we come for the next great pressings.

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Speaker 8: It's a long time holitay.

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Speaker 3: Ahead on film spoting.

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Speaker 9: This episode is brought to you by dead Man's Wire, the new film from Roque Entertainment. Dead Man's Wire is the incredible true story of the nineteen seventy seven kidnapping that turned an aspiring entrepreneur into an outlaw folk era. Directed by legendary filmmaker Gus Van Sant, dead Man's Wire stars Bill Scarsguard Daker, Montgomery, Carry Always and Mahala, with Coleman Domingo and al Pacino. Now playing in select theaters everywhere. January sixteenth.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to film Spotting, Josh. Do you recall the first time John Joseph Nicholson came across a TV screen or a movie screen of yours?

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Speaker 3: Definitely a TV screen and wildly inappropriately it was the shining? I had to be. Yeah, I've written and talked about has seen the shining way too young.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it had to be for me as well. Later in the show, we'll see if the shining makes the cut for either of us. We will share our top five Jack Nicholson scenes. Plus I'll have a few thoughts on the new documentary Architecton, and we will play Massacre Theater. But first One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is fifty. Technically, we're celebrating a little early premiered in New York City on November nineteen, nineteen seventy five, but just a few weeks ago, was re released in theaters for a couple of days to commemorate the milestone. Based on Ken Kesey's best selling nineteen sixty two novel, the film took home the Big five at the nineteen seventy six Oscars, Best Picture, Best Directormalosh Foreman, Best Actor Nicholson, Best Actors Louise Fletcher in her career defining role as Nurse Ratchet, and Best Screenplay Lawrence Hobbin and Bo Goldman.

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Speaker 3: The film opens with Nicholson's Randall Patrick McMurphy in the director's office of the Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital. He's been sent there to evaluate his sanity after multiple arrests for assault and, most recently, statutory rape. The hospital director is played by Dean R. Brooks. Who was the actual superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital for almost thirty years, including during the making of the film.

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Speaker 5: Let's just be frank for a minute, Randers Wooden, tell me, do you think there's anything wrong with your mind?

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Speaker 3: Really?

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Speaker 10: On the thing, Doc, I'm a goddamn marvel and modern science.

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Speaker 9: Well, you're going to be here for a period for us to evaluate you.

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Speaker 3: We're gonna study you.

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Speaker 11: We will make our determinations as to what we're going to do and give you the necessary treatment.

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Speaker 10: And let me just tell you this, I'm here to cooperate with you one hundred percent. One hundred percent. I'll be just right down the line with you. You watch, because I think we ought to get to the bottom of our P.

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Speaker 3: McMurphy.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if there's any getting to the bottom of Randall Patrick McMurphy, but let's give it a go. This viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was my first sense. I was a senior in college. My roommates were mostly the same group of floormates I had freshman year, and that first year especially, I arrived on campus with my extensive pirated VHS collection in tow Please don't send Me to the work farm. We watched it on repeat. Why, I wondered as I hit play this time? I mean, other than it being a classic movie worthy of its five Oscar wins, I wouldn't classify any of us as having been raised by representatives of the counterculture. Sure, and while we were smartsh we were also immature ish, which is to say we got the message. How could anyone watch Cuckoo's Nest and not get the message about the conflict between the crushing weight of societal conformity and individual freedom? But did we get the message? And what did we miss? I imagine we were all seduced by the star power of R. P. McMurphy. Forget the charismatic actor playing him, McMurphy, the character strikes me as similar to he Fledger's The Joker, an incendiary, unpredictable agent of chaos with one crucially distinctive trait compassion. I propose that watching him needle and constantly challenge the command of Fletcher's sweetly savage nurse Ratchet, one of the all time great characternyms in literary and cinema history, likely appeals to every generation of eighteen to twenty four year old boys encountering our p for the first time. What else, Well, we thought a lot of it was hilarious, mainly the interplay between the men those group therapy sessions. More immaturity on our part, maybe problematic, maybe, But as it turns out, even now as a much more maturish adult, I still laugh. For example, when Christopher Lloyd's Tabor starts harassing William Redfield's herding about his use of the word peculiar, and William dule Seafeldt interjects peculiar peculiar, as if harding using that word is the most astonishingly absurd thing anyone has said ever. I feel confident suggesting that Foreman, producer Michael Douglas, screenwriters Hobbin and Goldman, and Nicholson, along with Kisei before them, expected us to be aggravated and amused by many of the antics we witness. Now. I don't have the training, Josh, to speculate further about the psychology driving that fascination with one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest then, but I've got a bunch of notes detailing my appreciation for it. Now, what about you, what's your relationship to the movie, and did you have any agenda going into this revisit? Was there anything specific you wanted to consider. Here's a topic that was on my mind to engage with or dismiss. One of the many ways our culture differs now compared to our college years and certainly compared to the sixties and seventies, relates to our understanding of gender and power. I had no doubt she would still be undeniably the movie's villain. But is it possible that Nurse Ratchet could be a more sympathetic character viewed through a twenty twenty five lens. Her authoritarian impulses at least somewhat justifiable, combating McMurphy's contempt and perhaps, and I do mean perhaps toxic masculinity.

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Speaker 3: I have not seen this since college as well. I think it really case. It might have been an assignment for the Cinema studies course I took then. That sounds right to me, And yeah, have not revisited it. It's one of those that not only lodges itself in your brain the first time. I feel like clips are shared so often, whether they're at Oscar ceremony or other such televised events, that you get a little dose of Cuckoo's nest regularly over the course of the years, if you happen to watch such things. So never really sat down and was happy to have the occasion to do so, did not go in with anything more than that general curiosity of how it would hold up with the passage of time. And interesting thing to consider in terms of Fletcher's ratchet if she does come off not only with the time we're in, but the ages we are, maybe perhaps a bit more sympathetically. I wonder if you thought about this, Adam, because of the one sequence later in the film, after McMurphy has caused some sort of riot once again and they're debating whether to just hip him off, get him out of there right, and she's the one who says something about, well, that would just be passing our problems on to someone else. And I thought, for one thing, I'd forgotten that scene. It's not replayed often, and I did wonder, is this another side of her we're starting to see? Is there a genuine desire to help these men beginning to surface here, which we don't see in any other scenes she's pretending there is? Those are her words? What is her face telling us what do all of her actions tell us? I I think I don't believe her, and I went as a matter of fact, Adam, I went way the other direction on this viewing when it comes to Ratchet. Okay, you threw it out there, and I thought, oh, maybe I missed something that that he keyed in on. No, Adam, I went so far the other way. Is the thing that was different for me is not only that elemental battle of McMurphy versus Ratchet, which yes, captivated me as a college age as well, and I think is the basic Those are two people, two character types. We know who to root for, even though McMurphy clearly has his issues, and we know where to align ourselves. Right this time, I inflated that. I feel like the movie inflates it to become more than McMurphy versus Ratchet. And this is a case, a mythic case of life versus death and McMurphy is life.

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Speaker 2: Okay, you're not just going political. It's bigger than that, No, Adam, It's bigger.

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Speaker 3: It's elemental. Is how this movie registered to me. And McMurphy is representing that in the way that in the face of he's trying to be squashed out here and is repeatedly squashed out and continues to resist. And we're going to get to our top five Jack Nicholson scenes, And so I'm going to dance around because I believe we each have a pick from this film, and I don't want to spoil them by talking about McMurphy as this figure of life too much, except that it's the irrepressible nature that Nicholson brings to the performance, the way that he shares it with his fellow patients and inspires them to choose life in small ways rather than the death that is pervading throughout this film. And Ratchet for me is death. It's in the performance, which is chilling. It's a remarkable anti performance. She does not reveal anything at all. Her eyes are drained of any spark, her skin is sapped of any feeling. I think the only smile we might get is when she squashes McMurphy's attempts to put the World series on and she sees that it's the vote is not going his way. Early on, we get a little smile, and it's her small smile is the embodiment of evil to me because it's not just that she doesn't want the words schedule to change. She wants McMurphy to fail. There is no heart for rehabilitation here. And that is again where Murphy represents life because his rehabilitation, which he needs. I had forgotten the statutory rape thing. I mean, this is a nasty guy. He needs rehabilitation, but he's not going to find it here because Ratchet will not allow it. He's seeking life anew maybe he doesn't even know that's what he's seeking yet, and he's striving to survive, perhaps until he can get it. But in the face of this death, that's all he's going to He's going to run up against it at some point. And you know, this brings us to the end. I would love to talk about the ending and how I see that being mythical as well. But yeah, I want to throw it back to you and just hear about this Ratchet question. Although it sounds like it sounds like you didn't have a newfound sympathy for her either.

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Speaker 2: No, and you're right, McMurphy isn't going to find rehabilitation with nurse. He also, I think the movie makes very clear, isn't going to find rehabilitation in any kind of mental institution that isn't where he belongs. He shouldn't be there at all. I love your reading, and I agree with it. I think the movie does take on that kind of mythic proportion. I think it's why it's so captured the cultural imagination. Then I think it's why it still captures our imagination the way it does now. I do think it's worth acknowledging that Ratchet is the only female character of real consequence in a work, written, directed, and produced entirely by men, and she is one of the biggest villains in movie and probably literary history. I'm not as familiar with its legacy there, but surely American literary history. I imagine there had to be feminist critiques of Cuckoo's Nest, and sure enough, a very preliminary Google search turns up at least one reclaiming Big Nurse, a feminist critique of Ken Kesey's portrayal of Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. So it's complicated, But in terms of my experience watching Nurse Ratchet this time, not only Josh did I not gain sympathy for her. I lost it if that was even possible. Af I put her at number five on the all time movie villains list. Hannibal Lecter was number one. I don't know. Obviously, I'd be more scared to be put in the same room with Hannibal Lecter. But at least with Hannibal Lecter, he knows exactly who and what he is, and you know who and what he is. There's no pretense. Ratchet is oblivious to her impropriety, which makes her more insidious. What is let's just outline it and spoiler note, we're gonna do it right here. The movie's fifty years old. We're gonna talk about the ending of the movie. If you haven't seen it or don't want to know what happens to McMurphy or to Billy Bibbott, stop listening now. What's unjustifiable and unforgive her culpability in Billy's death. I will say this about Ratchet. I don't think she's purely a monster. She's human. That wouldn't be very compelling drama. I think she is upset, not just scared, when Billy kills himself, but he makes that choice, and she knows he will want to make that choice based on past behavior, based on his psychology, because she relishes the opportunity, or at least can't resist the opportunity to shame him. She doesn't need to tell his mother, as he says, but she is punitive. She wants to cause him agony. She sees his act as an active disobedience, as an insult towards her. You're talking mythic. I think we're getting biblical here as well. She's the God and this is her little garden, and he is now sought knowledge that she has not condoned. Perhaps, and of course there is McMurphy's right, the severity of the treatment slash punishment for his condition slash crime. She knows, and we know, she knows that he's not crazy. If anything, all of his actions at the end further prove that he belongs in jail, not in a mental institution, and definitely not lobotomized. But she gets what she wants. She gets him passive, she gets him subservient, she gets his freedom taken away forever. She wins, She beats him. That's what she wants. She doesn't want to help him. She wants to defeat him. And I'll also mention I'll mention one more thing here, Josh, because it ties back to this notion of power and gender roles, but also something I want to get into, which is Ratchet as a symbol of America maybe itself. And this is what I was thinking about going into the movie specifically, And as these scenes were starting, I just wondered if maybe you know how much did McMurphy, Not that it justified it anything in terms of the outcome, but how much does he wind her up versus her being the antagonist? And right away you notice what is every single so called therapy session about therapy sessions that she dictates that she controls. They're all about sex, but they're not just about sex. More than anything, she uses sex and the men's sexual pass as a way to humiliate them, and then she uses that humiliation to divide them and to set them against each other. So she's in a position of power and she wields it not to heal them, but to hurt them. And what's most telling is that her contempt for McMurphy grows the more what happens. It's not just about whatever rules of hers he's breaking it's that those men, and this is something I certainly never picked up on the last, you know, the twenty times I watched it in college. It's that those men become more unified as a group, they become happier as a group, and individually, they're fishing, they're playing cards, they're watching the imaginary ball game, they're playing basketball, they express themselves more, which early on she says she wants within their group individually, scan when all of a sudden talks Cheswick won't shut up even harding isn't so insufferable. You could reasonably argue that they are more on a trajectory to eventually leave the hospital, all because of McMurphy's influence. And does she encourage it like she should if she really cares about what she ostensibly cares about. Of course not. She lows him. She despises him for it because it diminishes her authority, and because the sounder of mind they are, the more likely they are to question her authority, which is what they do, in which she cannot allow.

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Speaker 7: Remember, mister Skann, and we've discussed many times that time spent and the company of others is very therapeutic. While time spent brooding alone only increases a feeling of separation. And you remember that, don't you.

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Speaker 3: Do You mean to say.

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Speaker 10: It's sick to want to be off by yourself.

