Very chauvinistic, but fantastic and a great scene from its time. Every time I hear it I'd wonder what move it was from - I finally found out today after doing a search here.
I was unprepared for how that argument escalated. I'm not surprised at watching Nicholson lose his **** cuz I've seen it a lot of times in plenty of his later work.
It's just how the character went from his normal reserved personality into THAT!
It was outstanding. And you feel his pain but at the same time hate his guts for treating her that way.
Put a muzzle on Tits Malone, PI

Thanks.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess

you're taking what i said too literally. he wasn't actually "happy",(he was miserable)but you have to remember that for him happiness was being able to get it up. he was a terminal narcissist.

He ended up alone, and his only self-gratification was hiring a prostitute who told him how great he was because he couldn't get it up anymore. I don't think he was happy. He didn't know how to make himself happy.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess

liscarkat-2,somebody else said it was chauvanistic to tell a woman to get a job and i was reacting to that(note the "?!" in my post). shadycady,jonathon himself admitted his problem:the only person who could make him happy was himself.

Jonathan told her to quit her job, and he said that he had enough money to support the two of them. Bobbie quit her job, and she became bored with life staying at home to wait on him. She was older than him, and she stuck around in hope of him marrying her. She thought that she didn't have that many options available, and by getting married she would have found her brass ring. She found her identity through him, and by having a relationship it validated her self-worth through him. Therefore, she stayed in the relationship no matter how demeaning it became. She probably would have settled for anyone by then. His character was never satisfied with any woman no matter how beautiful, and he always found the flaws and not the positive side to them. Susan was too sharp, and Bobbie was too dumb and a doormat. Cindy was a "ballbuster". What the hell did he want anyway? His standards were too high, but yet he didn't even see his flaws.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess

"it's chauvanistic to tell a woman to get a job?!"
Not at all. He's frustrated because all she does is lie around all day and won't even make the bed. Nothing sexist about that. He's just sick of the BS and wants her to get her act together.

it's chauvanistic to tell a woman to get a job?!

Yes, without meaning to be condescending, I think this film cannot be fully appreciated until a bit later in one's life. By that time, most people have had the life experience of the frustrations and disappointments of relationships.
The fight scene mentioned is almost too realistic.

I would love to spend all day in bed with Ann-Margret. The way she looks in this movie. Oh mommy.

"I sleep so much because I hate my life!"
"Why do you hate you life?"
"Because I sleep so much!"
HAHAHAHA!!!! Gotta love the female gender.
Free Speech

No wonder Howard Stern used this clip; it's pure camp.

"YOU SPEND MORE TIME IN BED THAN ANYONE OVER THE AGE OF SIX MONTHS!"
There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

excellent scene

She was fat for that time period. Everyone smoked 2 or 3 packs a day back then, and most were very thin as a result. Now of course, everyone has stopped smoking, and were all 20 or 30 lbs. overweight. So now we get heart disease instead of lung cancerAnd yes most guys in their 20's are still about getting laid..Boys start talking the way they did at about 16 or 17..And it really never ends. Even after marriage and kids-and even if they are faithful to their wives..That is how much women continue to invade mens minds..I even remember my dad talking about how I needed to work harder at getting certain girls he found attractive when I was 14 or 15He wasn't explicit about it like they are in this movie, but the idea was just the same!! What women/girls don't seem to understand is that men/boys think about sex every 14 seconds on average; while they are only like that a few days a month-UNless of course you can get them to loosen up by alcohol or some other stimulant that gets rid of their inhibitionsWhat I found int. is that when I was that age, if I did get to that point of 2nd or 3rd base-that is where I had to draw the line-Did I want to be friends. Because if I did, then I needed to stop. In fact, that happened several times-I chose friendship over sexI am still amazed to this day, because I know I would have "gotten away with it"..And I never stole a friends girl..unlike many of my friends..I always found that really wrong!!

Do you not realize that woman in the 70's were not thought as fashionable with huge jugs and hips. So any woman that strives to be skin and bones is ahead of the game.Women even wore bras to flatten them out.

/On a side note, as far a ball-busters go, the second woman Sandy was withoh, man! And calling Ann Margret a 'fat tub of lard'?/
That character scared me!
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

Let's not forget that earlier in the film, HE asked her to quit working! Said he made enough to take care of them. Granted, she wasn't happy in her job, but how many are?
On a side note, as far a ball-busters go, the second woman Sandy was withoh, man! And calling Ann Margret a 'fat tub of lard'? She may have gained weight for the role, but she was still far from fat!!!! She and Nicholson were the two I would have loved to have punched in the kisser. Nicholson saw women as ball-busters because he lacked total control over them, even though he seemed to choose weak women who would 'worship' him.

I first saw it on HBO back in the late '70's/early '80's. It makes a lot more sense now. I see my father in some of those characters, girls I dated and sadly myself. Thank God I grew up. Rent it. You'll see what I mean.

It's better to see the movie now that you are in your 40s. I think you will appreciate it more as you have more "world experience."

Who you tellin'? I wanted to reach in the TV and slap the beep out of him. I thought,"Damn,what an beep

I agree. Yet oddly enough I was still extremely turned on
'Wendy, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in!'
-Jack Torrance, The Shining

The fight scene is on Youtube.com it's great, I hate Jack in that scene, he is sucha dick!

one of my top 10. i would recommend it to everyone. wow what a movie