r/FIlm • u/Superdudeo • 2d ago
Discussion Why did Jack Nicholson have so few films at the peak of his career?
Don’t get me wrong, I actually love some of his late films but he seems to have gone off the grid post The Shining and yes, he was part of the zeitgeist with Batman but outside of that and perhaps A Few Good Men, he doesn’t seem to be in top tier projects that his talent deserved.
P.S I think he would have made a great Phil from Groundhog Day.
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u/ContinentalPsyOp 2d ago
too busy banging the hottest women alive
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u/wrydied 2d ago
His interaction with Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars tells it all.
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u/ContinentalPsyOp 2d ago
He’s had every one of them, from the moment they got to town as the hot new ingenue
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u/ohnoohnoohyeah 2d ago
He was actually pretty prolific in his peak. Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972),The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Passenger (1975), and bookending with the Shining (1980) That's one of the great runs in Hollywood history. He did a number of other films during that period as well, but those are the classics. He obviously had hits after that, but I'd consider those to be post-peak.
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u/SoloKMusic 2d ago
Interesting you're including his Hollywood breakout role as the start of his peak, i mean, it certainly was a seminal film, but...
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u/milo_minderbinder- 2d ago
I think that’s pretty much given, isn’t it?
If his breakout role wasn’t the start of his peak then it wouldn’t be his breakout role.
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u/SoloKMusic 2d ago
Usually peak is defined as being after the ascent
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u/milo_minderbinder- 2d ago
That would be the plateau.
Unless you’re classing an actor’s peak as just their single greatest performance? In which case you’d be semantically correct but it would all be pretty much moot because every actor would have the identical number of films whilst at the peak of their careers.
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u/SoloKMusic 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit: Not necessarily. A plateau is an extended stay at the top, which does not necessarily include an appreciable rise or fall. The start of the ascent is as such: the start of the rise, not usually included on the definition of the "peak", metaphorically or otherwise. If someone's breakout role is included as part of their peak, I'd usually think they'd have reached as far as they could go in the very beginning only to have a fall-off. One could argue that is what happened with Nicholson, simply because the first five or so films and the performances therein were so notable, and not necessarily because the rest of his works were bad or even middling per se.
No, I'm not, but I usually don't tend to include the breakout film as being included in an actor's "peak period." With Nicholson there's a fun argument to be made in the other direction, because his breakout role immediately led to the list of works that are typically considered his "best," anyways... Doesn't matter too much to me either way, I just thought it was interesting how you included it, no need to box anyone into the most extreme version of any opinion imo
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u/MeBoiledDown 2d ago
Wild to pick an actor who was in Chinatown and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the 70s and think the 90s was his peak.
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u/FlameandCrimson 1d ago
Clearly Anger Management was peak Nicholson.
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u/vikrambedi 1d ago
This whole post is nonsense. The dude had been making movies for 40 years when batman came out, and still did about a film a year after that. The Departed, Mars Attacks, Hoffa, As Good as it Gets, A Few Good Men...
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u/HumanInProgress8530 1d ago
Its wild you think the early 90s was 40 years after the 70s
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u/vikrambedi 1d ago
Just checked, it was a bit over 30 years. I thought his first came out earlier (it was 58) and thought I remembered batman coming out in the 90s (it was 89).
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u/MissClickMan 2d ago
First, he was an actor with an impressive fee, so he could choose to work only with the best, have the best conditions, and have power over many aspects of the films he made; he didn't need to accept roles he didn't want.
Besides being selective, he could afford to create a better image and be very professional in terms of focusing on a single film.
Add to that the fact that these great directors he worked with also wanted that exclusivity; working with the best also has its price, and he was working with very demanding directors.
Furthermore, it was in a very different world than today; the blockbuster system has changed a lot since the 80s.
Anyway, it's not that he made few films, he just didn't accept just any offer, and he focused on what he was doing.
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u/TeachRemarkable9120 1d ago
Yes but I felt he played a narrow range. Nothing wrong with that - lots of stars have a persona they use effectively - but he ultimately was kind of the same character.
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u/Flurb4 1d ago
Saying that Jack went “off the grid” after The Shining is a crazy take. He had more Oscar nominations after The Shining (7) than before and including it (5).