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Speaker 12: Disratchet, mister Cheswick.

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Speaker 7: You sit down, yes, but I want to know, sit down, Chwick.

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Speaker 3: I want to give him a cigarette.

00:19:31
Speaker 10: We are hardy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, He's helping them to see beyond the ward, and that is something she can't allow because in a way, the ward is purgatory and they're stuck here. And if she is this, you know, minister of death as I'm proposing, look at the choices she makes. Yes, absolutely, she knows, not that for sure Billy will commit suicide if she pushes those buttons. But she knows it's in play. She absolutely knows it's in play, and so she's nudging things that way. And McMurphy, as far as it goes with McMurphy needling her, I think his fallibility only makes him more of this figure of life to me, because life isn't the same as goodness. He's no innocent. It's very crucial to me that McMurphy is not an innocent. Life is messy, it's full of mistakes, it's full of bad decisions, some of which cause other people pain. But that's where you get the opportunity for rehabilitation for life anew and she is so opposed to that very notion she cannot abide that notion, which is why it leads her to and we're assuming this it happens off screen, but surely she was in on the conversations. It leads to McMurphy's lobotomy, and I think that is so symbolically potent as well, because Adam this removes it from purgatory but doesn't move him to death. He is the living dead at that point, and this is something that's horrible that we haven't even really encountered or thought about. But it also puts into stark relief for me Chief's decision when it comes to McMurphy later that night. It makes it seem like this is something of a mercy killing because of this, not because of the practicalities of the story, but again this more mythic proportion, because if McMurphy's life is reduced to a false one, right that's what he has now, then at least Chief can give him a death that is true, and it is something of a relief. So even that ending, which strikes this very strange, difficult note of tragedy and in Chief's escape, release and some form of victory, I think it resonates with us because it is working on these levels, these character levels, and then all these grander ideas that we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, doesn't Chief even say right before he does it, something like you're going where I'm going or you're going with me. He doesn't mean it literally. He means it symbolically or metaphysically. He is going. He is sending McMurphy off with him outside these walls. He is freeing him. Absolutely, I do want to say I'm not going to necessarily say in her defense, but I think it is clear that she doesn't want Billy to kill himself. And we know that because she does say, nurse put Billy in the office, and she sends the orderly to stay with him until the doctor arrives. She knows he will try to kill himself, and she sends the orderly to be there with him so that he doesn't try to take his life. It's more about knowing he'll try to do it, and she wants him to feel the agony.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, which speaks more to the purgatory idea too, right, It is like keeping him in this space under her control.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and maybe this speaks a little bit, Josh to your point about which I absolutely agree with about not only being the case but almost needing to be the case that McMurphy is flawed. McMurphy is culpable too, because something I didn't notice until this viewing. It's Washington. I believe the orderly's name is that she sends to sit with Billy. Washington is the one who gets called to come get McMurphy when McMurphy punches the other orderly. It's because of McMurphy that Washington leaves Billy and Bill alone. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And McMurphy is the one who, you know, not only through the party that was the inciting incident, but pushed Billy into the room with the friend that the woman that he has brought, And so there's culpability to go around. Yeah. Absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And at the same time, of course, he did this tremendously sacrificial thing, truly a gesture of friendship for Billy. So it's it's complex, right, going back to Fletcher and her performance, and it really is. I think an incredible performance. I called her sweetly savage. What you recognize about her right away is that civility, the coolness, and the calmness.

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Speaker 3: She's just a little but that sort of calmness.

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Speaker 2: Yes, she's just a little bit too soothing as opposed to actually being comforting, which is I think what makes it remarkable. And I was thinking about that, that civility. There's something genteel about it, and you think about gentility like, well, there's elegance to it, or there's there's grace and you know, free from vulgarity or rudeness. Okay, that's definitely what she's striving for. But there's another definition of genteel, which is marked by false delicacy, prudery, or affectation. And I think it's the falseness, of course that we're that we're tapping into. That gentility belies her awfulness. No, she I won't be outwardly vulgar or rude, but she will do horrible things to maintain her power. The way she maintains her power is to control her charges, and sometimes that means McMurphy of course nails her. He is so perceptive. He says, she's dishonest. She says she likes a rigged game, and that's absolutely the case. And Josh, I was looking up something and I found talk about an insight into a character that nails this so potently. Fletcher, in an interview with Vanity Fair sometime around when the movie came out or just shortly after, talked about They asked her about how she approached the character and the performance. And it's from the seventies. But this is a July twenty eighteen article in Vanity Fair that references this interview, and you know it's ironic. I compared McMurphy to the Joker. The writer compares Ratchet accurately to the Joker and other all time great villains like Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader. And the interview section that this writer references, it's Fletcher and also Foreman. They landed Milosh forman, They landed on the perfect insight into the character, and he grew up or experienced an oppressive communist regime. This is what the article says about Fletcher's insight. She thought back to her childhood in Alabama and the quote paternalistic way that people treat other people there. Moving to California had opened her eyes to how warp things had been back home. Quote. White people actually felt that the life they were creating was good for black people. She says, a dynamic she recognized in Nurse Ratchet in her charges. Quote they're in this ward. She's looking out for them, and they have to act like they're happy to get this medication or listen to this music and make her feel good about the way she is unquote.

00:26:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's how it's a That's how you have to play a character like that, as a complicated human with a flawed respect on the world.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: I think she's evil at all.

00:27:02
Speaker 3: You know, you can't play her as a symbol, or none of this would work. It's working on both levels because the performance is so good. And I'm glad you brought up the gender thing because I do think it's worth considering. We'll have to track down that piece. I would love to read it through a feminist lens. I do think, again, seeing it more symbolically, that this role could have been played by either a man or a woman the same way. And maybe I'm missing, you know, something in the dynamics there because I am a man, But it really felt like a. It wasn't envisioned in a gendered way the role. Now, of course Fletcher is going to bring that to the performance. But but yeah, I am interested in seeing someone give it that reading, because you're right, she is she is the only woman. She's dealing with power dynamics herself. She has superiors, right, all men, the doctors in the room that she meets with. She's the only one in that room. So certainly things like that are in play. I want to go back to something else you said as you were setting things up Adam too, which is related to the other people on staff and the other people in the ward. You were touching on the supporting cast, these other patients, and I was I think relieved personally to see that. I think, to my mind those depictions of the patients held up. And of course have not had experience working out a ward like this, and we'll see to anyone who has, or anyone who knows people struggling with this type of mental illness, and might find some of these performances patronizing. And each one is different, so they all work on different registers. The ones that I found worked really well. You mentioned Christopher Lloyd and also Danny DeVito in the way they seemed very immersed in the background of each scene, not looking to do something you know, quote unquote crazy to mark their care character, but just living as these individual men. DeVito's DeVito has that squinting smile, but to me it was always being used as a form of self defense, right. This was kind of like something he was putting up in front of himself so that he wasn't going to get caught up in what else was going on in the war. And Lloyd just has this He's thrumming with this coiled energy, but not in a way that detracts from what else is happening in the scene. I think they're both good. And then Will Samson as Chief, who already mentioned Chief Bromden, were introduced to this character and told that he's deaf and dumb, and later we reveal that's not the case, and you realize what a sly human being. This is what a sly performance. This is how funny it gets. Once Chief reveals to McMurphy that he can talk, he's got a great sense of humor, and then gets that shattering midnight monologue about his own father talking to McMurphy about what is the phrase he uses working on you? They're working on you, and I saw that happen to my father. He admits his father was a troubled man too, ran into ran into trouble with the law, and how that was used against him unjustly and ruined his father's life.

00:30:18
Speaker 5: My papa is really big. He did lucky, he pleased. That's why everybody worked on him. The last time I seen my father, he's blind, the saters from drinking, and every time he put the bottle to his mouth, he don't suck out of it. It sucks out of him until his shrink soup wrinkling yell. Even the dogs don't know him telling. I'm not saying they killed him. They just worked on him the way they're working on you.

00:30:59
Speaker 3: That's the speech is incredible. I had forgotten about that and from will Samson and overall, I just found this to be a very credible portrait of the community in the ward. They were fully realized individuals rather than oversized children.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm glad you brought that up too, because, as I referenced in the setup there and invoking the word problematic, of course, I think back to us as college freshmen, and were we laughing at them? And honestly, Josh, maybe I'm letting us off the hook too easily, just like I was laughing. Now, No, I don't think we were. I think we were laughing with them. I think we were invested in them as characters. I think we understood even then inherently that Ratchet was pitting them against each other and watching the way those dynamics developed, and watching the way, for example, I mentioned Cheswick, watching the way he initially tries to talk and he can't even get a word out of his mouth, he can only make sounds, and then at the end, by the end he is saying he's demanding I want my cigarettes. Wear are cigarettes? That there's humor in that, while at the same time you recognize the absolute seriousness in those demands. So I do feel as if the writing and the portrayal of those characters, it feels it feels authentic to me, and never as if we're exploiting the conditions of those characters.

00:32:29
Speaker 3: Now side lastic as Chesswick, I would agree, another great performance.

00:32:34
Speaker 2: We're going to talk a lot about Nicholson, and yes we do spoilers. Both have a scene from this movie. That said, I still think we have to acknowledge here what makes this performance so special or talk about it a little bit.

00:32:48
Speaker 3: For sure.

00:32:49
Speaker 2: One thing I noticed this time here again this is the beauty of these sacred cows, especially when you haven't seen the movie in so long, is I had never fully recognized the extent to which this is a dual performance. This is Jack Nicholson playing Randall playing and I'm gonna put this in air quotes, but this is his Randal McMurphy's version of playing crazy Randall. And I think this is just having a clearer eyed sense of the characters and the story itself, paying closer attention. But there is a clear line that Nicholson draws between Randall and crazy Randall. I thought in my mind in my recollection it was more blurred. I always understood, and to go back to that phrase, I always understood that Randal was being worked on, like Chief says that this wasn't fair, that he really shouldn't be here. But I guess when doctor Spivey is asking him, point Blake, are you trying to fool us? Or are you really crazy? And Randall's coy about it, I thought there was more ambiguity there. I thought that while he didn't belong here, he wasn't one hundred percent acting either. His behavior was enough outside the realm of what society deemed to be normal that we just really weren't sure about him, and seeing it fresh and here again maybe just paying closer attention. I don't really think there's any ambiguity. There's the entire scene, first of all, where all hell Breaksluice finally largely incided by mc murphy learning that acting crazy now has real consequences, that it isn't just a way of getting out of jail, which this whole time he has thought. He thinks jail is worse, and so acting crazy allows him to have a vacation basically here. But now he learns that at least jail has a set end date and this doesn't. He could get stuck here for as long as they deem necessary, and he's really pissed off about it. And that randal the Nicholson gives us in that group scene and in every scene after, that's a very different McMurphy, not entirely different, but it is a different randal than the one we've seen up to that point. At least in the scenes where Ratchet or someone in authority is present, go back and wat much. For example, Randall on the boat, that's a different Randal than the Randal we see when he's interacting with Nurse Ratchet, where he's really trying to get her to see him in a different light, where he's trying to maintain a certain type of performance. That group scene where the curtain has fallen right, the manic energy is dissipated. The devilish Jack Grin has disappeared. He's no longer larger than life. We see a despondent, disappointed, frustrated, tired Randal. He's just a more human character. I always saw him as the same Randal because it seems like it's the same size Jack performance. He gets really angry, he breaks the glass, he grabs the cigarettes. But it is not at all. And I want to say one more thing, Josh. It's fascinating too, because it speaks to how strong I think the story and the writing are the entire time. He's crazy Randal. He's willfully fighting with Ratchet. He's trying to break her down. He's trying to stay there, as I said, and not go back to jail. They are anti thedical forces, and I again agree with the way you're pitting them as antithetical forces. They're always in opposition to each other, and they still are those anti thedical forces ultimately at the end. But what's the irony of this scene, the scene where not only does everything really get extreme, but the real Randal finally comes out in front of the group. He and Nurse Ratchet are actually, for once on the same side of a confrontation Cheswick and everyone is attacking her about to randall their petty individual concerns. All she wants them to do is shut up and move on, and she's getting increasingly agitated. All he wants them to do is shut up and move on, and he's getting increasingly agitated. When he breaks the glass and gets the cigarettes, he's defying her rules. That's another act of disobedience, but he's not doing.

00:36:55
Speaker 13: It to defy her. He's doing it to accomplish the same thing that she wants, which is shutting to ches Wick up. He's actually trying to help her. You could almost read it, almost read it like the real Randall and Ratchet could find some common ground with each other, that there's the potential for it. They both do want to be in control of group situations, right, But even when they're on the same side of something here, they're still in opposition to each other.

