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Summary: Excellent film about class.
Review: Nicholson kicks *** in this gripping story about class in America during the 1970's. Dont miss it!
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Summary: one of the best movies around
Review: Nicholson plays a superb role of a person who is overly intelligent compared to his girlfriend, who obviously seems to lack his apparent smartness. The movie, as such, starts out as high-versus-low-IQ conflict that is portrayed brilliantly. However, she does not share his suffering from a low self esteem. Her character is most beautifully played, and shows very sympathetic character traits - the first scene when she sings in the car and when she comes to the family and makes big efforts to be nice, are examples. The family provides a stereotypical setting of a "gifted persons" environment, while lacking some of the heart warmth that Jack's character's girlfriend radiates. I should know, I grew up in utterly similar circumstances, I had a similar girlfriend once, and I once ended up doing something similar to Jack's character. Apparently, Jack Nicholson really had an affair with the actress playing the piano player in the movie and fathered a child; the subcutaneous tension between them can be felt. The movie blew me away, and it keeps doing it. The atmosphere vibrates, but one needs to be awake when watching the movie in order to catch the subtleties of the film as mostly, intense emotions are somewhat packed up. There is true blue humour that lies in the accuracy of rendering contrasts. Practically speaking, this movie is a must buy. Do not try to watch this movie in a cinema, once would not be enough anyway - buy it and live with it at home.
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Summary: But Don't Forget "The Last Detail"
Review: No one was better in the 1970s than Jack Nicholson. And, while Five Easy Pieces is truly a classic, the savvy Nicholson fan cannot afford to miss The Last Detail. Less well known, though no less powerful, The Last Detail captures that certain bleakness of early 70s films with a bit more hope and even warmth that its cousin, Five Easy Pieces. Throw in Chinatown and Cuckoo's Nest, and you're in Nicholson heaven!
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Summary: Appeals to the little bit of alienation that's in all of us
Review: Nominated for four Academy Awards, this 1970 film stars Jack Nicholson as Robert Dupea, a creative and alienated drifter who once held the promise of being a serious classical concert pianist. When we meet him, though, he's working on an oil rig, drinking, gambling, chasing women and treating his girlfriend, Rayette, badly. Karen Black plays Rayette, a loving and attractive, but not very intelligent, waitress who yearns to be a country western singer. And the sound track by Tammy Wynette, including "Stand By Your Man" are a contrast to the pieces by Mozart and Chopin that we hear later, when Nicholson visits his dying father in the family's secluded and upscale dwelling. There, he enters into an impossible relationship with his brother's sophisticated girlfriend played by Susan Anspach.The film moves fast and held my interest, with a wide variety of episodes to further deepen the intensity of the Nicholson character. There's a nude scene with Sally Struthers as one of Nicholson's many women. There's a scene in a diner with a waitress where Nicholson tries to place an order for items not on the menu. There's a scene where he picks up two lesbian hitchhikers, who are planning on moving to Alaska. There's a scene with Nicholson's sister, played by Lois Smith, in a recording studio where she is playing classical music and treated with disrespect and contempt by the staff. And there's a scene where Nicholson defends his girlfriend, Rayette, against upper class snobbery. This is a film that works as well today as it did in the 1970s. But it must have especially timely then and viewed as a cry for independence and freedom as the alienated Nicholson just keeps moving on. The screenplay by Carole Eastman, under the direction of Bob Rafelson, is excellent. And there's something about the story that makes us realize that there's a little bit of the Jack Nicholson character in all of us. Recommended.
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Summary: I've seen 'em all: this is nicholson at his best.
Review: Review? Oh, I wouldn't call it that. An informed opinion, perhaps, or maybe a fan's commendation, but definitely not a review. I've seen all of the "classic" nicholson films one or more times, but this is the one that haunts me. It slaps me on the cheek when I'm not looking, and pinches my ass when I am. Part of this unpredictability stems from the outstanding performance of Lois Smith, a wonderful actress who makes me believe in siblinghood and family. Ultimately, however, Nicholson is at the heart of every Nicholson film, and "Five Easy Pieces" is no exception. The final scene is all. I won't whisper it away here, but it's definitely worth the price of the movie. In my opinion, "Five Easy Pieces" ranks among Jack's top three films.
