cultfilmfreaksdotcom As most people know, Jack Nicholson is a rabid basketball fan. He has his own center seat at the L.A. Lakers games and even before becoming really famous, according to Roman Polanski in a CHINATOWN interview, he furiously demanded to watch a televised game in his trailer...So it may come as no surprise that Jack's directorial debut, a few years before that, would center on a college basketball player drawing crowds during the "turbulent" hippie era.The games and practices are filmed nicely, combining a shaky documentary style with creative editing that went into other BBC productions like EASY RIDER, in which Jack co- starred, and surreal aspects of HEAD, that he co-wrote.Bruce Dern's hard-nosed Coach Bullion wants to win games, and his star player Hector, played by William Tepper, best known as Tom Hank's uptight brother in BACHELOR PARTY years later, is the perfect fit for the role – but only in one important aspect: He's tall and can play the game really well.Unfortunately Tepper isn't interesting enough to carry the story along. Remaining in peripheral rhythm with Gabriel, his rebellious roommate, Hector, like the film itself, isn't sure whether to center his attention on basketball or the student revolutionaries, and winds up meandering pointlessly in-between.As the bushy-haired radical, Michael Margotta's Gabriel is the token messianic anti-hero. From heading a non-violent guerrilla raid during an opening game, to feigning insanity to avoid the Vietnam draft, he eventually takes personal wrath on Karen Black's Olive, who, as Hector's on/off girlfriend having an affair with an enigmatic character played by writer Robert Towne, is, compared to her standout performance in FIVE EASY PIECES, ultimately wasted in a filler role.Nicholson juggles noisy basketball games and the hippie students gathered with Henry Jaglom's radical campus professor, while June Fairchild, best known as the Ajax-snorting lady in Cheech and Chong's UP IN SMOKE, appears as a cheerleading hippie. The soon to-be- famous Cindy Williams turns up in a quick cameo and future HILL STREET BLUES actor Mike Warren, as one of the players depending on Hector's talent, simply wants the team to go all the way.DRIVE, HE SAID tries really hard to capture drug culture angst and, straying from a sport providing the core of the film's energy and purpose, and with two leading actors not strong enough to carry either the athletic or protest story lines, is more of a curio for anyone interested in what Nicholson was up to before blasting off into cult, and then mainstream, superstardom.

moonspinner55 Fashionably fragmented, yet infuriatingly half-realized character-study, an examination of the different personalities of two college roommates: a talented but undisciplined star basketball player, and a pot-smoking, womanizing rabble-rouser. We never learn why these young men are friends. They may share confusions about the world and their places in it, but they don't seem to have anything else in common. Making his directorial debut, Jack Nicholson--who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jeremy Larner, based upon Larner's book--doesn't introduce us to the characters with any clarity, nor he does shape the scenes to help us identify with anyone on the screen. There are some very decent performances here (particularly from newcomer William Tepper in the central role), but most of the picture is unformed (perhaps intentionally), sketchy or unsure. Bruce Dern plays the hard-driving basketball coach, Karen Black is the older, married lady Tepper is having an affair with, and Michael Margotta is Tepper's wayward friend (in an off-putting, over-the-top performance). Nicholson fails to set up the sequences with any particular flavor, preferring (I assume) to let the character interaction dominate the film's tone; his script is no help either, and as a result it is unclear whom we're supposed to sympathize with. Small, random moments do work (a supermarket fight between Tepper and Black, Dern visiting Tepper in his dorm-room, all of the scenes set on the court), however the entire third act of the picture is an excruciating mess. Hoping to juxtapose an all-important b-ball game with a sexual assault, Nicholson shows no style at his craft (nor does he earn points for chutzpah, as his staging of these events is squashy and ugly). When a director goes out of his way to humiliate his actors, one has to question his motives in doing so. Perhaps if "Drive, He Said" ultimately made some sort of powerful statement in the bargain, audiences could forgive the filmmaker for his lapses in judgment and taste. Unfortunately, the perplexing closer is as dumbfounding as is much of the rest of the movie. *1/2 from ****

bobpetow This was a very interesting movie, as it was Jack Nicholson's directorial debut, and included several other stars before they "became big" such as Bruce Dern and Karen Black. I was an extra in this movie when filmed on the University of Oregon campus/in Eugene area in 1971. Before it came out in theaters, I had left the country for the Peace Corps. When I returned, it had come and gone but I never got a chance to see it.I remember one of the scenes was filmed with a camera inside a basket ball, and was passed back and forth across the court running from one end to the other to "get a perspective from the ball's viewpoint".Anyone seen any copies (vhs or other options for getting a copy)? Would love to see it, as I was in several scenes but again never saw it.Thanks for any leads or ideas of where one would go to get more info.Bob Petow ([email protected])

MisterWhiplash As Jack Nicholson's directorial debut, Drive, He Said displays at the least that he is a gifted director of actors. Even when the story might seem to lose its way to the audience (and to a modern audience - if they can find it, which pops up now and again on eBay - it might seem more free formed than they think), the film contains vivid, interesting characterizations. The film tells of two college kids: the protagonist is Hector (William Tepper, in what borders on a break-out performance), a star of the Leopards, the college basketball team he plays on. While he has to deal with a coach (Bruce Dern) who puts on the pressure to stay focused, and a on and off girlfriend (Karen Black) with her own emotional problems, there's Gabriel (Michael Margotta), the other kid. Gabriel, it seems, is just a little more than freaked out by the possibility to be drafted, and so in his own radical mind-state he does what he can to keep out. But as Hector tries to find the balance between his oncoming fame and those he loves, Gabriel is going over the threshold of sanity.Nicholson, on the technical side of things, displays a fascinating editing style that keeps things on edge during the basketball scenes, and implements darkness in many other scenes with a documentary-feel throughout. And from Tepper, Black, and even Robert Towne (writer of Chinatown, Last Detail, and Mission: Impossible among others, who rarely acts) he garners some credible acting work. Though in Tepper there is a tendency to downplay his emotions. In some scenes, for example, when he could act brilliantly sarcastic, he doesn't play it for what it's worth. From Margotta, on the other hand, there is a vibrant, twisted force in his performance, and as he descends it's frightening, but perhaps understandable from the times (and what a climax). Dern steals most of his scenes, by the way, in a performance that should have garnered him an Oscar nomination. Every line of his dialog is appropriate, true, and it's never hammed up like in recent coach movie performances. But what drags down the film is that elements involving the characters aren't explained to the degree one might wish more. The film was based on a novel by Jeremy Larner, who co-wrote the script with Nicholson, and I was expecting that the film to be longer than it was. It's a slim volume with a lot of information, about the times, about the sport, about the underlying feelings that were with those of the younger generation. Nicholson presents us with these characters and situations, and rarely are they shown to what's motivating them (the anti-war protesters not included, their part's understandable enough). Gabriel is perturbed by what's going on in Vietnam, but what else is there? Hector, too, is a guy who has apprehensions about being drafted for the NBA, and he still loves to play, but what's holding him back? This whole atmosphere is intriguing, how the late 60's college/basketball experience was, but that intriguing quality, which does lead to some unconventionality, is kept at a point where it can't go too further. Overall, the effect of the film as a whole is bittersweet, and somewhat memorable for its good points, and not for it's low ones. And, for sure, you can tell who's behind the lens every step of the way. B+