00:37:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're back to that clip getting to the bottom of McMurphy, which, right, as you said, is probably not possible. He's definitely shifting personas here. And by he I mean McMurphy. I think you're right about that, and we see it. I mean, how does he arrive on the scene when they bring him into the hospital. He's he's dancing and gives one of the guyards a kiss on the cheek. Right, he's playing into the quote unquote looney bin persona. That's it that he thinks they're expecting. I think I probably though, see it less of a flip of the switch for McMurphy or of a continuum and I and it's a really tricky question too, because it's it's almost like there are moments where he's sober, and there's moments where he's tipsy, and there's moments where he's blind drunk, and there's moments where he's passed out. And in terms of the question of society, yes, he doesn't belong here, does he belong in jail. I mean, yes, if he's been convicted of some of these awful crimes he's been accused of. Yeah, But to go back to the idea of rehabilitation, I don't know if either are going to serve him as a human being. And this is where we're you know, it becomes maybe particularly a film of the era, as you know, the institutions like this were being reevaluated, and what was considered polite and respectable in society is being questioned. Authority is being questioned. This is where the role is so perfect for Nicholson and who he was in the seventies because when you think about he had already established himself with this sort of iconoclastic persona with five easy pieces the last detail, So we know this is something Nicholson can do really well. But I do think it's if not better performance, No, I think it probably is a better performance than both of those. It's because it has these layers you're talking about, of shifting who he wants to be for people in different scenes. But I especially like the delicacy that Nicholson brings. You've already touched on it in some of the scenes. You've talked about, I want to go back to that entrance exam he has, and here he is still he's being particularly cagy. He's like he's sobering up and then getting a little tipsy again in the same moment right with the director. But watch the face Nicholson's face when the director just says out loud, doesn't really mean anything about it. He's reading biographical details and he just says his age, which I think he says thirty eight, and you'll see on McMurphy's face this little flicker of failure, like I'm thirty eight, I'm still doing this. At least that's how I read it. He doesn't admit anything. But then we also touched on this Adam about his how much power he has, and that moment you talked about when he realizes he can't just leave at any time. He's asked something about, you know, are you are you going to work with us or help us, help you, something like that, and he kind of mutters off to the side, it ain't up to me. It ain't up to me. He knows a little bit already, if not that this hospital is against him, but that society has already respectable society. Institutional society has aligned itself against him and he doesn't have a place within it anywhere. I just think what's remarkable about Nicholson here is, you know, he's even when he's being his most impertinent as McMurphy, you get sense that he's a cocky, cornered animal. He's always still the cornered animal.

00:41:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and to be able to do.

00:41:06
Speaker 3: Both of those things at once is a delicacy that maybe some of those earlier parts where he was really leaning into the bravado, you don't see quite as much different parts, different person people he's playing, so that makes sense. But here I do love that you get both of those elements and so many of these scenes.

00:41:22
Speaker 2: Eventually we're going to get to another Pantheon Project conversation about cool Hand Luke, and I think there are certain anti heroes and they both qualify McMurphy and cool Hand Luke. There are certain anti heroes who fall into that category Josh of mythic misfits, where that's exactly what they are. We aren't meant to get to the bottom of them. There isn't a getting to the bottom of them. They are symbolic representatives. They are meant to draw out these types of mythical conflicts. We are supposed to confront them through them. McMurphy doesn't belong there, but as you said, he probably doesn't belong in jail that he doesn't belong in society either. What do we do with him? What do you do with someone like Luke who doesn't belong in the jail that he's in, but he also doesn't want to and doesn't belong in the society that he's in. That's the beauty of this type of art.

00:42:16
Speaker 7: Man.

00:42:16
Speaker 3: I have been thinking about Newman quite a bit lately in this context because watching other Nicholson films, having recently done our Top five Gene Hackman scenes, you know, also known for playing anti heroes of a type, and I did just see Hud again at doc Films here at University of Chicago, and that is a great conversation to have at some point of these sort of seventies, late sixties era anti hero figures that the likes of Newman and Nicholson and Hackman specialized in. We'll probably get to some of that in our Top five.

00:42:51
Speaker 2: One flow over The Cuckoo's Nest is currently available VOD and you know, if Nurse Ratchet won't let you watch it, you can just act out the whole thing for yourself. If you agree or disagree with anything we had to say, or if you just have comments about the film, we'd love to hear them feedback at filmspotting.

00:43:06
Speaker 11: Dot net the great Mickey mail.

00:43:09
Speaker 2: Now, because the Pitch Metal.

00:43:11
Speaker 3: Swings, listening is the number one thing you could do to support an independently produced show like ours, a couple more things you can do. Take a minute to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Doesn't matter if you're brand new or have been around for twenty years. Every new review helps us reach new listeners. Now, this is usually the spot where we mentioned the other thing you can do to help us out. That's join the Film Spotting Family, and then we'll feature a member of the Film Spotting Family instead. This time, we're going to share a couple of voice messages that listeners submitted ahead of Film Spotting Fest back in March. We're going to highlight some more of these over the course of our twentieth anniversary year. We do offer few prompts for these voicemails, asking folks to share a favorite show memory, or something they appreciate about the show. They could really say whatever they wanted, though, So here's what we got from a couple of longtime listeners.

00:44:13
Speaker 12: Hey, Film Spotting, it's Trip Burton from Chicago Land. I've been listening since two thousand and five, the full twenty years. It was the first podcast I ever discovered, and the thing that I value most about Film Spotting from day one is the listener involvement in the show. From the moment I listened to the show the first time. It was about not only reviews and top five lists, but it was about shouting out listeners and listener feedback and massacre theater and giving nicknames to listeners and making them into celebrities. I remember the first time I ever had something that I sent in read on the show. I remember when my son's picture in his film spotting Onesie was on your website. I remember the first live event that I went to where I actually got to talk to Adam and talked to Maddie ballgame, and I've sat down at events and I've talked to all of you, and then in twenty twenty, the world shuts down and you bring us all together on zoom In, trivia Spotting and other events. Trivia Spotting and film Spotting have given me some of the best friends that I have right now. It has given me a community, and you guys have shared all of that with us and made us feel like integral parts of the show. So there's a reason I'm still listening twenty years on, and there's a reason that I'll still be listening when we celebrate Film Spotting forty. So congratulations, guys, I'm so excited to be celebrating with you.

00:45:50
Speaker 3: Thank you. Hi.

00:45:52
Speaker 8: I'm Lisa Curuss from air Mass and we wanted to share our first time that we got to meet the Film Spotting group. Of to me Josh, who was of course great to talk to him, talked to Mett Sam, we got to giggle about Josh's pronunciation of Bill Ricca as Belica or something. And then we got to meet the very cool Michael.

00:46:12
Speaker 3: Phillips, who propably told us, no, you're not in Chicago just for film spotting. There's so many other things you can see now, You're not here just for that.

00:46:21
Speaker 8: It was really cool. And then we met Adam and that was so cool until he told me that I was possibly the one of the people that traveled the furthest to get there, and therefore I might be getting up on stage do you mask her theater? I was very relieved when that bit was cut, and I'm so relieved that you guys are so famous now I never have to worry about going through that again. Congratulations, Thank you.

00:46:43
Speaker 2: Wonderful to hear from Trip and from Lisa and Chris, who, as you heard, we have had many encounters with over the years, in person and also virtual, and it was just one of those serendipitous things where when I picked these two voicemails or these two bits of audio to feature, I just kind of randomly put them together. I didn't realize that they were both going to be about the community and that communal aspect of film spotting. But it really is maybe the best thing about this show and doing it over twenty years, and it does go back, Josh to something that just was organic to what Sam and I started and continued with Maddie and continued with you. It wasn't something that was a strategy, but it just happened, and I'm glad it did, and I'm glad that it continues, and we think Trip and Lisa and Chris for sharing such wonderful thoughts.

00:47:37
Speaker 3: And proof of that is just hearing those voices, even just seeing their names. You know, I can picture their faces because I've had the opportunity to meet them online or yeah, even in person. So yeah, it's really good stuff.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: I think we have two more of those segments that will feature over the next month or so. Thanks again to Trip and Lisa and Chris. In addition to keeping us doing what we're doing, your support comes with perks. You get to listen early in ad free, you get our weekly newsletter, you get exclusive opportunities like being part of the film Spotting Family Discord, and you get monthly bonus shows. Back in June, you heard us wax on about our favorite performances of the year so far. Just earlier today, as we're recording this, we talked about Burn after reading with producer Sam van Holgren a little. We were wrong once. I was wrong once, and I might have been wrong twice.

00:48:29
Speaker 3: Maybe I also am pretty sure. Yeah. We just finished up about an hour ago. Sam's probably halfway through Burn after reading right now. I think he just wanted to put it on and watch it straight through again. He loves it so.

00:48:40
Speaker 2: Much, assures it, he adores it, so he definitely wasn't wrong about it. For all, you burn after reading fans and that will be appearing in your film Spotting Family feeds very soon. If you would like to learn more about the film Spotting Family, you can do so at Filmspotting Family dot com.

00:48:59
Speaker 5: As tex the wait to think about how we live when winter signs something winter siense and behavior for people.

00:49:08
Speaker 3: That's from the new doc Architecton from director Victor Kosakovski. It opens this weekend in limited release. Kosakowski's previous film, twenty twenty one's Gunda, was a close study of farm animals, including the mother pig of the title. I really went for Gunda. I think I called it Charlotte's web By way of slow Cinema, something like that. It's worth checking out. His latest is more expansive. It's a meditation on and I'll quote the plot description here, the material that makes up our habitat concrete and its ancestor stone. Okay, if that's not grabbing you, how about this? A review in Variety apparently calls it quote dazzling epic scale filmmaking. What say you, Adam, you have had a chance to see this well.

00:49:56
Speaker 2: By any technical objective definition, it is epic scale filmmaking in the same realm as Godfrey Reggio's Koyana Scatzi. I like to use the word plot there as if there's a plot, it's it's an abstract documentary. It's comprised entirely or almost entirely of shots of nature. There's no talking heads, there's almost no context. There's sort of a character. I'll get into that very minimal dialogue. You almost wish the one conversation about architecture that happens in the film would have been put at the beginning instead of the end, just to provide some intellectual framing. I would say, if you are at all interested in architecture, obviously this documentary may appeal to you. But I'd add that if you were someone who watched The Brutalist and found the designs and the conversations and conflicts surrounding design interesting, then this documentary might appeal to you as well. Because, of course, Brutalist architects predominantly used concrete for a host of reasons. You may recall some of this coming up in that film, right affordability, functionality, the monolithic, imposing style and more. And architecton is at its core, as you heard Josh, kind of about concrete. More specifically, Architecton is kind of about how much concrete sucks. It's very anti concrete. So there's a nice pro and con if you will, with the brutalist that you might be drawn to. The imagery could be enough of a draw too. That epic scale filmmaking. There are many sequences you could single out all Note two. There's a scene where these rocks, you know, the stone, you really see the entire process of concrete being made coming from. And it's not only that, but you do, over the course of the film see that happen, stones being broken down, transported, the heating process, all of it. You see these rocks, the smaller rocks, on a conveyor belt and where the camera, the way the cameras position, and the way the conveyor is moving, the rocks are jiggling, almost like they're bubbling or like they're alive, and it's just a way of seeing rocks like you've never seen them before. There's also drone footage of train cars loaded with stones and they're whisking across a desert that honestly rivals the majesty of anything in Lawrence of Arabia. It's stunning If none of that immediately grabs you. You want something a little bit more intellectually challenging to grab onto. I'll offer this, and I'll confess, in twenty years of doing this show, I think I can count the number of times I've referenced the press notes on one hand, maybe two, And those were almost all interview situations, not review situations. And I'm not suggesting a critic shouldn't reference them. That's what they're there for. It's just not usually part of my process. But this is a case where I did feel like I needed some additional context to be fully confident in what I was seeing or what I thought I was seeing. Some of the footage is from the part of Turkey where a seven point eight magnitude earthquake hit in twenty twenty three, and in the press notes, Kosakovsky says, in Turkey, we filmed in two areas very close to each other, in the earthquake zone, where everything made from concrete was destroyed, but four thousand year old buildings made from stone remain in place. Civilizations became less durable once we started building with metal and cement. With this jexposition, the movie wants us to contemplate how it is that we clearly know how to make beautiful, enduring structures, and Kosakotsky showcases many other examples as well, yet all too often we continue to make ugly, disposable structures. For all our supposed sophistication and technology, why do we regress not progress? I said there was sort of a character, So I like that question. I like thinking about that provocation. I said, there was sort of a character. The only architect we meet is an Italian name Michelle de Lucci, and that's because when Kosakotski began his research for the film, he reached out to twenty of the most famous architects in the world and he asked them two qu questions, why did you become an architect? And what should be the dominant focus of the modern city? And he explains that, you know, back in the olden times, right in western civilization, especially in Europe, but also in other parts of the world, of course, what was the focus of civilization? It was religion, so everything was built around cathedrals. Well, religion is no longer the focus of civilization and these cities. So he asked them what should it be now? And some proposed schools or libraries, or even shopping malls. I'd love to hear from those who proposed shopping malls, And according to Kosakovski, he said, only one offered a clear cut and universal idea, and it was Deluchi and his grand idea. This is from the press notes. Instead of a cathedral or a shopping mall, he was thinking about open space, empty space, a circle where man cannot enter. Never. It should be in the center of our cities, in order to remind us that nature is at the center of our existence. So he even acknowledges that other people talked about it being sustainable and there should be green aspects to it, but they were all still talking about concrete and metal, and only Deluci was like, no, it should just be nature basically. And so you see over the course of the film him cutting back to this circle being created. I'm not entirely convinced that it's a small circle on his property. I'm not entirely convinced that. Returning to scenes of Deluchi watching two men hammering stones into his lawn to form a magic circle, offers the powerful statement Kosakovski desires, but I appreciated the modest enterprises poetic implications, and I appreciated enough of the visual poetry. I saw an architect On.

