Amid the sexual revolution and social upheaval of the early 1970s, acclaimed director Mike Nichols delivered a zeitgeist-defining examination of American mores. Sharply written by Jules Feiffer, this acerbic drama flashes through more than twenty years in the lives of two college buddies (Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel) whose casual chauvinism is all fun and games—until it’s not. As the women who suffer and see through the friends’ insecure posturing, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret, Rita Moreno, Carol Kane, and Cynthia O’Neal form an extraordinary ensemble that gives the film its soul. So controversial it became embroiled in an obscenity case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, Carnal Knowledge remains startling for its unnervingly frank look at postwar masculinity.
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Supplements
- New audio commentary featuring filmmaker and playwright Neil LaBute
- New program with Mike Nichols biographer Mark Harris and film critic Dana Stevens
- New interview with film-editing historian Bobbie O'Steen
- Conversation from 2011 between Mike Nichols and filmmaker Jason Reitman
- Q&A with screenwriter Jules Feiffer
- Radio spot
- Trailer
- An essay by scholar Moira Weigel and a 1971 piece from American Cinematographer about the look of the film