Wolf: The Jack Nicholson One
2022 Halloween Spooktacular: Werewolf Week Day #7
I only recently watched Wolf for the first time. TV spots for the film scared the hell out of me as a kid and, once I was finally in the right mindset to watch it, the tepid (poor) reviews kept me from diving in. Now that I’ve seen it a couple times, I guess I can see why people didn’t like it. In fact, pretentious nerds are still producing articles laughing at it. I can tell you they’re all wrong though. In the werewolf subgenre, Wolf is one of the very best.
We can get all the silly stuff out of the way right now. Yes, Jack Nicholson looks kinda goofy in the wolf man makeup, especially when ambling around in day-for-night wearing khakis. Yes, wolf man James Spader is a bit of a ham (I think it’s great though). And yes, it’s got a lot going on tonally. I would call it unique instead of messy though. I’ve heard it described as something of a middle-aged superhero origin story and, though not incorrect, I don’t think that’s at all a bad thing.
The plot is pretty straightforward. Publishing exec Will Randall (Nicholson) is driving home from a meeting in Vermont when he hits a wolf. The wolf bites him and his life starts to change. One of the very minor issues I do have with the film is that the first act hinges upon the fact that Will is supposed to be a bit of a pushover. He’s being undermined and replaced at work by his protégé Stewart (Spader) because he’s just too nice to prevent it. And, to add insult to injury, his wife is crawling into bed with the guy. Jack Nicholson is clearly a very good actor, but, at this point in his career, his legend was too big. I don’t think any audience could imagine him in such a position and it doesn’t seem like he’s trying all that hard. On the other hand, Nicholson as he is for most of the film — an emerging cutthroat alpha male — absolutely does work. So, the tradeoff is well worth it. Someone a little less known and with greater freedom of range (like an early 90’s Sam Neill) could have been amazing, but it’s hard to beat Jack in much of this.
As I mentioned, the superhero comparison is apt, and it’s fucking cool. Post-bite, Will doesn’t need his glasses anymore, can hear conversations several floors away, has an acute sense of smell, and he’s got swagger now! Real BDE. It all reminds me a lot of the first Raimi Spider-Man film.
Will doesn’t waste a bunch of time wondering what’s going on. He’s not thinking “werewolf” exactly. In fact, that word isn’t even uttered in the film. But he’s pretty sure the wolf that bit him passed him some of its energy (like a certain radioactive spider did one auspicious field trip morn). It’s only after a couple aggressive incidents (he bites Stewart) that he starts to wonder if his newfound gifts aren’t going to exact some sort of toll.
This is what leads him to seek out an expert in animal spirits named Dr. Alezais (Om Puri). This is my favorite part of the entire film. Will wants the good doctor to tell him the rules, which he does as best he can: the wolf spirit inside him will surface every night and become more prominent throughout the month until the next full moon, when it will take over entirely. Is there any way to stop it? Dr. Alezais offers Will an amulet. He’s not sure of its efficacy, but it might hold the wolf spirit at bay or maybe make it disappear altogether. In exchange for his help, Alezais humbly asks for a favor: he wants Will to bite him. He’s an old man and was recently told that he is dying.
Will: You’d rather be damned than die?
Dr. Alezais: Damnation is not a part of my system of beliefs. The demon wolf is not evil unless the man he’s bitten is evil. And it feels good to be the wolf, doesn’t it? Power without guilt, love without doubt.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the surrealness of the situation, Will cannot bring himself to bite Alezais, which the elderly doctor accepts gracefully. He just hopes that Will reconsiders once he’s had time to accept his new reality.
Dr. Alezais: It has been a privilege. I’ve never seen one like you.
I just love this scene, and the idea behind it, so much. The old man regards Will with such reverence — as a true believer might when in the presence of someone touched so profoundly by the supernatural. He’s not afraid of Will or the “demon wolf”. He wants to join them, which is a completely understandable desire for someone facing his own “mystical and terrifying experience” in death.
A lot happens in the film that I can pretty well gloss over: Will and Stewart jockey over control of the publishing house; Will strikes up a relationship with his boss’ daughter Laura — played by the lovely-as-ever Michelle Pfeiffer; People around Will start to die; Will and Stewart have a wolf man battle before Laura fills Stewart with bullets. The trajectory of Will’s gift/curse progresses just as Dr. Alezais speculated. He becomes wolfier and wolfier until the night of the full moon and his fight with Stewart, after which he takes off into the woods and becomes a full-blown wolf.
In the end, I’m left with questions about this, and, from checking Reddit, I know I’m not alone. Is the ending of the film also the ending of Will Randall the man? Is he a wolf now forever? Or does this cycle begin all over again with the waning of the moon? Based on what Dr. Alezais said, I’d think it’s the former. There’s more poetry in that anyway. We also see in the end of the film that Laura is beginning down the demon wolf path herself, so I guess she’ll soon be joining him either way. Who were the Vermont-based wolves at the beginning of the film? You’d think these “demons” would have tried to eat Will, but the wolf who bit him seemed to do it deliberately before running off. Maybe they were just looking for more company? In any case, I think this is an interesting spin on the traditional werewolf story.
I’ve seen reviewers deride Wolf for its attempts at sophistication while trying to ascribe loftier metaphors to it: it’s about midlife crises, or the publishing industry, or Nicholson wanting to leave Hollywood. According to screenwriter Wesley Strick, even director Mike Nichols grasped for greater meanings:
[Mike Nichols] would say to me more than once, “Is the secret to this movie, is it AIDS? Does Will have AIDS?” I was like, “No, Mike! That’s not right! I get that you’re trying to supply a metaphor to make this an allegorical look at something other than werewolves, but I don’t think it is. It’s a werewolf movie.”
And, as a werewolf movie, Wolf is pretty damn sophisticated.