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Summary: I was just shocked when I saw this
Review: The acting was awesome
the plot was interesting
I was hooked from start to end
The classic memorable scenes I liked alot
where the diner ones where he ordered food and put in some of the funniest wether improvved or not lines I have ever heard him say. Very funny Jack
I'll never forget the scene too where he is playing the piano on the truck and it's moving and he's still playing and nothing is bothering him
It was simply a beautiful movie to watch
and I have watched it over and over
I have it on dvd
go rent it please
It's Jack at his best
I agree with alot of the people on here
Robert Dupea is one interesting character he played :)
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Summary: Only Jack Nicholson could have stared in this film.
Review: There is a little of Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) in all of us. This film made in 1970 is about a drifter who has walked away from his proffesion as a talented pianist and is searching for something that he cannot find. Nicholson who finds himself working in the oil fields and living with his girl friend (Karen Black) is growing restless with his surroundings. He wants to make a change but can't seem to make up his mind on what he wants to do in life. The film follows Nicholson as he receives news that his father is dying and returns to his home in Washington. There are a great many descriptive scenes in this film and some great acting. The scene in the resturant has become a classic. Nicholson was up for the best actor award and should have gotten it. If you like Jack Nicholson, this film is one of his best. Also, it has very different ending.
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Summary: A film about people
Review: This film got a fair amount of buzz in its time but I had never seen it. Having been interested by some of Nicholson's work (Head, Witches of Eastwick, Chinatown) I thought, in a weak moment, that it might be good to own a copy of this. It is a film about people I wouldn't want to know relating deeply with other people I wouldn't want to know and has few other qualities which stand out after a first viewing. I give it two stars rather than one because it was, I suppose, professionally done.
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Summary: Only for movie buffs
Review: This film is really only for movie buffs or historians. For a contemporary audience, there is little here that is redeeming or worthwhile. The culture has absorbed anything novel in this movie and moved on. Nicholson has done better work since this.
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Summary: Hold The Chicken Salad!
Review: This film provided one of the first demonstrations of the sheer emotional power of Jack Nicholson as a force of nature, a power unlikely to veer course based on the actions of other human beings. Given this, this part of estranged classic pianist Bobby Dupea is a tour de force, an examination of just how difficult and angst-filled attempting to live a life of meaning in the time frame of the turbulent 1960s can be. Dupea is estranged not only from his high-brow family of cultured and well-placed affluent musicians living along the Pacific coast in the Northwest, but is estranged from everything he personally found so unacceptable about almost every element of his existence. When the film opens Nicholson's character is working as a laborer in a southwestern dustbowl, scratching together a trailer-trash existence together with his hapless and emotionally challenged girlfriend, played to perfection by Karen Black. One immediately recognizes the level of inner-directed anger and consequent fits of uncontrollable rage that Bobby has to deal with, and despite all his attempts to simply ignore and block out the inner demons that drive him to distraction, he is losing the battle to wall out the noise coming from inside his head. His girlfriend is pregnant, ready to get serious and settle down, and the idea of such smarmy normality fills Bobby with undisguised disgust. As their relationship spins toward its inevitable unhappy conclusion, Bobby gets a cryptic emergency message to return home. His father appears to be dying. At this point the movie shifts gears, both by giving us a movie within a movie in a very comical, bizarre and entertaining road trip from hell, and then a coda of cultural ambiance and civility when Bobby, now at home and attempting to somehow deal with his demons and his family at the same time, gets involved with the lovely Susan Aspatch, whose character tempts Nicholson back toward the cultured lifestyle and the more meaningful existence he had eschewed, yet reminding him of the innate sense of purposelessness and futility such a privileged existence represents to him. The most memorable scene in the movie, and possibly the most revealing on a number of levels, is his attempt to explain his nomadic existence to his wheel chair ridden father. While he doesn't really succeed in the effort, he becomes much more understandable and less incomprehensible by virtue of his demonstration of what he thinks and his own level of not truly understanding himself or his feelings. The final few scenes are as elegant a representation of the chaotic and confused emotional feelings emanating out of the sixties as anything I have ever seen on film. This is an extraordinary film, and one I think you will truly come to appreciate for the breath taking work of cinematic art it is. Enjoy!
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