00:55:53
Speaker 3: I'm hooked. I mean, this all sounds great to me. And yeah, especially having liked Gunda, I think there's actually an architect On screening tonight, So if we if I get out of here pretty soon, I might try to make that, But otherwise we'll definitely catch up with it on release for sure.

00:56:09
Speaker 2: Architect On is currently playing in limited release. I look forward to your thoughts once you see it. If you like Gunda, though it does sound like a different scale of filmmaking, as we alluded to, I have a feeling you will appreciate this film as well. Next week on the show, Josh, have I been tricked? Well, maybe I'm the one who's tricked myself into seeing a horror movie because I saw the trailer for the new film starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco together it looked really interesting to me. They are a couple who experience a supernatural encounter that transforms their relationship and apparently their flesh. It was a film that debuted at a midnight screening at Sundance earlier this year, and then maybe it's changed in the last couple of days, but recently this is a one hundred percenter on Rotten Tomatoes. People are really digging it. Indie Wires Kate Rblane was at that midnight screening at Sundance and she called it a crowd pleasing and screaming little ditty of a midnight treat. So are we gonna see it and talk about it?

00:57:08
Speaker 3: I mean I did raise my eyebrow when this showed up on the schedule as a sure thing. I thought, wait a minute, does Adam know what this is about? But yeah, I definitely definitely intrigued. Glad to hear you are as well. So I think I think we're going to put ourselves through this, Adam, and we'll see what we feel on the other.

00:57:26
Speaker 2: Side, okay, and we will see if we're ready finally for our close ups. We talked about The Apartment, a Pantheon Project review of that Billy Wilder film a couple of weeks ago, and Sunset Boulevard is turning seventy five this year, so this is this is kind of the doldrums August, those first few weeks of August, especially when when summer is sadly kind of ending. So this is why we're taking advantage of these weeks to see movies, re see movies, and talk about films like One Flow Over the Cuckoo's Nest and even the Apartment and some Set Boulevard. So that is on the schedule right now, Josh, are we sticking with it?

00:58:05
Speaker 3: Yeah? I can't wait to revisit this one. I don't know when the last time was that I watched it, and it feels quite a while ago, though it also has that similar status I mentioned with One Flow Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where you see clips at award shows and movie appreciation documentaries and that sort of thing so often that it seems fresh in my brain, but a full viewing with it, it's been a while.

00:58:29
Speaker 2: We will also have results from the Sunset Boulevard inspired Deeply Flawed Film Spotting poll. I'm not sure if this one is deeply flawed, but those might be my famous last words. It asks you to choose one and only one actress playing an actress going through it. I did notice that Michael Phillips missed those directions. The options are all great. You got Naomi Watson there, Glorious Swanson, Jenner Rowlands, Betty Davis, Natalie Portman, Laura durn Scarlett Johansson, Juliette Binoche. I do love that Sam and included Juliette Venoche even though like seventeen people saw The Clouds of sALS Maria and I like The Clouds of sALS Maria the Olivier Asss film quite a bit, but I don't expect it to fare well in this poll. We will have those results. I have to imagine that Naomi Watts is currently leading that poll. I haven't looked.

00:59:21
Speaker 3: It was one of Michael's two choices. Probably your choice as well, I believe, And yeah, I went with General Rowlands in Opening Night Bent, but can absolutely understand a vote for Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive. If you want to vote in that poll, you can also leave a comment. Please do it at film spotting dot net and for a schedule of our future shows, go to film spotting dot Net. Slash episodes Sunset Boulevard Adam one of the key texts that influenced Robert Altman's The Player. So we'll be sure to touch on that connection at Cinema interrupt Us, which is right around the corner.

00:59:57
Speaker 11: Now.

00:59:58
Speaker 3: This is going to be August eleven, fourteen at Chicago's Gene Ciscol Film Center, four days of communal film criticism. We're going to work our way through the player, scene by scene. If it takes us all those days to do it, we'll use up all that time. I always bring bonus material for this. I don't think I have clips planned from Sunset. Instead, I think I'm going to show a little bit of Touch of Evil and a little bit of a movie I was unfamiliar with before doing research, nineteen fifty one's Hollywood Story, sort of a Hollywood set noir mystery William Castle directed, Pretty Enjoyable. I'll show a clip from that as well. For Cinema Interruptis, you can get a whole package and at ten to all four days, or if you can only make it one day, single day tickets are available as well, and you can pick those up right now Ciscofilmcenter dot org, slash interrupt Us.

01:00:51
Speaker 2: You know, Josh, speaking of bonus material, I wrote a pretty good essay back as a film student about that opening long take in Touch of Evil. I'll let you take a look at.

01:01:00
Speaker 3: It, send it along. Yeah, we'll see if I can steal a few things from it.

01:01:03
Speaker 2: Okay.

01:01:04
Speaker 3: This week on our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show, looking at Cinema's Present via It's Past. It's part two of their Men of Steel pairing. After a very good conversation about nineteen seventy eight Superman, they are moving on to twenty twenty five Superman. I don't know, Adam, if among the Next Picture Show hosts, we'll find anyone sympathetic to our negative responses to Superman, or it'll just be more praise. I have yet to listen to that installment myself, but we'll get to that at some point. Also, we want to encourage you to listen to Keith Phipps new podcast. Keith one of the Next Picture Show hosts. Of course. His new podcast is called The Laser Age and he's exploring science fiction films from the second half of the twentieth century. That too, is available wherever you get your podcasts. Time now for MASCAR Theater, where we perform a scene and you get a chance to win a film spotting prize. Last we mascred this scene. Sup soups.

01:02:06
Speaker 13: Wow, it's Batman and he's at my house right now?

01:02:12
Speaker 3: What are you doing here? Don't worry about it, Doug. I'm not here to throw down or anything. Uh No, I would crush you. Okay, sure, sure, sure, hey listen, thank me later.

01:02:22
Speaker 2: But I just happened to be in the hood, and I figured that you could probably use the company.

01:02:34
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, are you? Are you having the fifty seventh.

01:02:38
Speaker 4: Annual Justice League Anniversary party without he?

01:02:45
Speaker 3: No? No, no. That was Channing Tatum's Superman with Will Arnett's Batman in twenty seventeen's The Lego Batman Movie. It was written by Chris mcada, John Whittington, Seth Graham Smith, Eric Summers, and Jared Stern and directed by Chris McKay. That massacre was part of our Superman extravaganza. A couple of weeks back. We did review James Gunn's Superman and we also shared our top five Superman moments. So why that scene from the Lego Batman Movie?

01:03:14
Speaker 2: Did each one of those writers contribute like a line at a time?

01:03:17
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, you know, you get that many writers, it usually doesn't bode well for the for the finished product. But I think it worked out pretty well.

01:03:24
Speaker 2: This time it worked. Matthew from Brooklyn, New York says, in last week's episode, you massacred a scene from the Lego Batman, the obvious connection being that you discussed Superman. But more deeply this could have been because although it didn't work for you, James Gunn brought a different take on the character, especially the visual look of the world, just as Lego Batman did.

01:03:42
Speaker 3: Here's Angela capis from Richmond, Virginia. Hey, Adam and Josh, you guys did a fantastic job playing Batman and Superman in the vastly underrated The Lego Batman movie. I haven't seen the new Superman movie, but obviously Superman is in both films. The Phantom Zone also features heavily which comes from previous Superman movies, Love the Show and Massacre Theater.

01:04:03
Speaker 2: Wait. I already called it two different things. Now we're calling it the Phantom Zone.

01:04:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say, is that supposed to be what's in the twenty twenty five Superman? Is it just a riff on that I'm asking questions I don't really want the answer to.

01:04:15
Speaker 2: I did google it, and the Phantom zone is a real thing, and I think it really is in James Gunn Superman, but they never refer to it that way that I can recall. Okay, so comic book people should get that we are not those. Rory Dunn in Vancouver, BC says this massacre theater is from the lego Batman movie. The obvious tie in is that everyone is the superheroes having fun and enjoying the new Superman, and Adam and Josh are the Batman or the Batman who got left off the invite list?

01:04:43
Speaker 3: So true, Rory, is this gonna be I was thinking about this the other day, Adam, is this going to be our Raiders the Lost Dark? Like now we're just going to have to live?

01:04:52
Speaker 2: Oh?

01:04:52
Speaker 3: That's right, because Raiders of Lost Dark is a good movie. You know what.

01:04:57
Speaker 2: I'm going to rue the day that I say that. But so far, maybe maybe they just thought we were beyond hope. So far, the email bag feedback of film spotting dot Net, we've gotten more emails supporting our take than those telling us.

01:05:13
Speaker 3: We were intriguing. Okay, because that's that's not the case. On the Film Spotting's family discord, the discord, we're taking some heat, and you know, again, more reason to join the film Spotting family. If you want to give us that heat, you can.

01:05:26
Speaker 2: I just think they heard it. They heard it and they were like, there's no point.

01:05:30
Speaker 3: It's probably true.

01:05:31
Speaker 2: So reach into the film Spotting hat and pick out this week's winner.

01:05:35
Speaker 3: Our winner is Steve Whitford from Rhode Island.

01:05:38
Speaker 2: Congratulations Steve, email feedback of film spotting dot net and we will set you up with your very own film Spotting t shirt or tope bag, or if you're not a member of the film Spotting Family, you can have a trial membership.

01:05:52
Speaker 3: How did I come to this that I can't.

01:05:56
Speaker 11: Five?

01:05:56
Speaker 5: Curtain?

01:05:58
Speaker 3: Was not your one?

01:05:59
Speaker 14: Done?

01:06:00
Speaker 3: And look at me? And I want to say that stupid line one more time.

01:06:06
Speaker 2: We move on now to this week's edition of Massacre Theater. It is a sort of funny voice. We'll see how funny. It is a funny voice edition of Massacre Theater, and Josh will be the one taking on that heavy burden. It's a pretty short scene and it's one in which we will be cutting out some extraneous voices so we can focus in on the two main characters. There's there's one line in particular here. That should give it away if you know this film, and I think maybe we can leave it at that.

01:06:39
Speaker 3: You're kind of insulting the original actor, Adam. I don't. I don't think they intend this to be a funny voice.

01:06:45
Speaker 2: I think it's the point. I think it's intended to be quite cool. I am actually fully insulting you.

01:06:51
Speaker 3: That was all okay, all right, as long as as long as things are back where they should be.

01:06:56
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna start it off. You're gonna give me the action and action. This may seem like a really stupid question.

01:07:05
Speaker 3: There are no stupid questions.

01:07:08
Speaker 2: You inherit five million dollars the same day aliens land on the earth and say they're going to blow it up in two days.

01:07:14
Speaker 3: What do you do? That's the stupidest question I ever heard. I don't know. Probably row out to the middle of the lake somewhere, bring a bottle of tequila, my sacks, and uh some back how very later, definitely.

01:07:36
Speaker 14: And scene.

01:07:38
Speaker 2: There will be no insults here. I practiced that earlier today and it was one fiftieth of the performance that you just gave.

01:07:46
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I did hit a few beats with one.

01:07:51
Speaker 2: Yance that actor gave, but it was a performance.

01:07:55
Speaker 3: I think in his head that's the performance he was giving.

01:07:58
Speaker 2: Maybe, So if you know what for, we just massacred email the movie's title. We think you do. Email the movie's title in your name and location to feedback at filmspotting dot net. The deadline is Monday, August eleven. We'll select the winner randomly from all the correct entries and announce it in a couple of weeks.

01:08:15
Speaker 3: How much you worth? I don't know how to do it. How much do you want? I just want to know what you're worth? Over ten million?

01:08:21
Speaker 2: Oh my?

01:08:22
Speaker 1: Yes?

01:08:22
Speaker 3: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford? The future? Mister gits the future? Not Where's the girl?

01:08:33
Speaker 2: Man of the hour, Jack Nicholson there with John Houston in Chinatown. Before we get to our top five Nicholson scenes, some poll results. A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to choose one and only one Nicholson performance. I said there was one role running away with It turns out it was Neck and Neck. The options we gave you get us in Chinatown, Budusky, the last detail Joker in Batman, mc murphy and Kuckoo's Nen Torrance in the Shining or Other Josh, how did it come out?

