Five Easy Pieces

Starring:Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Sally Struthers, Marlena MacGuire, Richard Stahl, Lois Smith, Helena Kallianiotes, Toni Basil, Lorna Thayer, Susan Anspach, Ralph Waite, William Challee, John P. Ryan, Irene Dailey, Clay Greenbush
Director: Bob Rafelson
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

This subtle, existential character study of an emotionally distant outcast (Nicholson) forced to confront his past failures remains an intimate cornerstone of American '70s cinema. Written and directed with remarkable restraint by Bob Rafelson, the film is the result of a short-lived partnership between the filmmaker and Nicholson--the first was the zany formalist exercise, Head, while the equally impressive King of Marvin Gardens followed Five Easy Pieces. Quiet and full of long, controlled takes, this film draws its strength from the acutely detailed, nonjudgmental observations of its complex protagonist, Robert Dupea--an extremely crass and frustrated oil worker, and failed child pianist hiding from his past in Texas. Dupea spends his life drinking beer and sleeping with (and cheating on) his annoying but adoring Tammy Wynette-wannabe girlfriend, but when he learns that his father is dying in Washington State, he leaves. After the film transforms into a spirited road movie, and arrives at the eccentric upper-class Dupea family mansion, it becomes apparent that leaving is what Dupea does best--from his problems, fears, and those who love him. Nicholson gives a difficult yet masterful performance in an unlikable role, one that's full of ambiguity and requires violent shifts in acting style. Several sequences--such as his stopping traffic to play piano, or his famous verbal duels with a cranky waitress over a chicken-salad sandwich--are Nicholson landmarks. Yet, it's the quieter moments, when Dupea tries miserably to communicate and reconcile with his dying father, where the actor shows his real talent--and by extension, shows us the wounded little boy that lurks in the shell of the man Dupea has become. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews:

"Life's Too Short".......2007-07-05

Jack Nicholson plays Bobby, a man who will only have life his way. Much like Camus' 'The Stranger' or Hemingway's return home soldier in "A Soldier's Story," Bobby lives for the moment. He goes through women at whim and convenience, and he doesn't like to waste any precious time.

At the beginning he hooks up with a friend to work in the oil fields. In one of the early days on the job, they get stuck in traffic. His friend sees that they'll be late for work, whereas Bobby can only see wasted time. So he does what no one else would do: He leaves the driver's seat and climbs a truck moving a piano. Once he uncovers it, he starts to play. As soon as he finds the song he wants, traffic starts moving again, taking him to a new destination. Se la vie.

The movie challenges convention. In a famous restaurant scene, Bobby, who has decided to pick up two women in distress along the way, has an interesting way of getting what he wants when he asks for whole wheat toast to go with his omelette. But real affairs have to do with his sister who is a recording pianist artist. When visiting her at the studio, he finds out that their father has had several strokes and is in poor health. Because he wants to, he goes to visit, and the results show us someone who refuses to put up with convention when it doesn't suit him.
Yet, a scene with his ailing father suggest that he is also living a lie, one that exposes a calloused to vulnerability.

'Five Easy Pieces' is a classic. It feels authentic because Nicholson and supporting players give us a clear and solid, yet episodic vision of a man who lives for the moment and accepts as ludicrous anything different than his way.

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-07-03

One of the definitive, highly acclaimed films of the early-70's New American Cinema, Bob Rafelson's edgy, deep character study features complex and courageous performances from both Nicholson and Black. As an existentially pained outcast of upper-middle-class breeding, Jack's pent-up Bobby is especially absorbing to watch, as he denigrates Rayette's crass singing efforts or spars with a waitress over the vagaries of a chicken-salad sandwich. A moody portrait of alienation and unresolved pain, Rafelson's Oscar-nominated "Pieces" will stick with you.

"You Want Me To Hold The Chicken?".......2007-06-24

This movie could have been a masterpiece, but it doesn't have a message other than total despair about the human condition. Jack Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, who is an oil field roustabout when first we lay eyes on him--but he is not exactly who he seems.

