Five Easy Pieces

Rating:
Summary: A Spiritual Interpretation
Review: "Five Easy Pieces" is a contemparary American adaptation of Jesus Christ's best-known parable, "The Prodigal Son", but with a profoundly different ending. This is a modern day morality play dramatizing the war that rages inside every human between the spirit and the flesh with the stakes being either the salvation or the damnation of man's eternal soul. Released in 1970, the film achieved a near cult status among the "Baby Boomers" who were humored by Jack Nicholson's particular talent for portraying the post-modern "antihero" with a snide and cynical attitude towards middle class American values. Although the film appears a bit dated now, the ominous message it delivers on personal self-destruction is perhaps even more relevant today in an increasingly permissive culture given over to consumption and pleasure seeking.
The film opens with the prodigal, Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson), working in capitalism's equivalent to the Biblical pig sty - the gritty, sweaty environment of an oil-drilling field (oil being the product of decayed plant and animal matter).Music plays an important role in the story as it represents Spirituality. The opening scenes are accompanied by Tammy Wynette's classic, "Stand By Your Man". While this song has been vilified by feminists as being humiliating to women, it perfectly conveys how love on the spiritual level is so paradoxical to the carnal man. To paraphrase Jesus' message, "If you want love, give love..and keep giving love though none is being returned", and "If you seek the honor and respect of others, practice humility, self-sacrifice and quiet servitude". As the film progresses, we learn that the prodigal was once a musical prodigy but, for reasons unknown, has decided to run away from his calling to live as a common laborer. In effect, he has abandoned Spirituality and is in pursuit of Carnality. The movie's title has a dichotomous nature: is it referring to musical pieces, or (in the vulgar colloquialism) "pieces of ..."? While "slumming" with the working class, he employs his wits and his good looks to keep earning paychecks and attracting different women to satisfy his lust. After learning that he has impregnated his live-in girlfriend, Rayette (Karen Black), the prodigal immediately drops the facade of being a footloose and carefree drifter and sees the need to escape responsibility by returning to his old way of life, though he really doesn't want to. As Bobby is about to drive off and abandon Rayette and their unborn child, the physical manifestation of the war which is raging inside of him between Spirituality and Carnality is dramatically portrayed in a maniacal thrashing he applies to the steering wheel. Conceding that he does have affections for another human being and a modicum of decency left, Bobby decides to let Rayette come along with him. The journey home concludes with a ferry boat ride to a Puget Sound island. This evokes the age-old literary technique of a water voyage to the afterlife. When he reaches home, Bobby enters a dimension where time stands still. The house has an aura of quiet solemnity and is filled with furniture and appliances which haven't changed since it's initial habitation. Obviously, this house and it's inhabitants have never experienced "the dawning of the Age of Aquarius" and "The New Morality" that permeates the rest of the world. Here, the family he deserted is still pursuing musical careers (Spirituality). Whereas the Biblical parable features a joyous father who comes running to greet his returning son, Bobby's father (a former musical conductor) has suffered a stroke which has left him a mute paraplegic in a wheel chair. He is now totally incapable of even acknowledging his son's presence, much less offer Bobby the forgiveness he seeks. His older brother, Karl, has assumed control of the house and he (like the brother in the parable) isn't one to let desertion of duty go unacknowledged. Even in this realm of the spiritual, Bobby is completely given over to the carnal as he has illicit sex (loveless and meaningless) with Karl's live-in student, Catherine (Susan Anspach). Recognizing that he is totally out of place in his own family's home, Bobby is forced back on the road with his pregnant girlfriend. Coming face-to-face with the reality that Carnality has snared him in a web he cannot escape, Bobby ditches Rayette and his car at a gas station by hitching a ride with a trucker. The trucker is hauling what were once proud and majestic trees, but are now dead timber on their way to a lumber mill for destruction (for coffins?).
The last lines of dialogue are very telling:
Truck Driver talking to Bobby: "Haven't you got a coat or something? I've got a jacket in the back here."
Bobby: "No. That's OK. I'll be alright".
Truck Driver: "Suit yourself. Where we're heading it's going to get colder than HELL". The movie ends with the sound of the truck going through gears. No music. No Spirit. A man with a dead soul must live out his life until the flesh he has given over to ages, dies and decays into nothingness.
The moral of the story: if you are counting on God being the joyous and running father of the Biblical parable, you better not be living a life that burns all of your spiritual "bridges" back home or else you will find God to be a mute paraplegic who doesn't even acknowledge your existence.