01:09:05
Speaker 3: Other is in last place with five percent, Joker got six percent and Budusky got seven percent. A little closer here with the top three Torrents in the Shining twenty one percent of the vote, and yeah, one percent separates the second place finisher with twenty nine percent. McMurphy from Cuckoo's Nest. That means that Gettis took it. Chinatown got thirty percent of the vote.

01:09:28
Speaker 2: I'm surprised. I really thought Nick murphy would maintain that lead and run away with it. Though of course, Chinatown an incredible film and I do love that character. Jake Gittis, Here's Jan McDaniel, McMurphy and Kucko's Nest is a singular Nicholson performance, primarily for the honesty of his portrayal. All these roles are powerful, but there is a stylized quality to them, either because of the era Chinatown or the genre The Shining Batman. Nicholson puts a layer of artificiality into his acting, but with McMurphy he transforms from a con turning into a reformer. That so shakes the the establishment. He's redacted, well, who spoiled it to eliminate his power? This is high water mark Nicholson, in my honest opinion.

01:10:08
Speaker 3: We also got a comment from Bill van zandt these are all great choices. I finally watched the last detail not too long ago and considered it for my vote here, But I just can't get Nicholson's Joker out of my head, deranged and clearly having a good time with it. Might not be his best performance, but it's the movie I'd most enjoy watching again.

01:10:26
Speaker 2: Here's Josh of the nominees, it's got to be Chinatown. Cuckoo's Nest is a close second. But over his career, five easy pieces fatally flawed again, he says, exclamation point.

01:10:36
Speaker 3: Man harsh Josh. Here's a comment from Taylor Cole. Not a bad choice among the options here, But I had to go outther. I spent most of my youth thinking of Jack as a caricaturist, a talented, supremely watchable caricaturist, but never thought of him as being particularly subtle or nuanced. Catching up with five easy Pieces changed all that for me, So I had to give his performance there my vote.

01:10:57
Speaker 2: Here's sean means to close us out? Is it possible that the deeply flawed Film Spotting poll can't handle the truth of all of Jack Nicholson's great movie performances. I have to pick his turn as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men as the topper. Giving Nicholson a chance to chew up Aaron Sorkin's dialogue was a brilliant choice, and Nicholson runs with it. Thank you it does to everyone who voted and everyone who left a comment. That does nicely set the table for us as we transition into our top five Jack Nicholson scenes. We should note, or we like to note, that there are three of these films that or two actually two films that you just heard mentioned that are in the Film Spotting pantheon, Chinatown and one Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That doesn't matter for one of these career retrospectives we are allowed to choose from Chinatown and Cuckoo's Nest. There's also a film that probably should be because it's certainly been referenced and praised enough on the show, and that is the Shining doesn't matter even if it wasn't the pantheon, but I wanted to acknowledge that the shining has come up a lot. We'll see if it gets mentioned here by one of us. What else do you want to say about how you approached your list, Josh, I.

01:12:13
Speaker 3: Think it's right to describe this list as career retrospective. I try to treat it that way, do a lot of homework. Of course, I can't be exhaustive, so there are still gaps in his filmography, but it's kind of an excuse to do our best right now. And when doing that, you know, we look at different eras the decades. Maybe an actor or actress is at their strongest or made some of their best work, and maybe why that was. And it did strike me, Adam, that it's no wonder Jack Nicholson broke out in the nineteen seventies. We didn't do a ton of discussion about the politics. In One flo Over the Cuckoo's Nest, we kind of touched on it, But that film and his character there falls into this same the same type that I would say, I just describe as the charismatic iconoclast who's bucking the system. And there are variations on that, for sure, but it was a character made, a persona made for that era, and I think that's why he resonated. I think that's why he broke out. He captured the frustration of trying to buck the system in that era, in Nixon's America and its aftermath, because the reality was you could only push things so far right, and so many of Nicholson's characters mesmerized us by trying to do that, and then they would tragically hit a wall. So I definitely have a couple of scenes that speak to that quality. But going back to the career retrospective element, Nicholson's career is so vast and varied that I wanted to be sure to represent that as well, represent his range, represent some of the other eras that he was still vital in. It wasn't just the seventies, So I didn't stick only to charismatic iconoclass, even though I think that was his essence, and again, the era he offered it, that's what cemented him so early as a legend. It was like, within a couple of years he became a legendi. I think that's the reason why a lot of crossover there.

01:14:04
Speaker 2: I definitely considered how I wanted to or if I did want to represent his entire career. He made films from the late nineteen fifties up to twenty ten, so you've got a full five decades to cover. He has OSCAR nominated work, Josh technically in five decades. Because Easy Writer is a sixty nine film. Yeah, that's incredible and was celebrated at the seventy Oscars. Ultimately, I did keep it pretty focused on what was undoubtedly his most fruitful period. A little bit of trivia about him. He has twelve Academy Award nominations. I did not realize that until I looked at that chart. Eight for Best Actor, four for Best Supporting Actor. He's the most nominated male actor in Academy Awards history.

01:14:49
Speaker 3: And what an interesting mix too. You usually think of maybe getting the supporting when you're breaking out, and then once you get in that lead actor category, that's where you stay, even if you're a multiple time nomina, right, but Yeah, to have that mix speaks to the different space he could take up and was willing to take up on a film, even though we think about him as having an outsized personality.

01:15:11
Speaker 2: Right, One last bit of Trivia with three Oscar wins. He also ties Walter Brennan, Daniel da Lewis, Ingrid Bergman, and Francis McDorman and Meryl Street for the second most Oscar wins in acting categories. So here again a lot of crossover. Like you, I considered the types of Jacks I wanted represented the range. There may be one Nicholson impression that everyone does, but that doesn't actually, of course, capture the range of characters. He plays the shades he brings to those characters, and maybe I was inspired by Spinal Tap two coming out, and in Spinal Tap one they talk about the Jack the Ripper musical they considered saucy Jack. So I'm going to offer up some different Jacks that made my list. But there will be a through line and it does connect to what you said, Josh about the iconoclast the rebel. But it's not so much about picking the rebel character. It's more about what the rebel character stands for, which will make more sense I think as we get into my picks here, So which scene are you going with at.

01:16:18
Speaker 3: Number five and number five? This one I think does speak to his range and also that ability to not take up as much space in a film, and in terms of Endearment from nineteen eighty three, this was a supporting actor whin you can almost sense, not the relief, but just the fun he's having, not needing to carry the movie because he's not He's not the main character, but he's so good in it. I also wanted to include something from Terms of Endearment because I did want to represent his romantic side on screen that he had that he did have this run of films in the eighties that were in this vein. Two of them I hadn't seen before Terms of Endearment, and then nineteen eighty six is Heartburn. Heartburn failed me. I gotta admit, I mean Nicholson and Meryl Streep, they're doing their best to bring it to life. But yeah, terms of Endearment that I found to be a performance bonanza. So I am going to go with a moment from terms for my first pick.

01:17:16
Speaker 11: Here.

01:17:16
Speaker 3: The clear strength of this James L. Brooks's Best Picture winner are the performances. You get great work from Nicholson, surely McClain, my goodness, and Deborah Winger who Wingers probably the strongest of the three, even though McClain and Nicholson. They both won Oscars. He is Garrett Breedlove, a former astronaut who lives next door to McLean's Aurora Greenway. They're both flirtatious, they're frisky and middle aged. They have each of their own sets of admirers, and yes, initially they despise each other. The movie eventually gets around to them having this fling and it's full of passion, it's full of real honesty for a short while that only two people at this stage of their lives together I think, can have. But Garrett just can't commit. So there is this heartbreaking moment where he makes that clear. And this is even Adam after he has flown to meet Arora at the hospital where her daughter played by Winger, is terminally ill. And you feel like this is the turning point in the movie, right his appearance there. It's where maybe he's going to fully give of himself. He has a surprise arrival at the hotel. It's incredibly romantic, but then when she brings him back to the airport, she puts herself out there and he just can't do it.

01:18:32
Speaker 9: I was curious, do you have any reaction at all to my telling you I love you.

01:18:39
Speaker 10: I was just inchious from a Queen getaway.

01:18:43
Speaker 9: Well, your stock sufface it.

01:18:49
Speaker 3: I don't know what else to say except my stock answer it she is, I love you too, kid, I love you two kid. That's my pick. That's my scene. You've got to see Nicholson smile, the one he gives here. Yeah, it's irresistible and maddening because Garrett knows he's being awful, and he knows he's gonna get away with it, and so that just really really hurts for Aurora, of course, but for the viewer as well. So I'm gonna go with a supporting performance pick here at number five. That's the Oscar Nicholson one, and I, you know, I just really like it because it does allow him to be in that romantic gear, but he's not. He's not betraying the flagrant charisma that was also a part of his persona. So for me, it's I love you too, kid. He is.

01:19:36
Speaker 2: He's so much fun in that role. He's irresistible even as he won't commit. He seems to stand for everything that she doesn't stand for. And yet and yet you know, he is, as you said, going to get away with it. There are people like that in the world, very few people like that in the world maybe, and that Nicholson character is one of them. He inhabits it. Oh well, I'm gonna go with another supporting role, another Oscar nominated role at number five. We might as well begin at the beginning with not his first screen role, but certainly his breakout role and that first Oscar nomination playing George Hanson. An easy writer, and I'm calling him poignant Jack. There's there's no or very little gilding the lily with George Hanson. He's got one recurring tick, if you will, the noise. He likes to make a little physical tick as well. He likes to say swamp, you'll hear it. Otherwise he's very mellow, and that's because he's so damn high. In twenty sixteen, for Rolling Stone, Noel Murray and Tim Gerson anointed the movie Stoner Hall of Fame, and here's how they describe George tagging along on Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's cross country drug odyssey, Jack Nicholson's football helmeted Hanson stands for all the square who could easily be cool if they just turn on a slick talking Southern lawyer with a thirst for booze. George tries grass for the first time while hanging out with his new hippie friends, and soon finds himself deeply relaxed philosophizing about Venusians and bullfrogs. Though Nicholson's part is small, easy writer helped make him a star. He's the assault of the Earth guy next door who makes dope smoking acceptable to the everyman by turning it into an exercise of our nation's divinely bestowed freedoms. God bless America. Indeed, So I'm not picking the part of the scene where they're talking about Venusians and bullfrogs and UFOs. I'm going with the end of the campfire scene. It's almost a monologue, but it is a conversation between George and Dennis Hopper's Billy. I said George was high. Reportedly that didn't require much acting because Nicholson, Fonda, and Hopper were all partaking during this scene and I'm sure many others. And it starts. I do love this touch by Hopper, the director. It starts with Nicholson talking right to the camp.

01:22:03
Speaker 7: You know.

01:22:05
Speaker 10: This used to be a hell of a good country.

01:22:09
Speaker 3: I can't understand how it's going on.

01:22:12
Speaker 2: I just loved the irony and audacity of that line. Most of America is saying that about people like this trio. It used to be a good country before we had people like these long haired hippies riding around on their motorcycles ruining it. And I know there was a lot of improvisation on the film, but I believe the film was credited to Terry Southern and this dialogue here as well. And it feels that way because I can just imagine I've never asked my mom about it, but I can imagine. I know they liked the film. I know they liked the soundtrack. I can imagine a whole lot of seventeen and eighteen year olds at the time, like my parents, who definitely would not be classified as hippies, who saw this movie in the theater, heard those words and Nicholson's conviction speaking them, and all of a sudden started thinking about what freedom really means, what.

01:23:06
Speaker 14: The hell's wrong with freedom?

01:23:07
Speaker 5: And that's what it's all about.

01:23:08
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right, that's what it's.

01:23:10
Speaker 13: All about, all right.

01:23:11
Speaker 3: But talking about it.

01:23:13
Speaker 14: And being it it's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free.

01:23:19
Speaker 4: When you are bought and sold in the marketplace.

01:23:24
Speaker 14: Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, because then they gonna get real busy killing and mamand to prove to you that they are. Oh yeah, they gonna talk to you and talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom. What they see free individual It's gonna scare them.

01:23:45
Speaker 3: No, well, don't make them running scared.

01:23:49
Speaker 14: No, it might some dangers.

01:23:53
Speaker 2: It wasn't planned at all, but I mentioned that there was a through line for me. I realized how many of the scenes I was considering and the characters I was drawn to with Jack were fundamentally about this question and not always politically, this question about freedom, and it all comes back and what it means to be free in the different ways that you can be free, And it all starts with easy writer, And that's why I wanted to start with this scene.

01:24:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, his dynamic, the dynamic he brings to that movie is so crucial. It just opens it up, you know, to speak to walks of life that aren't these guys who were otherwise embedded with right. So I think he's he's so important to the movie in that way. While watching the scene today, I don't though, like, just pluck a lot of that speech out and put it out there, don't even say who it's from exactly. And the way it is speaking to where we're at and how ideas of like freedom and individual liberty have been perverted and distorted is My eyes just kept getting wider and wider as the scene went on. It's off, it's depressing and harrowing, but speaks also to the you know, to the the intelligence and awareness and political vision of a film that I think is sometimes thought of as like a drug movie.