He fits right in with his Buddy Elton (Billie "Green" Bush), Elton's wife Stoney (Fannie Flagg), and his girlfriend, Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black). Though Rayette is far from an accomplished bowler, which irks Bobby, she loves him, puts up with him, and wants to be a country singer. She listens to "Stand by Your Man" by Tammy Wynette constantly, which also irks Bobby. She not only wants to emulate Tammy Wynette's singing, but she embodies the sentiments expressed in the song. As we get to know Robert Eroica Dupea better, we see that director Bob Rafelson intended the song as ironic commentary.

The trailer parks, truck stops, oil fields, and bowling alleys of the first part of the movie are pure Bakersfield. Some reviewers thought that it was meant to be Texas, but it was pure Bakersfield. The first inkling we have that Bobby is not just an oil field roustabout takes place on I-5 just before the Highway 43 turn off to Shafter and Wasco. Drinking on the way to work with Elton they get in a traffic jam. Bobby climbs aboard a flatbed hauling furniture and a piano. He plays the piano, but where we would expect him to be at best a honky tonk piano player, even amid the cacophony of car horns, you can tell that he is classically trained. He continues playing, even as the truck veers off to an exit.

Continuing South from Bakersfield, next we learn more about Bobby as he arrives in Los Angeles and walks into a recording studio. The session is for a classical piano concerto, and the recording engineers are less than sympathetic to the woman playing. She is eccentric, and has the quirk of singing, out of tune, like a child, while playing. This is Bobby's sister, and she wants him to come back to the family mansion to visit their sick father. He is the patriarch of a musical family, and Bobby is very much the prodigal son.

Bobby reluctantly agrees to return, to attempt to reconcile with his ailing father, and even more reluctantly agrees to let Rayette come.

Along the way they pick up two women stranded on the road. One of the women is an insufferable nihilist, who complains constantly about the filth and garbage produced by men and civilization. She is also intended as ironic commentary, but in a strange post-modern way. It is as if modern art, from T.S. Elliott's Wasteland, to this very movie, is nothing but incessant grousing. It offers no solution, but merely points out flaws and shortcomings incessantly. She wants to go to Alaska, because she thinks it is clean. She has seen the pictures of the snow. Bobby is amused by her naiveté and says that is before the big thaw. The woman's companion is named Terry Grouse (Toni Basil), by the way. The whole encounter would seem to be pretty pointless, except it leads to another classic scene, where they stop at a truck stop and the waitress refuses to make any substitutions. "You want me to hold the chicken?"

In Washington Bobby confronts his father, who has had several strokes, and is completely mute. This is a difficult scene for Nicholson, but he rises to the challenge. You see several layers deep, the raw and hurt emotions, and a small boy trying to please his father, but never feeling like he can measure up.

There is another crucial scene where Bobby is trying to seduce a music student (Susan Anspach) who is living at the family compound. She asks him to play something for her, and he plays her a beautiful piece by Chopin. She responds, but he laughs and says he picked it because it was the easiest piece he knew, and he played it when he was eight years old, and he played it better then. He felt nothing, he confesses. This leads to her telling him that he is unable to love himself, his work, music, or anything. Unable to love himself, he doesn't deserve the love of another. This is the closest the film comes to stating its message, but as you can see, it offers no hope, no solution. Sure, Bobby could just find something to believe in, or love himself a little more, or be like the woman pointing all this out to him, but that is just not available to him. He can't make a leap of faith, having no faith, or love, in or for anything.

Like I said, this movie came very close to being a masterpiece, but like the scene with Bobby and his father, it has nothing to say. It leaves you stranded, just as Bobby will inevitably leave Rayette stranded, in a gas station, as he hitches a ride to Alaska without even taking along a jacket.

Inauthenticity everywhere.......2007-05-12

Or, as Bobby would probably say, "Bulls*t everywhere!" Or something more explicit. Even with The Joker, the psychopathic writer in Kubrick's "Shining", and his chilling performance in "The Departed", I would say this is Nicholson's scariest character.