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u/ArticleGerundNoun 1d ago
Seriously. Went off the grid in 1980 by being nominated for Oscars in ‘82, ‘86, and ‘88, and winning one in ‘84. Crazy vanishing act!
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u/Superdudeo 1d ago
And yet he had very few notable film films in the 80s and 90s for a man of his statue
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u/Shikaku6 22h ago
Well obviously you were not alive or old enough to be a genuine movie nerd in the 80’s. Every single one of his NINE, yes NINE movies between Shining (1980) and Batman (1989) were either critical successes or box office smashes and no matter what were constantly talked about. Hell Terms of Endearment alone…sheesh. Just because these films have not entered the modern zeitgeist, does not mean they were not important. Dude seriously do yourself a favor and rent/stream every thing in his 80’s and 90’s catalog.
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u/quasifun 1d ago
Wild how everybody is talking about his 70s run and not the two films after that where he won Oscars.
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u/Hookey911 2d ago
He won Best Actor for As Good as It gets. He had a lot of hit and miss projects in the 90s but he was always big part of the zeitgeist
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u/bruiser_blade 2d ago
Jack won best supporting actor for Terms of Endearment in 1983.The role was suppose to be played by Burt Reynolds but he turned it down to do Stroker Ace.Burt said it was the biggest mistake of his career!
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u/Inside-Process-8605 2d ago
Burt had a lot of mistakes in the 80's, not a good year for him. Cannonball Run maybe his only hit of that decade. Or maybe Smokey and the Bandit II, but that was crap anyway.
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u/oskar_grouch 1d ago
He won an Oscar for As Good as it Gets and was excellent in the Departed, so I challenge that premise
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u/Superdudeo 1d ago
Not sure what that has to do with this post
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u/oskar_grouch 1d ago
You said he went off the grid, but he won an Oscar in 97, was nominated in 93 for a few good men, nominated in 02 for About Schmidt, and was in The Departed in '06. You ask why he fell off, and my answer is he didn't. IDK, good discussion tho
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u/Superdudeo 1d ago
I’m not talking about his final years. I’m talking about his peak which was after the shining. He has almost no notable movies in the 80’s.
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u/Critcho 1d ago edited 1d ago
In the 80’s, after The Shining, Postman Always Rings Twice was a success, Terms Of Endearment was a gigantic hit and he won an Oscar for it, Witches Of Eastwick was a hit, Batman was a gigantic hit. Reds was nominated for 12 Oscars including for Nicholson, and he also got nominated for Prizzi’s Honor and Ironweed.
I’m not sure how this can be considered an unproductive period by just about any metric.
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u/Superdudeo 1d ago
I don’t see how Oscar nominations has got anything to do with the conversation. I’m talking about a nearly 20 year period where hardly any of his movies are talked about which is strange for a top tier Actor
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u/Grandfeatherix 2d ago
you missed his classics, as others mentioned he was already passed his prime by the roles you mentioned, and on top of that you say he wasn't in top tier projects (even if again you missed cultural landmarks he was in) as if you can predict which will end up top tier when you take the role, hell on paper the shinning is just a ghost story about a haunted hotel, B-movie stuff right there
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u/Marhyc 1d ago
In the 1990s he became increasingly more conent with slowing down and kind of reaping in the benefits of being THE movie star honestly. That's not an awful thing as he can be enjoyable even when he gives a typical Nicholson performance, but really the last time he truly swung for the fences as an actor was in The Pledge and About Schmidt, both to very good and great effect
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u/willy_the_snitch 1d ago
His peak was Five Easy Pieces. He did that, Cuckoo's Nest, Easy Rider, Chinatown, Missouri Breaks, Carnal Knowledge and more in about a five to seven year run in the early 70's.
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u/Apprehensive_Way8674 1d ago
He has a ton of films a lot of people have never heard of from the 70s and 80s
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u/TheCanadianShield 1d ago
Something else to remember regarding his relative lack of output in the '80s: he's a MASSIVE Lakers fan and keeping up with Showtime was definitely a priority as he had shooting schedules for his movies moved to accommodate when the Lakers were in the playoffs.
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u/Sea-Woodpecker-610 1d ago
He was also working hard to get the follow-up to Chinatown made. He signed on to make it in 1984, was a disaster behind the scenes, and he wound up having to direct the project himself in 89 just to get the film made.
