It was with great sadness that we all heard of Jack Nicholson’s retirement from the entertainment industry. His performances have always been remarkable and as an actor and director it has often been said that he gives everything he works on his all.
Jack publicly announced his retirement this month, citing his declining ability to remember his lines as the cause for his decision. Despite this being as good a reason as any to retire from acting, it makes it no less sad.
His hawkish features, distinctive voice and maniacal grin have seen him take on some incredibly challenging roles over the years, often exploring the darker side of human nature and madness.
Jack Nicholson has had a long and interesting career having worked with many of the greatest names of Twentieth Century Cinema, but like all greats he had to start somewhere and work very hard to achieve the success that he did.
In 1968, over the course of a weekend in a motel, Jack Nicholson wrote an idea for film with Bob Rafelson and bubblegum pop-rock band The Monkees. Jack had been spending time with the group as they filmed their television series and even went on tour with them; the idea that they came up with became a film called HEAD.
Nicholson, who at the time was a struggling B-Movie actor and screenwriter, was wildly enthusiastic about the film.
It was an incredibly bizarre existentialist film that alienated the band’s tweenage fan base, irritated film critics and baffled everyone else. The film tapped into many streams of consciousness that existed within the American counter culture, concerns over what the army was doing in Vietnam, consumerism, exploitation, alienation and the packaging of culture.
It was also downright weird and disorientating, but often very funny. The film, ironically depicting the four Monkees throwing themselves off a bridge and drowning, was ultimately commercial suicide and marked the end of the band’s career.
“The movie dropped like a ball of dark star,” bassist Peter Tork told The Guardian, “The simile of a rock in the water is too mild for how badly that movie did.”
It would also be several years before the film received any positive reviews before eventually becoming a cult classic.
After HEAD, Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson went on to their next project, a movie that would become one of the most defining films of the period and help turn the young Jack into one of the most sought after actors of his generation. The name of that film? EASY RIDER.