Bobby Dupea, a former piano prodigy who finds the pretentiousness of art, culture, and his entire family so revolting that he takes Timothy Leary's edict closer to heart than any hippy--he becomes a worker on an oil rig, a complete alcoholic, a brutal misogynist and generally reprehensible human being all around, completely divorced from his origins and disdainful of his considerable talents. Karen Black, his gorgeous hilbilly girlfriend, really forms the paradox of Dupea's character: his ferocious embrace of man's lower instincts in favor of a greater authenticity and his actual repugnance when facing them for any extended period of time. The most telling scenes in this dark but compelling tale of ultimate failure consist of Rayette and Bobby together: Bobby listening to her sweet, well intentioned but limited sentiments about life and the small world she was born into, his constant annoyance but sympathy; his violent defense of her in the presence of his "high brow" family, and his ultimate inability to stay with her--even when he knows she's pregnant.

Bobby's more or less constant agitation is a result of his unwillingness to face his hopelessly divided nature. Stopping traffic in a drunken rage, he hops on a moving truck and begins furiously playing a piano to the incomprehension of his drunken backwoods co-worker, flipping out on a waitress for misunderstanding his order, and trying to reconcile with a father who is catatonic from a stroke: these are all the actions of a man without the strength to face his inner demons or acknowledge them. He protests too much without really wanting anything to change.

Bob Rafelson was obviously conscious of the contradictions inherent in the 1960's counterculture and this a commentary of sorts: the rejection of the father--the dominant culture--for good reasons, and the impotence of the son--the 60's mentality embodied by Bobby--all culminating in disaster (the present day). This is a masterpiece and wins out over similar modern fare like "American Beauty" or "Good Will Hunting" anyday.

That poor waitress.

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-05-08

Robert Dupea[Jack Nicholson] starts out being his normal tough guy and
woman chaser. The plot changes when he meets Susan Anspach and falls
for her, making him change is idea about women. This seems hard for
Jack to do. Overall this is a good movie, but a bit slow at times.

Average customer rating:

"Life's Too Short"
Five Easy Pieces
"You Want Me To Hold The Chicken?"
Inauthenticity everywhere
Five Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces [Region 2]
Starring: Jack Nicholson , Karen Black , Billy Green Bush , Fannie Flagg , and Sally Struthers
Director: Bob Rafelson
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

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Easy Rider
Chinatown
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The Last Picture Show (Definitive Director's Cut Special Edition)

ASIN: B00004RYW8

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

"Life's Too Short".......2007-07-05

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-07-03

"You Want Me To Hold The Chicken?".......2007-06-24

Inauthenticity everywhere.......2007-05-12

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-05-08

Average customer rating:

Five Easy Pieces [Region 2]
Starring: Jack Nicholson , Karen Black , Billy Green Bush , Fannie Flagg , and Sally Struthers
Director: Bob Rafelson
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004VXWU

Average customer rating:

"Life's Too Short"
Five Easy Pieces
"You Want Me To Hold The Chicken?"
Inauthenticity everywhere
Five Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces [Region 2]
Starring: Jack Nicholson , Karen Black , Billy Green Bush , Fannie Flagg , and Sally Struthers
Director: Bob Rafelson
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Carnal Knowledge
Easy Rider
Chinatown
The Last Detail
The Last Picture Show (Definitive Director's Cut Special Edition)

ASIN: B00004D0GY

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

"Life's Too Short".......2007-07-05

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-07-03

"You Want Me To Hold The Chicken?".......2007-06-24

Inauthenticity everywhere.......2007-05-12

Five Easy Pieces.......2007-05-08

Average customer rating:

Blood and Wine
Director: Bob Rafelson
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

SYNOPSIS: Bob Rafelson has stated that this is the final part of an informal trilogy he started with "Five Easy Pieces" and continued with "The King Of Marvin Gardens". In the three, Nicholson has now played son, brother and father. In this one, Nicholson is a wealthy wine dealer who has distanced himself from his wife with his philandering and from his son with his negligence. After he steals a diamond necklace with the help of a safecracker partner, Victor, things start coming apart. His wife sets out to interrupt what she thinks is another one of his weekend dalliances, but is really his trip to pawn the jewels. [IMDB - John Sacksteder] ++++ DVD FEATURES: Officially licensed South Korean release is in color with Widescreen 1.85:1 format. This NTSC 0 All-Region DVD will play world-wide and is in ENGLISH (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) with optional (removable) English and Korean subtitles. SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu; Scene Selections; Cast/Director's Profile; Theatrical Trailer.

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