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Directed By
Bob Rafelson
Cast:
Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Lois Smith, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Helena Kallianiotes, Richard Stahl, Lorna Thayer
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Five Easy Pieces (1970)
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Movie Review by E
February 17th, 2009
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The road trip as a metaphor for lost lives is a theme common to several well-known Nixon-era road movies, including EASY RIDER (1969), TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (1971), VANISHING POINT (1971), and BADLANDS (1973). Probably the greatest road movie of this particular era is director Bob Rafelson's FIVE EASY PIECES from 1970. It took me an inexplicably long time to catch it on DVD; the disc sat in my need-to-watch pile for many years. But it's never too late to experience a great film; in fact, since I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago, I've seen it another two times.
Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) is a classically trained pianist who somehow strayed from taking music seriously. Intelligent but an underachiever, he works on oil rigs during the day and passes the time with his girlfriend at night. His girl is Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black), a good-hearted but soft-brained diner waitress who only wants to sing like Tammy Wynette and hear Bobby say "I love you." Of course, she can't sing, and he can't say it. In fact, Bobby cannot do much of anything consistently that has to do with following social behavior norms. Many of Nicholson's scenes are played for comic effect, as when Rayette's continuous gutterballs get on Bobby's nerves, and when Bobby angrily separates himself from a co-worker. In an especially free-spirited moment, Bobby makes the best of a traffic jam by leaping aboard a truck that's carrying a piano, and a little impromptu Chopin ensues. The road trip portion of the narrative is engaged after Bobby gets some surprise news from his sister Partita (Lois Smith) regarding his father (William Challee). In the tentative manner he does most everything, Bobby decides to make the trip home, where he gets reacquainted with his family, including his brother Carl (Ralph Waite), who recently has suffered a permanent neck injury; and Carl's romantic interest Catherine (Susan Anspach), who Bobby immediately finds himself attracted to.
The sequences that feature the highway as a backdrop offer the best clues as to what makes Bobby tick. En route to the family home, with Rayette along for the ride, he picks up two stranded gals (Helena Kallianiotes and Toni Basil). When the four stop for food, the film's most renowned and thematically important sequence transpires when Bobby reaches his boiling point with a waitress (Lorna Thayer) who cannot fulfill his simple request due to restaurant policy—he gets some satisfaction out of blowing his stack (as only Nicholson can), but he correctly realizes that, as usual, he never found what he was looking for in the first place.
Both Nicholson and Black received Oscar® nominations for their marvelous performances, and the film was nominated for Best Picture at the 1971 Academy Awards®. Black's performance is quite amazing in that she creates a sympathetic character, whereas Rayette easily could have been reduced to a simple redneck cliché in less capable hands. Nicholson turns in a career-defining performance; he well may be the American cinema's most imitated actor, especially in terms of how to express rage. Check out Leonardo DiCaprio's impersonation in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (2008), a more recent film about directionless people.
The existentialist conclusion of FIVE EASY PIECES nicely parallels the final moments of the other classic road movies alluded to above. In all of these films, the theme of endless rambling seems to be an irresolvable one—we are left either with characters who perish on the highway, or those wandering adrift on an open road where fate someday surely will meet them.
--Eric Somer, 2/16/2009
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 | Farmer Waltz
Feb 19, 2009 4:14 PM
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| I like how you pointed out the sensitive way they dealt with Black's character. She was born to play that role. It's so bizarre to see her following that with a string of B-grade movies and, of course, House of 1,000 Corpses. Perfect example of the dreaded Oscar curse. |
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Feb 19, 2009 4:19 PM