01:25:17
Speaker 11: You know.

01:25:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely had a similar reaction rewatching it, and it was funny that this popped up. You know, the the bots somehow know what you're thinking about and talking about, and so you get served this content. I saw a video on Instagram over the weekend of Fonda and Hopper accepting some award or I'm sorry, I think they were presenting Nicholson with an award, and so of course they were reminiscing about the making of Easy Writer, and they were talking about how Nicholson got forced on them. They had someone else cast for the role, and they didn't know really who this Jack Nicholson was. They didn't want him for the role, and whoever they were working with as the producer of the film, was like, no, he's the guy. You have to put him in the film. And they were initially against it, and then they started working with him and they put him in the film, and they saw how good he was, and they saw, of course what he went on to be. And you know, Fonda said it was the best money they ever spent, obviously, was casting Nicholson in the movie. And you see it. You see even in that film, even though what we think of is charisma, the big Jack, the one flew over the cuckoo's nest, Jack isn't in that scene at all. No, you still get the star power of Jack delivering those lines.

01:26:30
Speaker 3: All right, well, let's get to some Big Jack. Because I knew I wanted to make one pick Adam from a performance, a performance where Nicholson leads with his eyebrows. That's how I was thinking about it, Basically, a crowd pleasing turn one where he's playing a little bit with his own persona and making those famous eyebrows jump. And so a couple of films came to mind immediately a few good men that departed I put in this category, and of course Tim Burton's Batman, which is where I went. Now. Listeners might remember when we talked about our top five Michael Keaton performances not too long ago. I put his turn as Bruce Wayne at number two, and I did go into some detail about the let's get Nuts seen between Keaton and Nicholson. That's probably the best moment for both of them. But I want to provide a little variety, so instead, here I'm going with another Joker confrontation moment, this one he has with Jack Palance's crime boss Jack. Listeners, maybe we can cut a deal Jack. Jack is dead, my friend, you can call me Joker, And as you can see, I'm a lot happier. I love how speaking of the meta and parody elements, I love how Palance is also doing a bit of a Nicholson impression in that line reading, but I do think there's more. So the performance is fun on that level, but I think this is more than a meta performance, so even one that's verging on self parody. I mean, yes, he gets as big as he ever has in Batman here in this scene when he's dancing around as he's shooting the cackling. But I would suggest it's still in service of an actual character, and in fact, the character that I think we talked about this when we did a Sacred Cow review, it probably was of Tim Burton's Batman. The character of that movie is about Nicholson's Jack Napier, the gangster who becomes Joker after nearly dying in a vat of acid. Burton's Batman is it's a story of mirror identities. You've got Napier slash Joker, which is a he's a funhouse reflection of Bruce Wayne slash Batman. Both men are broken, each have responded to that in a different way, and you have Napier embracing madness to this chaotic conclude. So I really think Nicholson roots even the silliest moments in that sensibility of who Napier is and what's happened to him. Maybe not when he's dancing to Prince that still doesn't entirely work, but really most of the movie he does more than offer a brilliant bit of self parody. This is even that actually serves one of the great comic book characters. So I'm gonna make this one my eyebrows pick. You can call me joker, And yeah, he really wiggles those eyebrows, even under all the makeup. He manages to do it. But that's where I'm going at number four.

01:29:34
Speaker 2: I love it that you've started off with two of the all time great, super fun Nicholson scenes. And I'm going really serious out of the gate in small I don't know that you can go smaller in Nicholson's ubra. Then I'm going to get here with my number four pick and I'll pluck out my favorite line of dialogue here or the identifier. If you were mine, I would share you with anyone or anything from Warren Batty's Reds, yet another Oscar nominated turn Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominated turn that he did not win. And this is a romantic turn. You've got one, I've got one as well. He's playing Eugene O'Neil, the Eugene O'Neil in this true story or based on a true story film that Warren Batty directed. Despite that Oscar nomination, I know that there are a lot of other films and roles people more closely identify with Nicholson, especially when they hear what I'm leaving out. I don't care. I love Reds. I love Nicholson in Reds, where we get what I'm calling Josh Piercing Jack Baby is a journalist and a communist activist John Reid. He's in a relationship with a writer and activist Louise Bryant, played by Diane Keaton. O'Neil is the play right who was friends with the couple, and Brian acted in one of his plays and he was or in this scene. He is in love with Brian. So this scene between O'Neill and Bryant, it's about five minutes long, and it opens with Nicholson delivering maybe the greatest, slash harshest bit of feedback an actor could ever receive. Brian says, I like your play.

01:31:25
Speaker 7: I like your play.

01:31:27
Speaker 8: I only hope I can do the part justice.

01:31:29
Speaker 12: I think your dialogue is beautiful.

01:31:31
Speaker 7: I really do.

01:31:32
Speaker 14: I like it.

01:31:32
Speaker 6: And why the hell don't you just stand still and say it instead of wandering all over the stage.

01:31:36
Speaker 10: You're supposed to be looking for your soul.

01:31:38
Speaker 3: Not an ash tray.

01:31:39
Speaker 7: Didn't smoke do yours? Rather?

01:31:41
Speaker 10: You went up in flames than put out your cigarette in the middle of a monologue about birth.

01:31:45
Speaker 2: I'm sorry now that may be familiar that response there from O'Neill from Nicholson to longtime listeners, because that has been used over the years. That's a Massacre theater clip that I worked into our Messa Theater music. But just can you imagine saying to someone, you're supposed to be looking for your soul, not an ashtray, and I'd rather you went up in flames than put out your cigarette in the middle of a monologue about birth. A little harsh, and he doesn't take a breath, it seems, while delivering it. And yes he does it following his own direction. He's standing still, he delivers it directly in front of her, he's not wandering all over the set, and he's so quiet. They have the type of relationship where he can be that candid though without hurting her. That's what makes this scene so much fun to watch in its own way and so fascinating to watch. Candor is what this scene in this relationship is all about. O'Neill is not allowing any ambiguity around what he feels, and he's being really vulnerable, and he's forcing her to be vulnerable. Whether she's ready to be or not. And as always we list these scenes and when we have links to them, we usually do. We put the links as well on our top five page. So you can go to filmspoting dot net click on lists you'll find these lists. And I just really encourage you. We're not gonna play the whole scene. I encourage you if you haven't seen it, or you don't remember it, or it's been a while, watch this entire five minute scene because it feels as finally written to me Josh and performed as aside from any O'Neill play, We're gonna jump ahead closer to the end. O'Neil confronts her about Jack, about John Reid running off to do his things and leaving her alone to do her things, which he O'Neil doesn't approve of.

01:33:34
Speaker 10: He's a real mean son of a bitch, isn't he? What do you mean leaving you alone with your work?

01:33:42
Speaker 7: You think I'm mine?

01:33:44
Speaker 3: You should so one thing we mustn't be left alone with.

01:33:48
Speaker 7: You may feel that way, I don't.

01:33:50
Speaker 14: Good.

01:33:51
Speaker 10: Don't let those village radicals keep you from being what you should be.

01:33:55
Speaker 9: What do you think I should be.

01:33:58
Speaker 3: The center of attention.

01:34:01
Speaker 10: Well, you must have been with some very competitive women.

01:34:04
Speaker 11: Let's just say possessive, possessive at something else.

01:34:09
Speaker 7: It's a waste of time.

01:34:11
Speaker 2: I'm not you can't see it, of course, But when she says she's not possessive, we get a fantastic cutaway to a devilish Nicholson smirk. And what you were talking about with your last scene the eyebrow arch and go back to what I said about the volume and how quiet the scene is. We do think of Jack so often as this big performer, and the more piercing he gets with her, the quieter he gets. It's almost like he's softening the blow because he knows his words are going to get harsher and harsher. He's also countering her because she's getting a little bit louder and louder. He's getting more agitated the more piercing he's being with her. And you know, I credit the writing for these layers. Baby and Trevor Griffiths are the credited screenwriters. But the way Nicholson so wonderfully blends self righteousness and sarcasm with this earnest proclamation of his feelings.

01:35:13
Speaker 12: Like you go why because I don't want to be patronized.

01:35:17
Speaker 11: I'm sorry if you don't believe in mutual independence and free love and respect.

01:35:21
Speaker 10: Give me a lot of parlor socialism that you learn in the village. If he were mine, I wouldn't share you with anybody or anything.

01:35:31
Speaker 3: It would be just you and me. You'd be at the center of it all.

01:35:35
Speaker 2: He does it so powerfully while never doing anything more than standing or sitting perfectly still, with his eyes focused the entire time on Keaton. And that's why I labeled him piercing Jack, because he tells her he wants her to look for her soul on stage, and he is staring right into hers and just kind of taking her apart psychologically. And what is this scene really about? Ironically, Jack is always playing the characters, and I'm talking about characters who can't be or are unwilling to be contained physically, emotionally, spiritually, And he's making the case here for a sort of containment as an expression of love. You can proclaim, as she does, to be against that notion and to respect and crave total freedom in a relationship. But when another man says and if he delivers it with the conviction that Jack does here. If another man says to you and looks at you the way he does, if you were mine, I wouldn't share you with anybody or anything. It would just be you and me. You'd be at the center of it all. I think you'd start to question some things about your beliefs. I love it.

01:36:52
Speaker 3: So I have not seen Reds, but I did watch this scene and it strikes me that more than any other performance or even sequence of his, I've seen that this is the only time Nicholson the persona has completely disappeared.

01:37:05
Speaker 2: It's gone.

01:37:06
Speaker 3: Maybe it's because he's playing an actual, a real life character and he decided I'm doing something different here and going to absolutely leave myself behind. I don't know if that was part of the process, but it did strike me that this is just the man in this story in front of me and no one else. So yeah, at some point I'll have to catch up with the performance as a whole. So we talk about when we do these retrospective actor liss are we doing performances? Are we doing scenes? And at the end of the day we usually say we're doing the same thing, and we like to do scenes because we can drill down into the details. But sometimes what happens is that you get a movie like Chinatown, and I realized great scenes in Chinatown, right, iconic scenes in Chinatown. But as a Nicholson scene, it's the performance as a hole that is so rich, and I had a hard time choosing one. But I wanted to include this part because you could say, on the one hand, Jake Gidtis doesn't immediately fit the nineteen seventies Nicholson charismatic iconoclast persona that I talked about at the top. Maybe it's the period setting. Maybe it's that Gideas isn't exactly bucking the system right. He has left the police force because of corruption, but he's kind of floating around its edges as a private detective and still involved. But this movie drips with the disillusionment of being helpless within a corrupt system. This is why it's a nineteen seventies movie, and it's all about Giddas, who thinks he's above that, coming to realize how helpless he actually is. So I had to have a scene from here, and thinking about some of them, I decided to go with an early one. This is before his helplessness really starts to sink in for him, and Gidea's is still Hockey really sure of himself. So he's telling this crude, racist joke to his two employees in his office, not realizing that fade on Away's Evelyn mulray is standing behind him. Well, just listen to me for a second. We love this now.

01:39:16
Speaker 6: Then they go back and they screw a little bit more. And then they go out and they contemplate the moon or something like that makes it more exciting. So now the guy goes home and he starts screwing his own life.

01:39:27
Speaker 3: See, So he screws her for a little.

01:39:29
Speaker 6: Bit, and then he stops and he goes out of the room and he reads Life magazine. Then he goes back in, he starts screwing again. He says, excuse me for a minute, honey. He goes out and he smokes a cigarette. Now his wife is getting sore as hell. He comes back in the room, he starts screwing again. He gets up to start to leave again to go look at the moon.

01:39:45
Speaker 3: She looks at and says, hey, what's.

01:39:46
Speaker 1: The matter with you?

01:39:46
Speaker 3: You're screwing just like a chinaman. So smart of Robert Town's genius screenplay to undercut Giddi's in this comical and somewhat quiet way early on because it's setting everything up for what's to come and this character's downfall, and Nicholson is totally in sync with the deconstruction of this character. I think that's why he's playing the scene this way, and what I do like about it from a performance perspective, he is dialing the charisma up almost to a clownish degree, right. He's taking Getty's past that we admire or are kind of like attracted to his iconoclast. Here we're kind of like, even before we realize that Evelyn mulray is behind him, we're kind of embarrassed for him, Like, this is an awful story. It's not even that funny.

01:40:42
Speaker 2: It's not even that funny.

01:40:43
Speaker 3: You're over selling it. And now she's hearing it, and you know, Nicholson is willing to push it that far, preparing us again forget its fall, so that when it happens, what does that mean? It's not only a matter of plot, it's a matter of performance. So I'm going to go with the bad joke in Chinatown.

