The Good, the Bad & the Badass: Mike Nichols

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Last week, we took a look at the career of former James Bond, Roger Moore. This week's subject, sadly, passed away earlier this week…

When the news broke earlier this week that director Mike Nichols had passed away at the age of eighty-three, Hollywood mourned a man who – without a doubt – helped mold what's commonly referred to as “the new Hollywood.” He was one of a group of directors to emerge in the late sixties that radically reinvented what was commonly deemed acceptable in American films, tackling dark subject matter Hollywood, then the domain of the near-antiquated studios, would have never gone near.

One thing worth noting is that even before he became a director, Nichols was famous as one half of the Nichols and May comedy duo where, with partner Elaine May (who went on to co-write many of his films including PRIMARY COLORS), they poked fun at the societal norms of the buttoned-down fifties culture. In a way, Nichols' filmic output was an extension of what he did with May. His first big success was WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE, which took two of the most famous actors of the era, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and slapped them into a gritty melodrama that was considered insanely profane in its day (although it's tame by today's standards) but was a box-office smash. His next film, THE GRADUATE, would be even bigger, turning into a pop culture phenomenon that introduced the world to actor Dustin Hoffman, and in books like 'Pictures of the Revolution' and 'Easy Riders, and Raging Bulls' is considered one of the key films in the shift of American cinema.

Following up THE GRADUATE must have been a dicey proposition. Indeed, throughout the seventies he struggled to replicate its success. CATCH-22 was an expensive flop (although it's a brilliant film), but CARNAL KNOWLEDGE was a hit. Other movies like THE FORTUNE and THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN never really found an audience, but in the eighties Nichols' feature career rebounded strongly with SILKWOOD, WORKING GIRL and more. Right to the end of his life, Nichols' talent never dimmed, with him producing several hits in the nineties, including THE BIRDCAGE and PRIMARY COLORS, and doing strong work into the 2000's with CLOSER and HBO's ANGELS IN AMERICA. He also continued his amazing Broadway career with a revival of DEATH OF A SALESMAN that gave star Philip Seymour Hoffman one of his last, great roles.

While my personal favorite Mike Nichols film is his much maligned CATCH-22 (although it has ardent defenders like Steven Soderbergh – who did commentary on the DVD) it can't be denied that THE GRADUATE is his crowning achievement. While it seems like a somewhat tame movie now, in 1967 this was pretty radical in the way it examined one rather unexceptional young man's growing alienation from the tepid lifestyle he'd been bred into. This was Dustin Hoffman's big break, and according to all the stories surrounding the production, casting him was an uphill battle for Nichols, with the studios favouring someone like Robert Redford, who would have been a confounding choice to play the Jewish, virginal Benjamin Braddock. Coupled with the amazing Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack (itself pretty radical in that song-scores were rare outside of youth movies and musicals) THE GRADUATE holds up like a champ and is still considered a kind of milestone film for any real movie lover to experience, preferably around the time they're actually Braddock's age in the film (19-25) which makes it even more profound.

One movie of Mike Nichols' that I love but that critics reviled in its day was THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN. Looking at it now, it seems like a confounding choice for Nichols to tackle. Written by his GRADUATE collaborator Buck Henry, THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN stars George C. Scott, who engineers super-intelligent, talking dolphins (voiced by Henry) who are used in a presidential assassination plot. It sounds utterly ridiculous and comical, but it's a surprisingly grim, straight-laced drama that almost makes the idea of talking dolphins palatable. It's actually a pretty intriguing movie and utterly fascinating in a “I can't believe this got made” kind of way.

In this column I've taken some heat about the movies I've chosen to label as overrated. When I say overrated I don't just mean that it's a movie critics liked but I don't. It could be a movie that was panned but then found an audience further down the line. Nichols' 1994 werewolf drama, WOLF, is like that. The critics didn't care for this Jack Nicholson vehicle, but it was a box-office hit and in recent years it's been reevaluated and is seen as something of a classic by horror fans. I think the first two thirds of WOLF are kind of brilliant, in that it's an utterly straight-laced, classy variation of the classic werewolf (a term which is never used in the film) flick. Nicholson is great, and Michelle Pfeiffer has never been lovelier. But, it all goes horribly awry in the last act, with the finale apparently having been hastily re-filmed to throw-in some werewolf action. While James Spader makes a good werewolf here, it's pretty goofy.

OK, so I'm sure everyone thinks I'm going put in the “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” scene, but to me, the last couple of minutes of THE GRADUATE are even better, as Benjamin “rescues” (?) his love interest from an unwanted marriage, only to rush off into an uncertain future while Simon & Garfunkel eerily plays on the soundtrack. This is one hell of an ending, so don't check out this clip unless you've actually seen the movie, lest you spoil it for yourself.

5. CLOSER

4. WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE

3. CATCH-22

2. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE

1. THE GRADUATE

Truly, Mike Nichols has left behind an incredibly legacy and his place in film history is certainly assured. Alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Robin Williams, Nichols is one of the true greats that we've lost this year, and a guy whose stamp on pop culture will never be forgotten.