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- [00:00]
A
And for anyone out there who isn't already aware, I guess it'll be in the title, because, you know, the house format for the title of, you know, the podcast episodes is Artists we're talking about, and then the work of theirs that we're focused on.
- [00:11]
B
This artist is Jack Nicholson.
- [00:14]
A
This is technically part of the Van Dyke Park's greater universe because he does the score for the film as well as plays a minor part of District Attorney Frances Hanna towards the end of the Motion picture. So the same way that we kind of walked backwards into the Popeye, Robert Altman's Popeye, a couple months ago, we're doing the same. I think this is maybe a little bit more valid than the Popeye film was, because obviously most of the music in that movie was coming from Harry Nilsson.
- [00:46]
B
But, yeah, Van Dyke Parks is in the credits. We're talking about it.
- [00:50]
A
That's right.
- [00:51]
C
And by the way, I also just want to point out this isn't strictly in your purview, but maybe just in the broader ecosystem. Tom Waits is in this film.
- [00:59]
B
She is.
- [00:59]
A
Oh, that's right.
- [01:01]
C
In a scene that made me do a double take, actually, because he's. He. I think the camera catches him once as a plainclothes officer, and I. I had the feeling of. Of. Wait, was. Was he in this movie all along? Did I somehow miss him? But no, he was just in that one scene.
- [01:18]
B
I thought you were going to say that that scene made you do a double take because it's a scene in which Jack Nicholson forces a man to suck on his gun.
- [01:29]
C
I like that. Yeah. Yeah, that's the Jack touch.
- [01:32]
A
That's a good one.
- [01:33]
C
Can I just say, just off the top, I was looking at the IMDb trivia for the two Jakes, and pretty deep down on the page, it notes that Jack Nicholson gained weight for the role. He gained weight to. To. To convey sort of the older Jake Giddies, which I think is very funny because he looks exactly the same as he did in Batman the year before. So I think he. I think it's true that he gained weight, and so have I. So probably have you. It's just. What? I don't know if he did it for this role specifically, but, yeah, whether for the role.
- [02:06]
A
I was going to comment on that. He's got sort of a porcine nature to him in this film. He's constantly sweating and his hair is just all kind of about up in the air and, yes, looking quite wide. I kind of admire that aspect of things. Whether or not he intentionally made Those decisions out of sort of a method acting commitment to the role, or if it were just, you know, one too many nights at Musso's after the Lakers.
- [02:29]
B
Games, just probably on his yacht, you know, celebrating that Batman money and having to take breaks from splashing about in the water to eat a big salami sandwich, you know, because he was on a regimen, he had to prepare for this role.
- [02:46]
C
One of the iconic images of our time you're referring to there, the photo of him from the. The 2000s, the 2000s, maybe just eating a big sandwich.
- [02:55]
A
I've been seeing this picture. He's shirtless on the boat, and he's.
- [02:57]
C
Got quite supple teats surrounded by beautiful young women. It must be.
- [03:02]
A
Of course, naturally.
- [03:04]
C
But I've been on a bit of a Jack Nicholson kick lately, actually. I. Actually, a couple weeks ago, watched Blood and Wine. I don't know if you've ever heard of that movie. Never heard of that, no. It was from 1997, the same year as Good as It Gets. Blood and Wine is directed by Bob Rafelson, who did Five Easy Pieces and the King of Marvin Gardens. And, you know, they made this movie in the 90s, which also stars Michael Caine and Stephen Dorff as Jennifer Lopez. Yeah, yeah. Stephen Dorff plays Jack Nicholson's stepson, which is wild because it's, like, not his biological son. That's crazy. But I had never seen it, and I watched it because I just kind of like this era of jack. I like 90s jack. I like his presence. And watching both that movie and this movie, I was just reminded that, like, they don't make movie stars like this anymore. Even our. Like, he's probably about the same age. And the Two Jakes, or Blood and Wine, as Robert Downey Jr. Is now. And, you know, Robert Downey Jr. I guess, feels the need to have a body like an Instagram model, you know, perfect hair. But Jack in this movie looks. I mean, I'm struggling to find the word. He's. He's. You never see a guy like this leading a movie anymore. No.
- [04:25]
B
Nobody has that. Well, that weight of. I don't mean literal, but, like, the weight of celebrity is, like, so. So, so much lighter now. Like, he is a. He has a kind of gravitational pull which allows him to step into situations looking the way he does and maintain a sense of at least the pretense that this is someone magnificent to behold. And I don't know that that exists anymore. So much.
- [05:00]
C
He's amazing because he has never really been that handsome. But he has always radiated sexuality.
- [05:06]
A
Absolutely.
- [05:07]
C
Like in the 70s, obviously, but even in the 90s, he just gives off. He manifests the energy of a man who has a lot of. And expects to have a lot of sex. Even though, like, he's not. Like, he looks kind of like if you put a handsome man through the handsome man machine a few too many times. Yeah. And he starts to, like, warp a little bit.
- [05:32]
A
The stats, the sliders are off a little bit on this one.
- [05:35]
B
What's the other one I watched recently is Something's Gotta give.
- [05:41]
C
That from 2000 piece?
- [05:42]
B
Yeah. Rest in peace, Diane Keaton.
- [05:44]
A
I did extra work on Something's Gotta Give.
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C
Wait, actually.
- [05:47]
B
What.
- [05:48]
A
Actually, there was a brief moment in time when I was in, like, the sixth grade where my mom was trying to turn me into a, you know, actor, you know, living in the valley there in Los Angeles, and never went anywhere, obviously. I just got some extra parts. But there's a. I think the hospital scene when he's being rolled down the hospital.
- [06:03]
C
Yeah. You see his ass on the stretcher? Exactly.
- [06:06]
A
I'm, like, in the background of one of those hospital rooms.
- [06:10]
B
Oh, my God.
- [06:10]
C
So did you. You saw Jack?
- [06:12]
A
Absolutely. I spent a whole day there on set.
- [06:15]
B
This is a huge piece of. Lord. Wow.
- [06:17]
C
I can't believe this. That's amazing.
- [06:19]
A
I like to keep. Keep. Keep my cards close to the best here.
- [06:22]
C
Wow.
- [06:22]
A
I mean, I was. I was 11 or 12 or so. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know that that was the Jack Nicholson's ass, you know, being sped along the corridor right in front of me.
- [06:32]
B
That. That's a pretty fun movie that I have to say. So I. You know, you have a. You might have a slim filmography, but it's. It's good. It's potent.
- [06:42]
C
Yeah.
- [06:43]
A
Yeah, it's good.
- [06:43]
B
You're like John Cazale.
- [06:47]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [06:48]
B
Only the best.