When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Watching older Nicholson movies like Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, The Passenger, Easy Rider, and even One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest you see a totally different actor. Not just his appearance but he was such a better actor.

My question is, when did he develop his "Jack" schtick and play that personality over and over again? Was it The Shining? Was it later?

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

I'm going to say probably the 80s.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Seems to me like he turned it into high gear for Batman.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

That's what I was thinking too.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

I think it was before Batman, perhaps The Witches of Eastwick.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

I think that's the first movie I started noticing it in. Has Nicholson really done anything of caliber to his older performances since The Shinging?

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

This.

I think Nicholson has been in some great films since The Shining (Broadcast News, As Good As it Gets, and The Departed come to mind). However, none of those films were good because of Nicholson.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

It may have happened before but to me Batman and anything after is when it began to become more noticeable.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

I'm going to vote for <i>The Shining</i>, and I blame Kubrick. The bonus features mention how Nicholson would give what he thought was a realistic performance and Kubrick kept telling him to go way over the top to get the stuff he wanted.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

^Agree. I don't like the mugging Nicholson does in The Shining. An odd choice by Kubrick.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Yeah, don't get me started on the horrible casting of Nicholson in "The Shining." I always agreed with what Stephen King said about that.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Hoffa and The Pledge. He should have gotten an Oscar noms for both of them.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Ironweed & The Crossing Guard

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

On a related note, when did Pacino get his? The Devil's Advocate?

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

I wasn't particuarly impressed with his performance in Hoffa, but I remember The Pledge getting rave reviews when it came out.

All I seem to remember him doing movies as of late are things like The Bucket List. I liked The Departed but it wasn't because of his performance in particular.
That's the one that sticks out to me. Everything he's done since then has been of law-caliber, with the exception of Insomnia.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

IMO he was also good in 'The Insider' & 'You Don't Know Jack'.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Either Heat or The Devil's Advocate (not sure which came first).

These films show he still has the chops, but seems like in the last 10 years he'll take whatever he can get.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Pacino was WAY over the top in Scent of a Woman, even though he won the Oscar.

Pacino started his career with quiet self-contained performances and the last 15 or so years HE GOT LOUD!!

Okay back to Nicholson. :)

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Yes he was.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Yeah, those are his last great performances in serious roles.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Jack was terrific in 'About Schmidt' and he wasn't doing any so called 'schtick'. It was also quite a nice film.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Yes, what a horrible, iconic performance.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

The story is about Torrance's decent into madness. Nicholson pretty much looks crazy from the get-go and that lessens the impact the house is having on him.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Deniro never really developed a schtick. But he definetly stopped giving a shit at some point.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

What did Stephen King say about Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining? That's gotta be one of the best performances in a film.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Never.

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

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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

http://content7.flixster.com/photo/1...361805_ori.jpg

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Pacino managed to dial it down for <i>The Insider</i>, no?

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Have you ever seen a Will Smith movie?

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

Yes.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

"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.

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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

Re: When did Jack Nicholson develop his schtick?
 

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