Five Easy Pieces (1970) New Hollywood Icon where Jack Nicholson peels back the Persona (Review)

At the peak of his powers in the 1970s and 80s, they where few actors who could touch Jack Nicholson. Looking at his run of films, it’s no surprise he has gone done as one of the greatest American actors of any generation. We have Five Easy Pieces (Out now from the Criterion Collection), The Last Detail, Chinatown, The Passenger, One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining. Even though he ostensibly acted as “himself” he is one of the central icons of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s. Five Easy Pieces also has the added significance of being one of 25 films recommended for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. There’s some hefty praise, right there.

In Bob Rafelson’s 1970 film, Nicholson plays Bobby and as the film starts he is an aimless blue-collar worker in the deep south drifting his way through life, treating his long-suffering girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) awfully along the way. He drinks, bowls and sleeps around. Then one day, after finding out he has sired a child with Rayette he gets in his car and drives off. He heads to see his pianist sister Partita (Lois Smith), who breaks the news that their dad has had two strokes and is incredibly ill. See, Bobby is actually Robert Eroica Dupea, youngest child of a family of prodigiously talented musicians who disappeared one day. What follows is a trip home to Washington to visit the family, reluctantly with Rayette in tow.

The structure of the film changes drastically through its three acts. As the film opens, its the sort of hang-out movie that John Cassavettes made his name as a director with. In the middle, its a road trip movie as Bobby and Rayette picks up a pair of stragglers whose car flipped in the middle of a country road. One of these stragglers is played by Helena Kallianiotes and her character is an anti-establishment sort with a rage unique to herself. She rants incessantly before stopping, saying ” I don’t want to talk about it” before moving onto a new topic. This section is about as broad and close to comedic as Five Easy Pieces gets. Then in the last act where Bobby returns home to see the family that he hasn’t seen in years and its during this final furlong that matters get awfully introspective.

When viewed as a Jack Nicholson film, Rafelson’s script becomes compelling. To many Jack Nicholson is a personality larger than life, braggadocious, full of verve – a real movie star. Before heading up to Washington to see the family, this is the Nicholson we get. A man who, in the middle of an excellent scene, in a huge traffic jam jumps onto a nearby truck to play one of the titular easy pieces, much to the discontent of those around him. A scene where Bobby demands toast from an obstinate waitress in a diner also displays this persona too. Then, upon getting off the ferry to the Island his family lives on, it’s no longer Bobby instead its Robert, a man consumed by depression, lost and looking for his place in the world. Five Easy Pieces as a Jack Nicholson film, with its star actor deconstructing his on-screen persona. It’s needless to say then that Nicholson is excellent, probably the best he ever was which is no minor achievement – the scene where he emotionally articulates himself to his mute father (William Challee) deserves specific mention.

There’s a loose, almost improvisational feel to the way the film was written and directed by Rafelson as well as the way it was shot by American New Wave regular, László Kovács. In some scenes he makes great use of the wide-open panoramas, playing up the isolation and loneliness. That’s all fine and well, however, unless that sort of soul-stirring subtext is used to contrast something it doesn’t add up to much. Luckily, that just isn’t the case – this is a legendary DoP, after all.

There’s are two heartbreaking shots that are worthy of discussion. One is in a piano room where Bobby is trying to charm his way into estranged brother’s fiancee’s pants, he plays one of the titular easy pieces and the camera pans around the room extremely slowly. We see a few pictures of Bobby, his brother and his sister but most of the pictures on display are of classical composers and musicians, an elegant shot which says more about the type of upbringing that Bobby got than the character ever could. This one-shot explains why he was reluctant to ever return home. The other shot is the final shot, all I’ll say is that an unbroken static wide-angle shot has rarely been more awkward and difficult.

Here comes the sinker.

You’d think that after all the positive things I’ve said about Criterion’s latest I would conclude by saying something positive in line with the films legendary status. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. I have to repeat a line I’ve uttered far, far too many times. Here is another all-time classic that left me cold and alienated, here is yet another classic that I respected more than I liked it. Which is okay, this is a quiet and contemplative movie about depression, Five Easy Pieces is something to have to live with and process in the days, weeks and months after seeing it. Its meant to be difficult, personally, I never felt endeared and engaged enough to go through with that process.

Thank you for reading Rob’s Review of Five Easy Pieces

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