Drive, He Said (1971)

Director:

Jack Nicholson

Writers:

Jeremy Larner (novel)
Jeremy Larner (writer) ...

Release Date:

30 June 1971 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

Don't Lie, Don't Cheat, And Don't Be Afraid!

Plot:

Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend...

Plot Keywords:

Basketball | College | Athletic Coach | Political Activist | Insanity

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

William Tepper	...	Hector
Karen Black	...	Olive
Michael Margotta	...	Gabriel
Bruce Dern	...	Coach Bullion
Robert Towne	...	Richard
Henry Jaglom	...	Conrad
Michael Warren	...	Easly (as Mike Warren)
June Fairchild	...	Sylvie
Don Hanmer	...	Director of Athletics
Lynette Bernay	...	Dance instructor (as Lynn Bernay)
Joseph Walsh	...	Announcer #1 (as Joey Walsh)
Harry Gittes	...	Announcer #2
Charles Robinson	...	Jollop
Bill Sweek	...	Finnegan
David Ogden Stiers	...	Pro owner (as David Stiers)

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Eugene, Oregon, USA

Company:

BBS Productions

Trivia:

This film was Jack Nicholson's directorial debut. It is one of two post-"Easy Rider" Nicholson films that has yet to be released on video of any kind (the other being A Safe Place (1971)).

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: Boom mics are visible in two scenes. First, when William Tepper / "Mike" is walking with a friend on a sidewalk and descends some stairs on a hillside. Second, when Tepper is in Karen Black / Olive's home, the low ceiling in the living room forces the boom mic into view.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Raquel Welch/Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian (#1.18)" (1976)

An almost perfect depiction of the American college experience in the late 60s-early 70s, Nicholson's directorial debut has been unfairly neglected-- and deserves a new audience!

This may be the only film that actually comes close to capturing on film the essentially uncapturable world of the American college experience of the late 60s-early 70s. Go ahead, name another movie that even approaches this one: "Getting Straight"? "RPM"? These are caricatures. "Return of the Secaucus Seven" has its moments, but that's a retrospective film about (self-obsessed) individuals more than a film about a time and a place depicted *in* that time and place. "Drive, He Said" portrays-- with subtlety and nuance where it should, and a swift kick in the shorts where that's the only appropriate way-- the anti-draft movement, the ambiguity of big-time college sports (especially when there's a war on), the sexual revolution of the period, and the general unreality of the day. Believe me, it was like that.

The whole cast deserves commendation (as does the director, of course) but particular praise should be reserved for Bruce Dern, as the basketball coach, and Karen Black, the hero's very unusual-- except for that time-- love interest. William Tepper, as the lead, also rates a real round of applause both for his perfect capturing of the student-athlete of the period and for actually playing real college basketball in the film (remember Anthony Perkins in "Tall Story"? Yikes!).

All in all, a classic of a kind-- and the last film someone currently in 6th grade should be writing comments on ("boring", "repellent"-- um, right, sonny, please go back to your Arnold movies). Why isn't this film available from imdb?