The Cowboy and the Samurai, a just-released short, dramatizes an alleged excerpt from the reportedly tumultuous relationship between Jack Nicholson and John Belushi during the filming of Goin’ South in early ’78 or thereabouts.
Directed by Jake and Sam Lewis (who play the freaked-out producers), The Cowboy and the Samurai costars Jamie Costa as Jack and and Sandy Danto as John.
The Nicholson-Belushi interplay is pretty good — well written, decently played. I love the Lewis brothers’ attempt to make the film look like it was copied off a 40 year-old VHS tape.
Goin’ South wasn’t Nicholson’s directorial debut — 1971’s Drive He Said was — so that needs fixing. But otherwise not half bad.
From “John Belushi Had A Major Grudge Against This A-List Celebrity,” a Giant Freakin’ Robot article by John Kotz: “Jack Nicholson’s Goin’ South was a western, directed by the star himself, in which he played horse-thief Henry Moon, who is soon caught by a posse and through a weird series of loopholes, has to get a woman living in town to agree to marry him.
“Mary Steenburgen, then an unknown actress, accepted the role of Julia Tate, while Belushi and Christopher Lloyd played town deputies and Ed Begley Jr. played Whitey Haber, one of the locals.
“Nicholson strived to create an open atmosphere [with] everyone part of the family and working towards a common goal, etc. Goin’ South was Belushi’s first film following the success of Animal House, and the comic’s growing ego as a successful Hollywood star led to him bossing around members of the crew, arguing with other members in the cast, and worst of all, partaking in what was described as “a significant amount of cocaine” on a near-daily basis with Ed Begley Jr.
“Belushi was the type of Hollywood personality that Nicholson was hoping he could mentor, but the belligerent comic was faced with a steadily shrinking role in the film due to his bad behavior.”
Here’s a portion of Bob Woodward’s 1984 Washington Post piece about Belushi.