Rating:
Summary: A Nervy Classic (4 1/2 stars)
Review: A fantastic character study, Five Easy Pieces makes tangible an undefined fear of the past and the tragedy of always having to run away. Labouring on a California oil rig, Robert Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson) sweats mightily and exchanges the usual innuendo-laden remarks with friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush). It's hard work and all Bobby has to look forward to is some after-work gambling and shallow girlfriend Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black), back in their tacky motel room. Ray works as a waitress and sings along with Tammy Wynette tunes, a far cry from Bobby's background (the hint is in his name). Once upon a time he was a promising classical pianist in a musically orientated family. Now, though, he guzzles beer and goes bowling with Elton and his wife Stoney (Fannie Flagg).

Life as an oil-rigger is a real humdrum existence, particularly when you don't know why you're doing it. Sometimes Bobby argues with the foreman or gets stinking drunk with Elton, which achieves the same effect as far as work's concerned. One time Bobby jumps onto the back of a truck, while they're grid- locked on the highway, and starts bashing away at the old piano strapped there. The truck drives away from Elton, with Bobby still playing tunes that nobody else will recognise - a brief flash of brilliance, a hint of what might have been. Another time Elton gets dragged away by the cops for holding up a gas station, just when Bobby has finds out that Ray is pregnant. Unready for commitment, this sort of pressure is just too much for Bobby to take, so he heads off for LA without a word.

In the busy metropolis Bobby, without really trying, tracks down his sister Partita (Lois Smith) in a recording studio. After an emotional reunion the, obviously fragile, Partita mentions that their father Nicholas (William Challee) has suffered a pair of debilitating strokes. An accidental and unwanted reminder for Bobby of his past. Although Bobby hasn't visited home for several years, now might be a good time because it may be the last chance to see his father. Even with this impetus Bobby is unhappy about trekking all the way up to Puget Sound, where he'll see his supercilious brother Carl Fidelio (Ralph Waite) again. Still Carl apparently has a bright, young student, Catherine Van Ost (Susan Anspach), who might prove interesting. However, Ray insists on tagging along to meet his family (a prospect he dreads - the meeting of dissimilar worlds). Then they pick up a pair of lesbian hitch-hikers and the trip gets really interesting!

Five Easy Pieces is an unusually easy movie to watch, partly because it's a fine piece of work and partly through its amazingly relaxed atmosphere. Without pressure stemming from a need to rush through to the script's conclusion, characters are able to come and go, to naturally inhabit the landscape of the picture. The other aspect of this deliberate pacing is that it reflects the personality of Bobby, a man for whom there will never by a definite ending, only a succession of vague plateaus. Strangely this makes Bobby a highly compelling person, someone to whom the normal laws of relationships fail to apply. He can get away with treating people like dirt and looking down on them even as he pretends to be working class, a facade which allows him to smother his unfocused anguish beneath a blanket of physical exhaustion and alcohol. He doesn't belong in the motel-living community but neither does he belong in the rarified atmosphere of Puget Sound - he really is a nowhere man.

Throughout the entire cast of Five Easy Pieces there are no examples of bad acting, miscasting or shallow characterisation. Whilst not everyone is able to plumb the depths of subtlety that Nicholson achieves, every role has a spark which brings it to life (even the non-functional Nicholas). Contrasting the two strata of society that Bobby bridges, the collision between soap-opera connoisseur and intellectual culture-vulture is embodied in Ray (when she arrives at the mansion). She is way out of depth with these high-brow artists, which graphically illustrates the gulf between Bobby and Ray, yet she retains her own dignity and sense of worth. The Dupea's have constructed an almost incestuous retreat, divorced from "reality" and explanation enough for Bobby's headlong plunge away. Ultimately Bobby is the victim, frustrated by a lack of direction and confused about his needs, a fate which Nicholson ambiguously shows.