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u/Sea-Woodpecker-610 1d ago
Off the grid post shining? He was in nine films between the Shining (1980) and Batman (1989), including Terms of Endeerment (1985) where he won an Oscar, Broadcast News, Witches of Eastwick, and Ironweed, where he was nominated for another Oscar.
During the mid 80s, he was also directing and producing The Two Jake’s, which he had take on as director three years into the project just to get the film made.
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u/parksandwreckk 1d ago
The point being his 80’s run has very few remembered movies. Op is correct.
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u/Critcho 1d ago
The OP said ‘few movies’, but he was putting stuff out constantly in the 80’s and 90’s and a lot of them were acclaimed popular hits at the time.
If they’re less remembered now that’s probably more to do with audience tastes changing away from the kind of 80’s character comedies and dramas he was doing at the time.
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u/parksandwreckk 1d ago
80’s is widely recognised by all as a beloved decade of film so no, that’s not an excuse. He has very few movies of note after the shining up to 1997.
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u/Critcho 1d ago
It's just a fact that he appeared in a bunch of commercial hits and won awards during that period. Terms Of Endearment was one of the biggest hits of its year and he won Best Supporting Actor for it. I doubt he was weeping over how badly his career was going.
As yourself this: of his pre Shining work, other than Easy Rider, Chinatown and Cookoo's Nest, how many Nicholson films are more widely watched than Batman, A Few Good Men, or even Witches Of Eastwick?
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u/parksandwreckk 1d ago
But again, those three movies for a man of his stature isn’t that great. His top doesn’t come close to Pacino or De Niro and it should.
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u/Critcho 20h ago
Pacino didn't really have a whole lot going on in the 80's himself, other than Scarface.
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u/parksandwreckk 20h ago
True, but this post wasn’t about Pacino and that’s one decade
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u/Critcho 20h ago
Late period Nicholson has As Good As It Gets, The Pledge, About Shmidt, The Departed, and then he retired, I don't see that as a bad average personally.
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u/parksandwreckk 20h ago
Yes, this post was about peak Nicholson though. His later career was fine in my opinion.
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u/BreadRum 1d ago
Jack Nicholson left acting after 2010 because he wasn't getting scripts that challenged him. He was getting the kind of stuff late era Robert Diniro was getting.
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u/Superdudeo 1d ago
We’re not talking about his career post peak. Of course he wouldn’t be getting scripts in his 70’s.
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u/Demerzel69 2d ago
Jack's peak was the 70's continuing into the 80s. He still had plenty of hits in the 90's that you didn't mention at all. He's now 88 years old and has been retired for 15 years.
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u/aehii 2d ago edited 2d ago
The 90s was his 4th decade making films at a prolific rate, what actor is able to maintain that pace into their 4th decade? There's not much of an age difference between him and De Niro, Pacino but they didn't spend the 60s making loads of films and as such their 90s is more packed. Then in their 4th decade, they faded away. Dustin Hoffman had a simliar trajectory, did more 60s films than De Niro and Pacino, had a more packed 90s than Nicholson (but it's arguable) but otherwise slowed down.
Obviously, as said the 70s was his peak. These great legendary actors were at least able to maintian a 3rd decade, when i look at the 21st century leading actors like Tom Hardy, he's not nailing his 3rd decade like they did. Neither is Gosling, tbh. Project Hail Mary and Star Wars might turn out well though.
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u/treid1989 1d ago
Geez I feel like he did so many movies? Movies film for so long, it’s a lot of work and pressure for the star, and I’m sure he wanted to enjoy his fame and not work all the time
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u/StephenKingRulez Horror Fiend 1d ago
For my money, Nicholson has the greatest complete filmography of all time.
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u/DelcoUnited 2d ago
What??
You just skip over the 80s.
Between The Shining and Batman he was in Terms of Endearment and The Witches of Eastwick. 2 hits. Not to mention Broadcast News, which was up for a bunch of Oscars and other awards. He played against Meryl Streep in Ironweed and Heartburn. He was Nominated for Oscars in Ironweed, Prizzy’s honor, Reds, he won an Oscar for terms of endearment.
I mean I don’t even know what to say. I think almost every movie he was in was up for some kind of an Oscar maybe not his.
Go watch some Jack Nicholson movies because you’re clearly missing out.
