4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today is Jack Nicholson’s 88th birthday!

Though he has pretty much retired from acting, Jack Nicholson remains a screen icon with a filmography that is a cinema lover’s dream.  He’s worked with everyone from Roger Corman to Stanley Kubrick to Milos Forman to Martin Scorsese and, along the way, he’s become a symbol of a very American-type of rebel.  Though often associated with the counter-culture, his style has always been too aggressive and idiosyncratic for him to be a believable hippie.  Instead, he’s one of the last of the beats, an outsider searching for meaning in Americana.

Over the course of his career, Nicholson has won three Oscars and been nominated for a total of 12.  He’s the only actor to have been nominated in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s.  He is an actor who epitomizes an era in filmmaking, actually several eras.  It’s been 15 years since he last appeared in a movie but Jack Nicholson will never be forgotten.

4 Shots From 4 Jack Nicholson Films

Psych-Out (1968, dir by Richard Rush, DP: Laszlo Kovacs)

Carnal Knowledge (1971, dir by Mike Nichols, DP: Giuseppe Rotunno)

The Shining (1980, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)

The Departed (2006, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Ballhaus)