Relying on a sophisticated, perceptive script, Five Easy Pieces is a timeless reflection of America and its love/hate relationship with the establishment. In a single, brief scene (involving toast and a recalcitrant waitress), a lifetime of frustration for Bobby is distilled into a sweep of the arm. Backed up by the cinematography of Laszlo Kovacs, Five Easy Pieces says much about the inevitability of life without seeming to. It's a cunning technique which seems entirely appropriate to a film made in the 70s, yet doesn't result in it being out of date 25 years later. A nervy classic.

Rating:
Summary: Five Easy Stars
Review: After his strong supporting turn in Easy Rider brought fame to Jack Nicholson, he got his first starring opportunity in Five Easy Pieces. Teaming up with his old pal Bob Rafelson (from Monkees fame), they created an interesting character study. Mr. Nicholson is Robert Dupea, a hellion who is oilrig worker in Texas. He is basically shiftless and has no direction in life. What we soon discover is that Dupea is a piano playing prodigy who grew up on the Puget Sound in Washington. His girlfriend, played by Karen Black, wants to be a country & western singer and is constantly singing along to "Stand By Your Man". She drives him nuts, but after his best friend is arrested, he heads back home to Washington with her in tow. He ends up falling for another woman who also plays piano and is staying at his father's house. The title of the film is derived from five easy piano pieces that Dupea and the woman dissect. Mr. Nicholson does an incredible job of peeling back the layers of Dupea and his scene ordering a chicken salad sandwich is highly memorable. Ms. Black is perfectly annoying in her role and she does a tremendous job. Mr. Rafelson & Mr. Nicholson have teamed several times since this movie, but never were they any better together.

Rating:
Summary: Shattering drama!
Review: After years of self imposed exile a classic pianist decides to return to the oil fields with his family. It is not a mere coincidence to have chosen that special Chopin Etude to reveal the profound feeling of disillusionment and disappointment that surrounds him.

It can be sound a bit exaggerate perhaps , but I have not seen better to Nicholson in any other film previous or next . His violent changes of humour , and bitterness still are a must for all his hard fans and cinema lovers but also for young actors .

Bob Rafelson made to me his brilliant masterpiece with this one . The chicken salad dinner is still a reference standard .
What this film keeps for you is the loss of the bliss against the rules of the game of the life . This movie has a very strong influence of the best European Cinema and that' s why it can explain how the great audience frequently do no remember with major intensity .

The final sequence seemed to reveal the triumph of the will in the middle of the quotidian loneliness that becomes in an usual way of life with the petrified forest in the middle of a gas station , crude metaphor that signified his wrong initial decision .


Rating:
Summary: It takes place in Central California
Review: Bobby Dupea lives in central California, in the valley area near Bakersfield etc. You can see that from the highway signs in the scene where he drives to work with Elton and gets stuck in the traffic jam, hopping on the moving truck and playing the piano. And that's why the conversation is about "going up north" to see the rest of the family etc (=islands outside Vancouver). -- And this is where another good movie from the same area, "Fat City," comes to mind: scenery, rhythm, content, colors etc.

But I definitely agree, this is one of the all-time masterpieces. It works in a number of different levels and shows the internal battles Bobby is going through and just doesn't seem to be able to settle, even in the end.

Oh by the way, what are the other four "easy pieces," one obviously being the piano piece that he plays for Katherine?

Rating:
Summary: 96 minutes of my life I'll never get back
Review: First the good points: The cinematography is impeccable and Nicholson deserved his nomination for Best Actor.

Now the bad points:

As other reviewers noted, this movie was big with the sixties generation. After all, Nicholson' character sticks it to the Middle Class squares, man. If that's what you think this movie is about, more power to you. I, however, saw the movie as a piece of nihilistic propaganda. The director manipulates the viewer into sympathizing with Nicholson's character, a typical sixties anti-hero, in other words a nihilistic borderline sociopath. His constant nihilistic self-indulgent quest for self-gratification makes both himself and the people around him miserable. In addition, he acts as if the people around him exist only as props in his sordid little personal drama - in other words, a sociopath. A quick note on nihilism; Nihilism rejects the existence of any morality outside of what you set for yourself. This is typified by the sixties phrase, "If it feels good, do it." The moral vacuity of such a sentiment is quickly understandable when you consider that rape, murder and child abuse make some people feel good. Once you realize the moral depravity underlying this popular sixties mantra you will recognize that most cinematic anti-heroes from the sixties and seventies are usually sociopaths. If watching a director make sociopaths appear appealing, then Five Easy Pieces is the movie for you.

