An experimental sports drama steeped in campus politics, Drive, He Said, Jack Nicholson’s audacious directorial debut, produced by Bob Rafelson’s BBS Productions, tells the story of a hotshot college basketball star who drifts into a destructive streak when his radical hippie roommate is drafted into Vietnam. His intense coach (Bruce Dern) pushes the talented youngster harder and harder as their competitive season progresses. The production was almost kicked off the University of Oregon campus for staging public nude scenes, and the film had to be smuggled over state lines to avoid criminal prosecution. The film was not a financial success upon release but it remains one of early New Hollywood’s hidden gems.
“Nicholson deftly illustrates the background cynicism of big time sports against the more obvious cynicism of college life.” – Variety
“Jack Nicholson’s Drive, He Said is a disorganized but occasionally brilliant movie about two college students and the world they, and we, inhabit.” – Roger Ebert