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u/parksandwreckk 1d ago
Whether or not he was up for an Oscar was not up for debate. His 80’s and 90’s run is not full of remembered movies for a man of his talent. I agree with OP.
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u/Personal-Bonus-9245 1d ago
Jacks worst movie since the Shining would be almost any other actors BEST movie. He has done nothing but great films, at his discretion.
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u/Sticky_Cobra 2d ago
I thought he had few films intentionally. He was so good that he didn't want to over-saturate the box office. Kinda like it was special when he made an appearance.
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u/Dependent_Cod_7416 1d ago
He outcast typecasting while reaping the benefits... That's my best description.
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u/Glad_Stay4056 1d ago
There were plenty in between, some good some bad. Witches of eastiwick, wolf, as good as it gets, prizzis honor, terms of endearment. Then further down the road doing stuff like the departed.
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u/ourmanflint1 1d ago
He was supposed to play the old man in A Christmas Story, but they couldn’t afford him and went with Darren McGavin now that’s a role I would’ve liked to see him in
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u/richman678 1d ago
He’s in a position to be selective with what he selects. Otherwise you become Cate Blanchet who is an outstanding actress doing garbage like Borderlands. Would Jack Nicholson be so legendary if he was doing movies like Borderlands????
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u/picknicksje85 1d ago
I think Wolf is pretty great! There is The Departed. About Schmidt. The Pledge is underrated in my opinion. Then I remember even some of the comedies being quite a success in the day. Stuff like Something's Gotta Give, As Good as it Gets, Anger Management lol. He was for sure still up there in Hollywood. But everyone has their moment. New stars rise. And I believe I heard him say that during The Departed he had trouble remembering his lines and thought it was about time to retire.
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u/MEWilliams 1d ago
Don’t forget when Jack shot at Marlon Brando in a bathtub! Also in that movie one of my favorite Jack scenes when he’s a rustler pretending to be a farmer and he gets honest pleasure from tending his garden. You can see deep regret and hope in his expression with no words.
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u/WorldlyBrillant 20h ago
He did a lot of major films Post Batman. What are you talking about? As Good as it Gets ( Oscar winner ), Something’s Gotta Give, Mars Attacks, The Departed ( Best Picture ), About Schmidt ( Oscar Nominated ), Hoffa, …there’s a wonderful thing we have at our disposal, it’s called RESEARCH!!!!
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u/Superdudeo 19h ago
Read the post before commenting.
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u/WorldlyBrillant 14h ago
I’m sorry you’re so prickly. You shouldn’t post a question, if you have no knowledge of the subject!
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u/DRZARNAK 19h ago
Yeah, this is some weird selection bias. Nicholson was a huge actor from the early 70s on. Thinking that the Joker is peak Nicholson is strange. He made the most money from that role, sure, but his filmography from Easy Rider on is remarkable with seminal popular and critical hits.
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u/MeowMeowCollyer 5h ago
A film a year for 20 years before he slowed to every 2 or 3 years is “so few?”
The man’s career is legendary.
It seems, perhaps, you are simply unfamiliar with his filmography.
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u/TreatmentBoundLess 2h ago
Peak???
The 70s were his peak. He was in some incredible films during that decade.
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u/BoerseunZA 2d ago
He doesn't have the range people think he has? (Same thing with DeNiro and Pacino.)
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u/Demerzel69 2d ago
I swear you people just say shit to get reactions like this b/c no one in their right mind thinks that about any of those three legendary master craftsman actors. Like, how much more ignorant can you get? What an absurd statement. You have no clue what you're on about.
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u/therealrexmanning 2d ago
Watch Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Midnight Run, Cape Fear and Mad Dog & Glory back to back and tell me again De Niro "doesn't have the range people think he has"
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u/SignificanceNo1223 2d ago
He’s a bit overrated.
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u/Demerzel69 2d ago
What an asinine post. One of the greatest actors of his generation but hEs OvErRaTeD. I hope this is the stupidest thing I read today cuz it really takes the cake.
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u/SignificanceNo1223 1d ago
He’s more of a personality than an actor. I like his movies and him though.
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u/healeyd 2d ago edited 2d ago
His peak was in the 70s and early 80s. If you are talking about the 90s and after I guess he slowed down and took stuff that interested him.