I mentioned that the director stacked the deck to make Nicholson's pathetic character somewhat appealing. He did this by making all the other characters even more reprehensible. On the surface Nicholson's buddy seems to be a responsible married family man, but he turns out to be an alcoholic, adulterous armed robber. Nicholson's various sexual partners are either idiots or two-timers. His family is a menagerie of circus freaks, and the hitchhikers he picks up on the drive to visit his family exhibit clinical symptoms of insanity.

On a final note, the film drags. My wife was asleep half way through and I only stuck it out by fast forwarding through large segments. Unfortunately, the end was even lamer than I expected. I just checked the run time and can't believe it was only 96 minutes. I thought for sure it lasted a good three hours. Despite that, I can't help but think to myself, "That was 96 minutes of my life I'll never get back."


Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film, arguably Jack Nicholsons best performance
Review: Five Easy Pieces is one of the landmark films of American Cinema in the 1970's. Hot off the success of Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson made the transition to leading man after wallowing in Roger Corman B-movie obscurity since the late fifties. Nicholson stars as Robert Dupea, one of his most complex and challenging roles. Robert is a tortured soul. Once a promising pianist, he left that lifestyle and his family and moved to work on an oil rig in Texas. Unable to connect with other people he hides himself behind a sarcastic and icy facade. His only friends are Ray ( Karen Black) a simple, yet nurturing woman with aspirations to become a singer and whom is Roberts girfriend and Elton ( Billy Green Bush) who works with him on the oil rig. Robert, disillusioned with his life and unsure of the future learns that his father is ill in Washington and travels to see him with Ray in tow. The middle act turns into a slapstick road movie with Helena Kallianinotes hilarious as a hitchhiker they pick up along the way. After arriving at his old home, Robert must comes to terms with his dysfunctional family and the musical career he abandoned. He also meets a woman named Catherine ( Susan Anspach) an aspiring pianist whom he feels attractive to and who has the passion for music that he once had or did he? One particular vivid scene that stands out for me toward the end of the film is when Robert tries to have a coversation with his estranged father, who is disabled by a stroke and wheel chair bound. The nuanced performance of Nicholson as he goes through a series of complex emotions before breaking down and crying in front of his father is heartbreaking. Ultimately Robert decides to escape from everything for the the last time and start over with a clean slate, as his existential journey begins at the end of the film. We the viewer are left uncertain, but satisfied .

Rating:
Summary: Auspicious Beginnings at A Time of Inevitable Endings
Review: Five Easy Pieces starts with the symptoms of an undefined disease. Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson), a narcissist, works on an oilrig with his friend, of sorts, Elton (Billy Green Bush). When he is not fighting off the smothering of his all too loving, but essentially witless girlfriend Rayette, he hangs out with Elton and his wife at the bowling alley. All the while exhibiting a bizarre moodiness, and extreme distaste at the apathy of these humble blue-collar people. But Five Easy Pieces is not a film about an arrogant elitist, it is a great character study of man who can not, or will not, fit anywhere. We learn that he was once a promising pianist, but gave that for reasons he never explains. A lesser film would have tried to explain why he had left the world of music, or why he had left his well to do family. That same lesser film, tens if not hundreds fit this description, would have pinned it down to childhood abuse or trauma or both. Five Easy Pieces never tries to explain the disease, instead it examines how a man tries to deal with the symptoms.

The early scenes in that parochial town have a snug appeal, but the more Robert is subjected to Rayette the more suffocated he feels. My guess is, he started dating her as a matter of sexual convenience, and inconveniently for him, she turned out to be a person. Without the heart, or perhaps avoiding the vexation leaving her would bring, he stays in this clearly incompatible relationship. And he treats her cruelly. Clearly something must happen, this is the time that he would usually leave to look for that new "auspicious beginning". Two things prevent him from doing so: 1) His girlfriend is pregnant. 2) His father is dying, and he must go up to Washington to see him.

