easy jack

being a jack nicholson fan is a tightrope walk. for instance, i can't praise his performance of jack torrance in 'the shining' hard enough; and his role in 'terms of endearment' was an oasis of complex life in an otherwise schmaltzy escapade. and who can discount his work in 'easy rider,' or in 'one flew over the cuckoo's nest,' or even in the dry, enigmatic 'chinatown?'

and then ...on the other hand, there's 'the joker' from the keaton batman. (yikes...!) then there's the overdone, pointless 'devil' daryl van horne in 'witches of eastwick.' (okay, i know... we can't really fault jack for all the failures of that picture. in most cases, he lifted that limp script up to a glory it most assuredly did not deserve.) so you see what i mean... digging jack means forgiving lackluster efforts like 'hoffa' and 'wolf.' (actually, i admit, i haven't seen all of 'hoffa.') but i have seen 'psych-out.' its great. and he did have an active hand in writing the 'script' for the monkees' cinematic patchwork feature film 'head.' so it seems one must entertain a particularly bissected psyche to be a fan of mr. jack nicholson. but i'll gladly split myself in half... because the half of him that's worth it, IS... indeed, very worth it. (just for the record, i think this picture was taken in 1980... or just before. his absolute peak, looks-wise, if you ask me.)