Customer Reviews

Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times

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If you have read previous Nicholson biographies I would recommend you do not spend your money on this one. What's new?: Jack's injuries/illness and movies that go up to The Bucket List. If you haven't read any biographies on Jack, this is not a bad read. The book's major themes are Jack's screen and personal personas (as they can be divined), his involvement with money- particularly how much he gets paid a movie, his off screen relationships and the issue of his paternity. As with most of Nicholson's biographys this is not authorized and thus relies on press and ex- associates/"friends" accounts of who Nicholson is..The author does attempt to present a balanced picture and has noted Nicholson's generosity as well as his "mean spirited" dealings with money. This reads on the side of a "pop" biography as opposed to a serious biography. I suppose we are not going to get a decent biography until Jack agrees to authorize one. The language in this book is at times crass: "codfish Jack", Warhol is a "pop art twit", Jack's collection of record albums makes him a "pop music nerd", "born a bastard", "horn dog hedonist", "obeying his gonads" etc. The themes that get overstated are Jack's paternity and his demands for getting paid for his movies....There are minor inaccuracies which makes you wonder about perhaps other substantive ones?..: Bob Dylan was not on the Easy Rider soundtrack (two of his songs were-but not him); Hunter S. Thompson did not kill himself with a shotgun, it was a hand gun; Allen Ginsberg does not spell his name ALAN; Jack could not have danced cheek to cheek to "Blue Velvet" in 1954, it wasn't a teen hit until the early sixties; The Two Jakes did not "predict" the growth of LA suburbs, because the script was written after the growth of suburbs; Jack is referred to as being both 5'10" and 5'9", because at one point he decided to cease his public display or discussion of drugs but kept on doing them, did not make him a "hypocrite"...There are some relatively minor editorial problems but its not worth going into...Maybe some day we will get a serious study of Jack's movie making, his artistry and his history...I would like to see a book that judges Nicholson on his art as an actor and the quality/impact of his movies...and not so focused on him as a person in and above the Hollywood psychodrama...

The author of this bio meticulously researched his subject (notes and bibliographies attest to this) but you'd never know it by reading the text. There are a lot of mistakes in this overly written book i.e. KEITH Carradine not DAVID Carradine starred in Pretty Baby, Al Jolson made the line "you ain't seen nothin' yet" famous NOT Jackie Gleason . . there are a lot more examples but that's not the real problem with the book. For an author who's jacket blurb claims he is such an experienced investigative journalist he wastes an awful lot of time detailing Jack Nicholson's sex life (Does anybody really need to know the shape of Nicholson's penis???) and how much money he has (Exacting figures on how much he was paid for EVERY film). This makes much of the book read like a tawdry tabloid and less like an insightful life story.
It starts great and is quite incisive in some parts but the title is misleading: The author never explains or says how Nicholson became the biggest movie star in modern times. The audiences' ability to live vicariously through Nicholson's on and off screen escapades is the key to the man's appeal and yet it's never explored or even stated! Go figure.
The book does have my favorite typo I've seen in some time (There are many, leading the reader to wonder if anybody proofed the manuscript). On page 251 the author recounts and anecdote from screenwriter Ned Wynn concerning the way Nicholson used to ski without turning: "Jack remembered slipping over the edge and zipping straight down Aspen Mountain right beside Jack, who tucked and picked up speed." I guess being beside himself is Nicholson's favorite position.

Five Easy Decades goes through all of Jack Nicholson's films. The blockbusters as well as the ones that tanked. You also learn a bit about Jack's Mother, sisters, 1/2 siblings, his many girlfriends + many kids.
This book was an interesting read. I learned some facts about Jack I didn't know. Also the book lets you know how each movie came to be. Behind the scenes stuff.
Some of the chapters are bit dragged out and too much trivial information is given, but overall a good read for any Jack fan.

Having dutifully slogged through Dennis McDougal's warts-and-all biography of "the biggest movie star of all time," I couldn't help thinking: Great actor, Sometimes! Great Human Being, Nope! McDougal's 484-page dissection of Nicholson left me with a sense of "too much info" on a person I liked less and less as the chapters rolled on. After FIVE EASY DECADES, I really don't want or need any more info on JN, thank you very much!

I had several problems with McDougal's book. Like most movie viewers, I had a vague interest in Nicholson. With his cobra smile and arching eyebrows, he seemed a cool dude. Yet, as revealed in McDougal's book, for all Nicholson's acting ability, the man isn't a role model for anything but self-absorption and hedonism. Nicholson has had it all - women, money, privilege, drugs, etc. but how he handled much of that was often appalling which McDougal records in endless detail. While you have to give McDougal credit for all his research, he could have been more selective in his use of material. As is, the book too often sinks to trash tabloid level.

McDougal's writing style grated on my nerves. In the Acknowledgements, he thanks his wife for helping eliminate "the more dreadful examples of my alliterative pompous purple prose" from the book. Sorry to say, she should have pushed for even more cuts of the pseudo-hip/chic, juvenile "purple prose" McDougal seems to love.

In short, Nicholson certainly deserves a comprehensive, insightful biography but I don't think FIVE EASY DECADES is that book. Methinks an optional purchase.

Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became The Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times suggests that this biography just might in fact be a How-To guide. It is not. It's not even a good biography as far as bios go. As an actor myself, I read a lot of Hollywood oriented bios, in hopes that they can give me some insight into how my screen heroes work. This book reads like a lurid expose, rife with anecdotes and legend-making antics, not the serious minded study of one of America's finest screen actors that I expected. For that, let me suggest "Jack's Life" by Patrick McGilligan. It is far more detail oriented about the day-to-day existence of a young, struggling jack Nicholson, before he made the "Big Time."

For those curious about Jack Nicholson, his generation's most mercurial film star, get this book. McDougal manages a critical though unjudgmental examination of Nicholson's behavior and success while entertaining the reader. Quite a trick. Caveat: not to be used as a training manual. Like Sinatra, only Jack Nicholson could succeed in his way.

IF YOU HAVE SEEN A LOT OF JACK NICHOLSON"S WORK THIS WILL MAKE A GREAT ADDITION

TO HIS WORKS. THANKS AMAZON, & MERCHANT WHO SENT THE BOOK IN A TIMELY MANNER, REGARDS, S

This is a Christmas gift for a friend. She loved it and is going to pass on to her friends to read it.