Five Easy Pieces

Had fun reading about 30 of the negative reviews. It's nice that people who live in such a perfect world that they don't believe the character flaws examined in this movie exist. Many of us have gone through much of what Bobby Dupea has. Self doubt, poor choices and being born into a family whose lifestyle we reject which results in us not being as good of a person as we would have liked. Bobby knows he is toxic but is unable or unwilling to change. Nicholson's acting is near perfect but occasionally off (think Chinatown for perfect) making it his arguably his second best. Bobby is largely a disgusting prick, but you occasionally have misplaced hope and empathy for him. The movie sticks with me and resonates 52 years later, I guess because I see some of myself in Bobby Dupree. Bobby's badly damaged character is an indictment of some of us. If movies matter to you, see it. You won't feel warm and fuzzy, but you will get a good look at life that hopefully you don't see from your vantage point.

After reading all of the reviews listed here on IMDB, it is incomprehensible to me that not one has grasped the point of the story. This is in spite of the title giving the whole thing away. Come on now guys... The movie is titled Five Easy Pieces because that's all the Jack Nicholson character could play. The pieces are classical, true, and great examples of classics. However, they are evidently not among the most difficult pieces.

I am astonished that several reviewers wondered why he would give up such a great chance to be a classical musician. Why did he reject his talented and maybe wealthy family to hob nob with those having little or no appreciation of classical music or the life style? (As more than one of the reviewers said.) He left his family home and tried to lose himself because he did simply not have the talent to pursue a career as a concert pianist. He clearly could play well, but this is not the same as having the talent to perform professionally. His sister, Partita, gives us the example of one who does meet those standards, as well as his brother, Carl Fidelio.

What does one do when he just can't do what is expected no matter how hard he tries? He moves from place to place and from person to person because nothing and no one can help him overcome his failure.

"Five Easy Pieces" was one of the most revered films of the 1970s. It was the film that showed audiences what Jack Nicholson could do, after having worked for many years in movies that were seen only by real cinephiles, but not by a wider audiences. Not having seen the film in a long time, we decided to watch it when it showed on cable recently. The only thing is the copy we saw was not anamorphic in format, which on key scenes almost shows a blank screen while the characters talk off camera!

Bob Rafelson and Carole Eastman created a screen play that dealt with existential themes, a rarity in the American cinema. Mr. Rafelson was at the height of his creative period, something that later projects seem to contradict the promise he showed at the time.

Bobby Dupea, the main character of the story, is a complex individual who has left a life of privilege and culture behind to become an oil rig worker and getting away from his previous life. At the time we meet him, he is involved with Rayette, a simple woman who loves him, but one can see how different they are. That contrast comes more obvious when Bobby goes back home and meets Catherine, his brother's fiancée, who is a musician and seem to be more attuned with Bobby than the simple minded Rayette.

"Five Easy Pieces" was a film that showcased the enormously talented Jack Nicholson doing some interesting work. The measure of his acting ability is seen about half way in the movie as Bobby, Rayette, and the two lesbian hitchhikers have stopped at a diner. Bobby's meal order request creates a match of words in which Mr. Nicholson shows what he is capable of doing.

The film concludes with a puzzling scene, as Bobby and Rayette are heading back home. We watch them stopping at a gas station and little prepares us for what happens next. In a way, we have seen all along the film how restless Bobby has become and it's clear that in spite of his being with Rayette, she will never understands how to make him happy at all.

The reason for watching "Five Easy Pieces" is Jack Nicholson. His character is the most interesting one in the film and he does an excellent job in creating the tension behind this complex man he portraits. Karen Black's Rayette is annoying at times because of her whining. Susan Anspach comes out better playing Catherine. Some other familiar faces in the cast are, Sally Struthers, Ralph White, Lois Smith, Billy Green Bush and Fannie Flagg.

"Five Easy Pieces" is one of the best films of that decade.

This movie is most famous for a scene in which Jack Nicholson tells a waitress to hold the chicken salad between her knees so he can get some plain wheat toast, but, in a movie as good as this, that very famous scene may be its least memorable one. After that scene, I hadn't heard anything about what this film was really about, and its depth and power took me completely by surprise. It's a story of a man trapped in his own life, unable to find a place to settle. All the locations at which he has arrived have lead to nothing but disappointment and the realization that there just might not be a life for him. God, how I can sympathize. Just as I was starting to question whether Nicholson was as good an actor as everybody seems to think he is, I've come upon his very best performance. Karen Black plays his girlfriend, a hick who loves him to death. He's not sure if she's good enough for him, or vice versa. Lois Smith, Ralph Waite, and Susan Anspach give good supporting performances. A flat-out masterpiece.

Previously known only for creating 'The Monkees', Bob Rafelson produced an underrated masterpiece when he made 'Five Easy Pieces', a film that deserves to be a lot better known. Jack Nicholson, typically intense but atypically understated, has possibly his finest hour as Bobby Duprea, a self-hating misogynist ill at ease with himself and the world. Many people will, when thinking of Nicholson, bring to mind his pantomime pyschopath Johnny from 'The Shining'; but Bobby, a profoundly human creation, is actually far more scary. Elsewhere the film features characteristically gorgeous cinematography from Laszlo Kovaks; a soundtrack that skilfully offsets Tammy Wynette and Chopin; excellent writing throughout and some very black humour. Like a less extreme version of Mike Leigh's 'Naked', and bristling with uncomfortable truth, 'Five Easy Pieces' is a true classic of 1970s cinema. Few films today are as good.