01:41:01
Speaker 2: It's such a good point that you began with, because that's the dilemma. I love this film. It's in our pantheon. I love this performance as Jake Gettis. I couldn't pinpoint the defining scene, and that's why I don't have one here, but this is one I did strongly consider. I have a couple honorable mentions, and my favorite part might be after he turns around and finally Caesar. He then turns and gives his two associates a look that's like, why didn't you stop me? Even though of course they did. They tried and they did try. And then I looked at my notes and back when we discussed this, I pointed out, you know, you were discussing that we see that he is not as sharp as he thinks he is. That we know that he is a bit of a if not a hypocrite, he is someone who is constantly undercutting himself. And just a scene or two before, he was telling one of those associates it's how important it is as a detective to have finesse yes. And what does Polanski then do and Town do as a screenwriter. He walks him into a scene like this where he displays the least amount of finesse Maybe any of us have ever witnessed.

01:42:15
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, yeah, it's just good choices, smart storytelling and delivered upon with the great performance.

01:42:22
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, number three, my number three Jack Nicholson scene. I am finally setting aside the low key stuff we're talking about Nicholson. Let's rip some shit up. It's time for ornery Jack. I'm going to the last detail. Take a poke at me. This film, of course, is about Nicholson as Badass Badusky with his partner Otis Young's mule Mulhall. They are Navy lifers. They've been assigned to take Larry played by Randy Quaid to prison in New Hampshire from I'm not choosing here right the I am the effing shore Patrol scene, that famous one, but I need to reference it, Josh, because it's the setup to my scene. They go to a little dive bar. They're trying to school this poor innocent, naive young young boy really that Quait is playing, and they try to buy Larry a beer, but he's under age and the bartender won't serve him, and that leads to Badass absolutely losing his mind, but it doesn't lead to Larry getting a beer. After that, the three men are back at their motel. Clearly Badass has picked up some beer along the way, and he and Muele have definitely had a few. And Larry wants to know why they got so mad at the bartender. He was just doing his job, he says. Badass wonders whether Larry has ever gotten mad at anyone. As that conversation continues, Badass gets more and more irritated with Larry, and not just with Larry, but on Larry's behalf.

01:43:58
Speaker 11: They're gonna take a years out of your life, man, six years, you said, six?

01:44:04
Speaker 3: Hey, what the difference does it make? You don't even care about it?

01:44:09
Speaker 5: Comes and don't help him?

01:44:12
Speaker 10: Help I mean fairing justice.

01:44:16
Speaker 6: Don't you ever just want to blump and stomp on someone to bite off there where you're just to do it, I mean, just to do it, just to get it out of your system.

01:44:24
Speaker 2: I love Nicholson's physicality, which you might be able to feel coming through your headphones or speakers because you can't see it. When he says, just to do it, just to get it out of your system. Even though he's sitting down, he's almost acting out the thrill of laying in to someone. What that electricity, what that charge feels like we feel it as he explains it. And then when Larry admits that he did get mad at something once and Badass asks him if the grunts beat him up, he gets that Nicholson twinkle in his eye, like, oh, finally something good is coming. I can't wait to hear this. But his answer completely disappoints.

01:45:10
Speaker 11: This marine guard. He asked me if I'm believed in Jesus Christ. I said yeah, and he said that from now on he was Jesus Christ, and then I shouldn't ever forget it.

01:45:25
Speaker 3: What did you do?

01:45:28
Speaker 13: Do you hear him?

01:45:29
Speaker 3: Now?

01:45:30
Speaker 11: Can you imagine that?

01:45:31
Speaker 14: That's awful?

01:45:33
Speaker 10: It's your cold cocky.

01:45:37
Speaker 11: Better hope to chap and don't catch him with.

01:45:38
Speaker 2: That hal ashby film Robert town here again on the screenplay with Darryl Ponixon Badass like the bartender Josh. He's just doing his job taking Larry to jail. He's putting him away though he's taking away his freedom and he doesn't like it. And Larry, the guy who's having his freedom taken away, can't muster a single bit of anger about it, or towards Badass for it, or towards the military or anybody Badass is angrier at himself clearly than Larry is at him, which is where that rage I think is coming from. And that rage against being confined physically or by society's rules, that feeling sometimes like you just need to get it out of your system. That feels to me like what Nicholson fundamentally represents as an actor, and with the choices that he makes.

01:46:32
Speaker 3: The last detail was my personal discovery in doing homework for this list, meaning the movie I knew I should have watched, you know, probably decades ago at this point, because once I finally did, I realized, Yeah, how good it was. I think for our Hackman list, I put Scarecrow in this category. Yeah, incredible film. And this scene you're talking about, Adam, I think is particularly important in thinking of Nicholson, not only the terms you described, which I'd agree with, but also as having political relevance in the nineteen seventies, because you know that bit about just to do it, just to get it out of your system. You read about we were obviously not around then, but you read about this sense of impotent anger that was a hallmark of the Nixon years, right, And I think Nicholson in a number of his performances, but here is Badski is fiendishly channeling that. And I think this is evidence by where the movie ends, because it is another case of pushing the walls against the walls, bucking the system, and only getting so far right and kind of ending on this point, this moment of impotence. And that's what's interesting to me about Billy Badass Badoski is that he is yes, and I'll get to my number two pick here because it is coming from the last detail. He is a quintessential charismatic iconoclast of Nicholson's right. Think about he even choose his gum rebelliously. He choose his gum like he's insulting the person who's watching him chew his gum somehow. But he's bucking the system from the inside right as you described. He's this Navy signalman, and so the question is how far can you really push things if you're a cog in the machine. That's where some of the rage comes from, too, I think is Boduski's awareness of that. And so this is a guy who is not sure who he is or where he should be, but feels like McMurphy does in Cuckoo's Nest that it's not in his control anyway in a sense. And so the scene I want to pick is when he says, I am the Badass. This is early on and he's talking about how he got this badass nickname.

01:48:49
Speaker 10: I always used to have trouble with my name too, bodestime always wanted to call me.

01:48:58
Speaker 2: Badass, badass.

01:49:04
Speaker 11: I am the.

01:49:05
Speaker 10: Badass bad Ass.

01:49:09
Speaker 3: Another case, Adam, I think of the levels of performance going on. This has come up a couple times. I think you mentioned it in Cuckoo's Nest, and that is a dual performance. I think as joker, he's giving a dual performance. And here you see we're getting performances from Nicholson as an actor and then Buski playing a tough guy. On some level, this goes back to the chewing of the gum. As he's telling this story, he's making fun of the choice of his nickname. Right, He's rebelling against his own nickname that other people gave him, kind of laughing at it, but at the same moment he's embracing it and kind of reveling in it. The brilliance of the scene is you can feel that push and pull as it goes on the number of times in different ways he says badass. It's like he's mulling it over for himself, trying it on for himself, seeing how he feels about it, but not wanting to commit to it. It's just an incredible movement of persona here in a small scene. And of course later in the film you talked about the bartender sequence. What does he say back on the street full of adrenaline, I am a badass A and I that's it's almost like, now I believe it about myself, and this is what I'm gonna commit to. So yeah, I'm going with I Am the Badass as my pick at number two.

01:50:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such a good articulation of who he is in that sense of impotent rage. You're right, because it's a movie I haven't seen in a long time but really love, and that entire scene that I picked, You're right, it's an expression of that the bar he raises such a ruckus. It doesn't succeed in anything. They end up having to leave. They don't have any success. And for all of the shouting and for everything he yells about there and tries to get Larry to do. It just ends with resignation, right, resignation.

01:50:58
Speaker 3: And them doing the job assigned, which that fundamentally disagrees with.

01:51:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, onto my number two and we're here over the top. Jack had to be here. I mentioned as you did the eyebrows earlier. I'm not breaking any news here, but man, what a tool for the actor's toolbox. That peak that they both have, that make them arch so demonstratively. And then of course when you turn into the Joker and you've got the mouth to match it. Right, But in the shining this scene, the bar scene, a momentary loss of muscular coordination. This scene, you could watch it again and again and just stare at his eyebrows. I think we talked about this a bit during our Sacred Cow review a few years back. The thing about Nicholson's performance, for as gargantuan as it is, it never to me feel wrong for the movie because Nicholson is capable of the theatrics. For one, because the force of Kubrick's filmmaking and what we think is inhabiting this space, this force needs to be reflected and expressed in a force like Nicholson. For another, And while I'm not suggesting that the Jack Torrance going into the overlook, the one who enters the overlook is the monster he becomes once he's there, all of the guilt and the feelings of insecurity as a husband father. Provider writer that the Overlook exploits They're all there under the surface. So this isn't some progression. It's not a gradual dissent. It's immediate and it's immense. And that's what Nicholson is able to give us. The bar scene is the confession. It is the expression of all of those anxieties and shortcomings. And to go back to my theme of freedom here, it's the expression of his imprisonment. He's trapped at the overlook. But more than that, he is entrapped in his marriage. He's trapped by his wife's view of him. He's stuck in this feeling of guilt. He's stuck in their little apartment. He's stuck in this career as a teacher that he doesn't want. He can't break out. He is maybe the biggest embodiment we have on either of our lists. Josh of impotent rage, isn't he He causes a lot of destruction and damage, but it's not leading to what the character, at least the character coming into the overlook wants to achieve. And where it gets really amazing from a performance standpoint for me, and look, I'll say I think it's all terrifyingly delightful is when he admits to hurting Danny, and it culminates with that line that I mentioned, the scenes most famous line, I didn't.

01:54:03
Speaker 14: Hurt him once.

01:54:04
Speaker 4: Okay, it was an accident, completely unintentional, could have happen to anybody.

01:54:16
Speaker 3: It was three goddamn years ago. A little thrown all my papers all over the floor. All I try to do was pull him up.

01:54:28
Speaker 11: The momentary loss of muscular coordination.

01:54:33
Speaker 5: Hmm, few strew.

01:54:36
Speaker 14: Foot pounds of energy per second.

01:54:39
Speaker 3: Per second.

01:54:42
Speaker 2: Before he says I did hurt him once. Okay, he looks dramatically to the left. Yeah, he looks dramatically to the right. And then he takes this big sigh, this big deep sigh, and other than the bartender, he's the only one there. And yet somehow Jack Torrance still feels the need to look around and be discreet, and then he basically uses jazz hands. And I don't know if anyone at the time thought he would make a bad Joker. But if they did, all you would need to do is point them to that scene in that moment. You'd be like, Oh, of course he's gonna nail this, because that's the Joker right when he repeats at the end per second that physicality again, he makes the snapping sound and he kind of frozes his hand in the air like what are you going to do, basically saying what are you gonna do? Those little physical embellishments, they're just so brilliant, and you know, he's clearly possessed. If you saw a man talking about his wife and child like this, you would think he was the most vile person ever without the slightest redeeming facet. And for what it's worth, that afi Villain's list, that nurse Ratchet is number five on Jack Torrance's number twenty five. But here's the brilliance of Jack, and we've talked about this throughout this list. It's the layers and the word I had in my notes. I like your word earlier that you used when talking about mc murphy. There are glimpses I like your word better the flicker. I don't know that there's a better actor as I did all my research for this list of giving us flickers of other emotions, of other feelings, of other ideas, of other insights, of other windows into a character's psychology than Jack Nicholson. It really feels like, all of a sudden, for a split second, you saw another version of a man inhabit him, and then he immediately goes back to who that character is in that moment in the flicker here, Josh, And there may be one or two other flickers that happen, but the one I'm speaking to here is he says, all I tried to do was pull him up, and for a flicker a moment, a second or less, his eyes become totally human. He looks like a father genuinely feeling remorse over hurting his son. And then like that it's gone. The monster takes back over as if reminding him, no, it's not your fault, it's all their fault. It's a remarkable scene.

01:57:13
Speaker 3: This is a performance, you know, I've come around on thanks to your you know, talking about a number of times and kind of convinced me of the usefulness of the bigness. Let's put it that way, because there is a ton going on in this sequence and there is one detail that also involves the eyes is I believe it's right after he takes a drink finally, and they just go dead. And that's where the possession almost seems to take place that you're talking about, and it's it is more layer than that, because then there's a back and forth as you're describing from that point on, but you that instant you almost see like it's it's he's completely lost his soul and then something else comes in, which is what he wrestles with throughout the rest of that scene.

01:58:01
Speaker 4: I never laid a hand on him, God damn it, I didn't. I wouldn't touch one hair on his goddamn head.

