Yeah...I really like Nicholson in The Shining.

Not the performance so much as the choice of Nicholson. The trademark Nicholson performance began with Cuckoo's Nest. Even though he made great films prior, the popularity and success of Cuckoo's Nest is what made him a household name and after that audiences came to expect McMurphy in a Jack Nicholson performance. At the time audiences knew exactly how Nicholson was going to be in The Shining. And he was exactly as expected. No suprise there. That was King's beef. Jack Torrence was supposed to be a normal family guy, the last person you expect to turn psycho. King's top choice was Ron Howard.

Never.

I never understood these "he's playing himself" threads for any actor. All actors have different techniques and not all are the same.

Nicholson's schtick was first visible in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960).

Pacino managed to dial it down for The Insider, no?

He did, and even though he was still "showy" in DONNIE BRASCO, I think think that's his best performance outside Michael Corleone.

Once again...back to Jack.

I love the film, but I would have liked either a different actor, or Nicholson toning it down in the beginning scenes. I found him to be a little off kilter right from the start...it really would have made his later descent into madness that much scarier and impactful.

Respectfully disagree. The fact that he was a little off kilter (prior anger issues with Danny, for example) helped sell his increased susceptibility to the madness as compared to Wendy. Also, it fits better with the denouement.

That's probably where he just stopped caring. He made an all time record amount of money off that film IIRC, a huge outright salary, and a relatively huge part of the back end including merchandizing and all. Which, on that film, turned out to be one of the most merchandized films since Star Wars.

He was set for life after that. I saw him say in an interview back then, when he was questioned about that massive financial gain off the film, that after that film he could buy the best weed and smoke all he wanted, and that meant he was rich. He was pretty much a caricature in part after part after that. I can't take even 5 minutes of his schtick in films like 'A Few Good Men' and other so-called 'acting' performances he did.

Except, in his Oscar nominated performance in 'Ironweed', as already noted, where he had the likes of Streep to keep up with, and under the skilled direction of Alexander Payne in 'About Schmidt', as already noted, which was cited by many critics and film fans as the first actual acting Jack had done in decades.

Have you ever seen a Will Smith movie?

Yes.

I agree with this. It seems to have been created on Cuckoo's Nest--you can see the begining of it. Over the next few years he did some films that didn't feature his schtick, but after The Shining it's pretty much all he did. AND he seems to employe the schtick all the time. I've seen interviews and public appearances where he behaves the same way. I think he's just stoned all the time.

"You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!"

Pacino did do a low key performance in Jack and Jill last year.

Pacino was great in You Don't Know Jack. It really depends on the material he's given.

Well technically he did have that one scene in Chinatown where tells the joke at the office. That's straight whacky Jack if anything.

That is exactly where it started for Pacino.

Or maybe he just had so much fun with Dick Tracy that he decided to carry some of it over to other performances.

I'd say his work in Sea of Love is when he started that whole schtick.

I haven' seen "Hoffa" but he gave an excellent performance in "The Pledge". Reminded me he could actually act and not rely on his schtick.

They aren't playing themselves. But there are actors like John Wayne figure out that they can do one thing extraordinarily well, and never stray very far from that. Other actors learn that their movies make good money if they do one trick, so they do that trick over and over again until they wear out their welcome. A lot of comic actors, action heroes, and sex bombs fall in the second category.

Jack Nicholson seems to be in the first category. He does it very well, audiences buy tickets, and everyone is happy.

I've always heard King wanted Michael Moriarty. Howard would have been too young.

We got to see what King always wanted with that godawful TV movie. Thank goodness that Kubrick didn't listen to him.

+1

I like the book and all, but I don't really care what King wanted for the movie. The film stands on its own and works very well with Nicholson.

Just the other day, I was watching the interviews on the DVD of Rosemary's Baby, and Polanski mentioned that Jack was considered for the role of the husband, but he thought Jack looked too sinister. The viewer needed to be unsure if Rosemary's husband could be trusted. It's kind of interesting that Stephen King ended up having a similar problem with Jack being cast in The Shining.

It's the eyebrows!