The acerbic but also often very cute cartoonist Jules Feiffer wrote the script, so we know that Carnal Knowledge will be acerbic. But it's by no means very cute.
The film covers two decades in the life of two 'friends', Sandy (Art Garfunkel) and Jonathan (Jack Nicholson). We meet them first around 1950 as college roommates (the only firm guide to the era is the 1940s Glenn Miller music in the background) and follow their lives and loves through 'til around 1970.
Art Garfunkel's Sandy is a naive guy hoping to get laid, while Jack Nicholson's Jonathan is the self-confident, insouciant lusty life lad who can whistle and have every woman in town hoping to get laid.
Well, that's how he presents himself, and how he wishes to be. In fact, he's a deeply neurotic self-obsessed virgin with a premature ejaculation problem. But he sure doesn't want Sandy to know that. And the only way he can get his first lay is by pressuring Sandy's girlfriend Susan (Candice Bergen) to come across - and this is when she won't even put out for Sandy!
The film was pretty groundbreaking at the time for the freeness of its language - not just putting-out and laying, but plenty of f*cks and c*nts. That was very unusual in those days, but used totally within context - so much so that you hardly notice the language. But the most unusual thing about this movie was the way it treated two men.
It showed how the relationship between these 'best buddies' was based on deceit. It showed Jonathan screwing (figuratively) his buddy. And it showed how, in very different ways, neither Sandy nor Jonathan really understood or liked women at all. They both lusted after them, but they didn't like them. Jack disliked them because women got in the way of his obsessive love of himself; Sandy because, basically, deep down he knew he was weak and inadequate.
Now, gentle reader, both you and I are of course new age sensitive males (or females) who really understand, appreciate and in fact deeply love the opposite sex. So this aspect of Carnal Knowledge does become pretty hard to understand. Except for the fact that these are college graduates, this pair could be your average rugby-player, a sort of person this gentle AFL-loving person just doesn't mix with.
But perhaps, back in the dark ages of 1971, Jules Feiffer and director Mike Nicholls believed this type was common. Perhaps, outside of the circles you and I mix in, they still are. It's a desperate and very sad tale of disfunctional males, enlivened by great music (swing and pop), strong dialogue, slick direction and a bravura acting performance from our friend Jack Nicholson... here's Jonathan!
This is an excellent transfer of a widescreen movie now more than three decades old. The print quality is first-rate with very little sign of wear - certainly none to interfere with enjoyment of this first-rate drama.
Colours are vibrant; this is chromatically far stronger than Mike Nichols' earlier movie also just released on DVD, The Graduate, and the general image is sharper. The opening and closing titles, of an ice-skater, are surreal and totally beautiful and presented here at their best.
I wouldn't say this is a film you could watch as often, with as much lasting pleasure, as The Graduate.
But it is significant in representing a significant breaking of the taboos which had shackled Hollywood for so long, in treatment of adult themes and issues. It's definitely worth a look.