01:58:13
Speaker 3: All right, we're down to our number ones and I'm going with one from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I think it's probably his career performance. It's also interesting in relation to this idea of the thwarted iconoclast, right, because somehow we touched on this in our review. He's an inspirational one even though he fails, and somehow it's not hokey. That's the magic trick, and I think the delicacy I'll go back to that of the performance. But also Foreman's direction, I think is key to why this doesn't strike me still all these years on as a hokey turn. This is a case Adam unlike Chinatown, where every scene McMurphy is in would be eligible for this list, So true, you cannot go wrong. I decided not to go with one of the hits because a somewhat smaller moment captivated me on this rewatch. It's when he bets his fellow patients that he can pick up this massive marble sink in the bathroom and throw it through the window. But I tried, didn't, God damn it. At least I did that. This really has it all for me. It has the Nicholson charisma, It has the bluster, it has the rebelliousness as you've described him, and then this ultimate frustration. But there is a nobility to it here. And I think this speaks to a couple of things why Cuckoo's Nest feels honestly inspirational while being truly tragic. And I also think it speaks to this idea of McMurphy as a mythic figure life straining against death even though life can't win, even though death is inevitable he's still going to live in this moment, or at least try, as he says, I tried, didn't I? And I do think that maybe Nicholson and R. P. McMurphy, this might be one of those true born to play roles. I think that's a phrase that's tossed around maybe too often, but this might be a case of where he has honed in on and perfected that persona he'd been working on very successfully in earlier seventies films, and found the material to give it a different nuance that has this inspirational element. And I think there are a couple other moments in the film that count as I tried, moments where McMurphy is creating life from nothing even though ultimately death comes for us all. So I'm going to go with I tried, didn't I? From one floor is the Cucko's Nest at number one?

02:01:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought that was a very powerful scene on this viewing, and I had actually somehow forgotten about the symmetry with chief later in the film. You know, it's futile. You know, there's no way he's going to be able to lift that thing. It is all about the trying, and you mentioned this earlier. We didn't really get into what I had a lot of notes about the movie representing the conflict of the time, but really, you know, going back more like a decade, that decade before the establishment in the counterculture, and clearly, very clearly Nurse Ratchet is the establishment and McMurphy is the counterculture. And I wonder as you look at this film in nineteen seventy six and in the years after. I suppose it depends who you ask, but there are plenty of people who say, you know, the counterculture didn't necessarily succeed. Nixon got elected again, the war raged on, lots of things continued to go wrong, The great sweeping change didn't happen. You know what, at least they tried, They tried to make a change. Yeah, and I think that McMurphy saying that uttering that is an expression of that. It's a great scene. It actually will nicely connect to my number one, which is also from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And I did pick a hit, but I picked it because it ties back to something I brought up during our conversation about the film earlier. It's the baseball game, and it's number one because I agree with you. I think RP. McMurphy is the quintessential Nicholson character. I'm calling this unbridled Jack. And here's the politics element that really struck me this time. Nixon famously talked about the silent majority.

02:03:20
Speaker 13: Right.

02:03:20
Speaker 2: It was a sixty nine, nineteen sixty nine TV speech. He was talking about all the people out there that weren't against Vietnam, who weren't engaging in protests, who weren't part of the counterculture, and he thought the media was showcasing the vocal minority, all the people that were protesting. So what happens in the baseball scene. The second time they vote, he gets the nine votes, and I really love that. Cheswick is the one who initiates it. It's not even McMurphy who gets the second call for votes. They get nine, and she says that's not enough. Here's her rigging the game, right, And what does she say? There are patients on the ward, mister McMurphy. This is what cued me into it, Josh, And you have to have a majority to change ward policy. So you gentlemen can put your hands down. And he says are you trying to tell me that you're going to count these these poor sons of bitches. They don't know what we're talking about. You want to talk about the silent majority. They're literally on the floor. They don't talk, they don't talk, they don't know what's happening. And yet she's saying, they're not tuned into anything, but they're there, they're part of the country. And she's saying, of course their vote does technically count as much, I suppose as everyone else's. And she's saying, you have to get their votes too, the silent majority, and he does get at least one. He gets the key vote, he gets chiefs vote, and the key here right for me, why I thought this scene was so important besides being a classic, maybe being the most famous scene from this film, it might be the most famous Jack scene. But we were talking about Jack playing two characters as r P. McMurphy, and the first part of the scene, I actually see him as very much even in front of hers Ratchet, he's playing Randall. He's playing by all the rules the Ratchet has established and it doesn't matter because she can change the rules as she goes, which she does, and there's a line delivery that's one of my favorite in the entire movie. When she reiterates that the vote was nine to nine.

02:05:24
Speaker 7: When the meeting was adjourned, the vote was nine to nine.

02:05:28
Speaker 3: Come on, you're not gonna say that now. You're not gonna say that now.

02:05:32
Speaker 2: The way he says that, ah, come on, that first awe, come on is such a genuine feeling of disappointment and resignation. It's not angry even, it's just kind of resentment and resignation. And then when he sits down in a huff and he's still breathing heavy, he still hasn't you know, gotten over it, and he starts looking at the TV screen he sees a reflection in it, and then we have the turn. He has a literal turn right. He turns and looks at her as the idea crosses his face. That's when I think he becomes his version of crazy Randall, the one who's going to act like he's supposed to act in this institution, the one that's going to get nurse ratchet, and he begins to do what he knows will upset her more than anything.

02:06:17
Speaker 3: Goofex my for copax kicks.

02:06:20
Speaker 2: He delivers He's going to imagine that the game is happening on the TV screen even though it's turned off.

02:06:26
Speaker 10: The balls at the deep bright center.

02:06:27
Speaker 3: Davison over the gunner, cut the ball off.

02:06:29
Speaker 8: Here comes the barwins, just a round and guard.

02:06:30
Speaker 13: He goes into the second side.

02:06:31
Speaker 2: Today he is going to defy her and he's going to start doing the play by baby. All right, here's Trice.

02:06:39
Speaker 8: Is the next batter.

02:06:40
Speaker 13: Crash looks in Copax.

02:06:42
Speaker 8: Copax gets the sign from Roseborow he.

02:06:44
Speaker 10: Kicked once he.

02:06:44
Speaker 14: Pumpsy fires, it's a strike, Copebax.

02:06:46
Speaker 13: His card ball is stamping off like a firecracker.

02:06:49
Speaker 12: All right.

02:06:49
Speaker 5: Here he comes for the next trick.

02:06:50
Speaker 8: Cresh twings.

02:06:51
Speaker 9: It's a lot of.

02:06:52
Speaker 7: Guy ball.

02:07:04
Speaker 2: Before It's totally harmless. It's surely a healthy group interaction. It brings smiles to all of the men's faces. What's her reaction, gentlemen, stopped this? Stop this immediately. And as we discussed in detail, you know what, she has all the cards, she holds all the cards. Ultimately she wins. But here, regardless of that power and all of her rules, the locks on the doors and the windows and the TV that's turned off, she can't control their minds. She can't stop their imaginations. There they are totally free. And this might be Nicholson at his most free and charismatic.

02:07:42
Speaker 3: And it's another I tried moment, right, because he hasn't really won. And I think that's reflected in the shot of the TV screen that you mentioned with his reflection, right, there's gray emptiness that is putting the futility in his face. And yet even in the face of that, he's still going to try. And that's what it looks like here and over and over you see this. This is why they're drawn to him, is that in the face of this, this purgatorial place they found themselves, here's this guy who's going to come in and push back against that and take it as far as he can.

02:08:17
Speaker 2: Those are our top five Jack Nicholson scenes. There are a lot of good ones to choose from. I'm guessing you have a few honorable mentions worth mentioning.

02:08:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, five eas pieces. That was another bit of homework that I was glad to do. And if I had gone with a pick from there, it would have been, you know, probably the most famous pick. Even I knew about this scene before I had seen the movie of him in the back of the truck playing the piano and it just you know, goes off down the entrance ramp.

02:08:45
Speaker 2: Well, let me interject real quick. Yes, great scene, famous scene, but no, the most famous scene in five eas pieces is holding the chicken.

02:08:53
Speaker 3: Well, and that's what I was going to say. A couple listeners wrote in with that pick, Ben Morian and Ed Redman. Yeah, the showdown with a diner waitress definitely another highlight. John snow Over on Facebook he had the most clever response to my prompt asking for people's favorite scene of Nicholson. The gift from a few good men, he shared, and John said, you want me on that list? You need me on that list. Sorry to disappoint you, John, but of course a great one to consider for an honorable mention about Schmidt. You know, a later career effort. That man, that's a movie I badly need to revisit. But both Clint Reid and jere Moran chose the deer and Dogu scene where he's writing a letter to the Tanzanian boy he's decided to sponsor. So I think those are all worth considering.

02:09:43
Speaker 2: They are definitely worth considering, and absolutely the hold the Chicken scene from five VC pieces, the piano scene at the end, but also that father and son scene is a very quiet Nicholson scene that's worth some attention here. I already gave some love to the proceeding scene, to the one I picked the shore patrol shout out that he gives in the last detail. What else do I have a respectable man and capable of anything. Those scenes with Noah Cross in Chinatown. There's another scene with Diane Keaton and Red's I'm telling you anytime they're together in Reds it's amazing. Of course, you can't handle the truth in terms of endearment. How about I think it's their first date, the first date with Aurora. The honesty, just the the brutal honesty there again, maybe a trait of a lot of Nicholson characters. When he just tells her you need a lot of drinks.

02:10:32
Speaker 3: That's great. I love Each of their scenes together is just tremendous.

02:10:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I did want to make sure that we at least gave some love to some later Nicholson because I do like some of these movies. I definitely appreciate some of these nineties films, like The Pledge and The Crossing Guard. I liked about Schmidt when it came out, So here's Scott Ross and Derwood. Marylynd Jack's run from Easy Rider to Cuckoo's Nest May rank is the best run of any actor. I look forward to potentially hearing some of your choices from the Imperial Phase. Good word, But I would nominate two scenes from his later roles in The Pledge and About Schmidt. The final scene in Sean Penn's The Pledge is as devastating as it gets, and Nicholson completely embodies a man whose compulsion leads him to loneliness and heartbreaking madness. And there is a scene in Alexander Pains about Schmidt where his character goes home again only to find that it is now a tire shop. Nicholson plays the amusement as only he can and gives one of his best performances in a career filled with at least two dozen of them.

02:11:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think about Schmid too. From my memory. Might be another case where there isn't any quote unquote Nicholson in it, at least in my memory. I really do want to watch that again and see if that holds true once again.

02:11:39
Speaker 2: Those are our top five Jack Nicholson scenes, and we do have links to all of those scenes and that complete list over at filmspotting dot net just click on lists. We would love to hear any comments you have about that top five or any other feedback you have about the show. You can email us feedback at film spotting dot net. Josh, that is our show.

02:11:59
Speaker 3: If you'd like to connect with us on social media, you can find Adam and the show on Instagram and Facebook and letterboxed at film Spotting. I'm at those places as well as Blue Sky as Larsen on film. We are independently produced and listeners supported. You can support the show by joining the film Spotting Family at film spottingfamily dot com. That way you can listen early and ad free. You'll also get a weekly newsletter, monthly bonus episodes, and access to the entire show archive. For show t shirts another merch go to film spotting dot net slash shop in.

02:12:33
Speaker 2: The film Spotting archives. A fair amount of Nicholson The Departed was reviewed on episode one nine Easy Writer, part of our New Hollywood Marathon on episode two fifty seven, The Shining episode four nineteen, and it certainly made an appearance on our Top five Terrifying Characters Batman on episode four ninety seven, and our top five films of nineteen eighty nine. We did talk about Chinatown for its fiftieth anniversary on nine seventy four, and we talked about Milosh Foreman's Amedais on episode seven ninety six. That was part of our eight from eighty four series in limited release. The film I recommended earlier. Architectan Cloud is also out. Our friend Mitchell beau Prey over at Letterbox says the movie of the year. So maybe Josh, we should be talking about that next week.

02:13:21
Speaker 3: I mean, even erle, we should be talking more about Kyoshi Kurrosawa in general. I should not seen a single film of His Heaven either.

02:13:28
Speaker 2: David Erleck says it's an action film, as only Japanese horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa would think to make in wide release. Bad Guys Too. This is the second film adaptation of the popular kids graphic novel Can I can make.

02:13:41
Speaker 3: It real quick? Adam? Yeah, Uncle Josh went to screening with my nephew to Bad Guys Too? You did? Yeah, I'm afraid a little disappointing. Yeah, I enjoyed that Guys. This was a little bit of a lap down, but if you're a big fan, check it out. See what you think.

02:13:57
Speaker 2: The Naked Gun. This is by the Lonely Island Guys or the Lonely Island Guy Akiva Schaeffer, who is reviving the franchise. No, not with Leslie Nielsen, but with Liam Neeson plus Pam Anderson and Paul Walter Houser. She rides Shotgun is Out. Tarren Egerton plays a man recently released from prison and on the run from enemies, with him his estranged eleven year old daughter, Together starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple already near a breaking point who have a supernatural encounter that transforms their relationship and their flesh. We are planning to discuss Together next week along with Sunset Boulevard at seventy five.

02:14:35
Speaker 3: Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Disso and Sam van Holgren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempenar Special thanks to everyone at wb Eazy Chicago. More information is available at wbeaz dot org. For Film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson and.

02:14:52
Speaker 2: I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening.

02:14:54
Speaker 11: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore.

02:14:58
Speaker 10: The Barn.

02:15:15
Speaker 2: Film Spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family at filmspotting family dot com and get access to ad free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and, for the first time, all in one place, the entire film spotting archive going back to two thousand and five. That's a film Spotting Family dot com

02:15:34
Speaker 14: Panicly