On the road is where the film really comes alive. Aside from Nicholson's famous "Chicken salad sandwich" speech, there's the maniacal chain smoking lesbian they pick who raves about how unclean the world is. She's heading to Alaska because it looks "all white and clean in the pictures". Like him, she is looking for that auspicious beginning. Alaska won't look that way "after the great thaw" he tells her. The scenes in his family's house touch greatness. If the film is not quite a masterpiece its because the director, Bob Rafelson, doesn't spend enough time on those severed relationships. Then again, Dupea never did either.

Five Easy Pieces was nominated for several Oscars in 1970, losing to the overrated Patton. It does not tell a smooth story, nor does it provide easy answers, or infact answers period. And because of that realism, it is more affecting then most films. Equally as important is that it has a bonafide great movie performance by Jack Nicholson. Five years later he would win an Oscar for Cuckoos Nest, playing an anti-establishment force of nature. But its reflective performances in films like Five Easy Pieces and Ironweed that impress me most. Here he plays a man who, for years, has been travelling in circles and has just come to realise that. The lyrics of a Springsteen song best describe this character: "It's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin, and can't stand the company."

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing, albeit, sometimes uneven piece
Review: For decades, critics batted around the relative merits of Five Easy Pieces like a pinata: Is it the film that defined late 1960s/early 70s, directionless angst? Or is it an uneven, disjointed flick - some great moments, for sure, but ultimately dated? The answer is both. In the end, the film's merits far outweigh its considerable flaws. Director Rafelson was never this good again. In Five Easy Pieces, he gets the little things right. Many of 'these' kinds of '60s/70s movies were unwatchable. (Try stomaching Getting Straight.) In Pieces, subtle images and sounds make an impression: a pained, silent father's face; the embrace of a beloved sister; and the sound of an 18-wheeler rolling away as Nicholson's Bobby Dupea makes his final, quiet getaway. Throughout the film, of course, Nicholson is forever leaving some place. Or someone. Why? He fumbles for an explanation before his father, something about getting away from things before they get bad. But, y'know, that was just the best excuse he could think of at the moment. Therein lies the film's strengths. It reaches for no easy answers. Dupea represents an alienated generation, but an intellectually honest one too. Nicholson was the perfect actor for this part; it's one of his best performances. This was his first starring role after the breakout success of Easy Rider. Everybody was watching to see what the guy could do. So there's an appealing lack of classic 'cocky Jack' in his performance, as if he's a bit unsure himself. His quieter moments work quite well. As for what would become the first of many patented 'rebel Jack' sequences? Some work. Others don't. Sure, we love the famous, chicken salad sandwich scene. But he worked that kind of scene to far greater highs in The Last Detail. (Like, have you ever heard a more, umm, unique way to tell a bartender that you happen to work for the Navy shore patrol?) By the way, has anyone noticed that, when Nicholson is really good, his greatest strength may be making other actors better? In Five Easy Pieces, Lois Smith arguably gives a better, bittersweet performance as his loving sister. In Last Detail, Randy Quaid is unquestionably better and was far deserving of an Oscar. In As Good As It Gets, could any actor have coughed out a better performance from Helen Hunt? Well, anyway, watch Five Easy Pieces with no expectations - or, better yet, anticipations - of plot and conflict and you'll probably like it. Once you think you know what it's about, it completely shifts. More intriguing characters replace relatively amusing but predictable ones. The entire tone grows quieter and open-ended. So I could prattle on about 'what happens' - Nicholson used to play piano really well when he was a kid, and now he works at an oil rig, and he has this stupid, annoying, pregnant girlfriend played by Karen Black and ... - but it wouldn't give the movie a shred of justice. Major studio films aren't made this way anymore. As far as the title of this flick? Don't spend too much time trying to figure it out. Critics debated it with the kind of serious analysis that's usually devoted to a congressional budget, and the consensus was that it referred to the piano pieces played in the movie. The only problem with that theory was that the number of piano pieces don't add up to five. (I can only recall two, actually.) But maybe that was Rafleson's point.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning meditation on idiosycratic human behaviors
Review: Having just seen this movie for the first time I am floored by the greatness of all aspects of this production. Not a spare word, gesture or shot in the whole bloody film - what a fantastic coup! I am in a perpetual state of yawning at most major releases these days...this film resets my standards criteria at a higher notch.