Movie Info

Still hot from the success of Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, Jack Nicholson solidified his reputation as the brightest star of the New...(read more...) Hollywood movement when he appeared in this 1971 drama, written by Jules Feiffer and directed by Mike Nichols. The film received mixed reviews, but remains fascinating for its subject matter--the sexual attitudes and activities of two male friends from their college days to middle age--and the performances of its stellar cast. Nicholson is the former athlete-turned-tax-lawyer with a fetish for well-endowed women (which explains why Ann-Margret plays his mistress), and Art Garfunkel is the shy, mild-mannered one who becomes a doctor, marries Candice Bergen, and has an affair with Carol Kane. Over the course of nearly 30 years, we see how their lives and attitudes are reflected through their sexual histories, and it's not pretty. The film deals frankly (and some will say depressingly) with the ways in which people use each other for sex, and this doesn't exactly make for rousing (or even arousing) entertainment. But with Nichols directing a cast of this caliber, Carnal Knowledge remains one of the signature films of the early 1970s, when established Hollywood traditions were giving way to the emergence of more daring films with bolder "adult" themes. --Jeff Shannon

Director: Mike Nichols

MPAA: R

Running Time: 106 min.

Release Date: Jan 01, 1971

Cast: Ann-Margret, Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen, Carol Kane, Cynthia O'Neal, Jack Nicholson, Rita Moreno