Five Easy Pieces
by Bob Rafelson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Sally StruthersDirector: Bob Rafelson
Brand: NICHOLSON,JACK
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-12-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Five Easy Pieces
Movie Review: Landmark Character Study
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm amazed that you don't hear much about this terrific film these days. Released in 1970, "Five Easy Pieces" heralded a renaissance of highly personal character driven films championed by not only since film's director, Bob Rafelson, but also Robert Altman and Hal Ashby, among others. This film focuses on people, their quirks and their interpersonal relationships. The film's central character, Robert Eroica Dupea, is not a particularly likable person but as written superbly by Carol Eastman and brilliantly assayed by Jack Nicholson he becomes sympathetic. Stifled by an austere artistic clan, Dupea escapes but leads a directionless existence going from one meaningless job after another and engages in a romance with a waitress(Karen Black) that he has little if anything in common with. Nicholson gives a carefully modulated performance, a departure from his more flamboyant work in "Easy Rider", suggesting both the anger, apathy, and sadness that seethes inside. The real revelation here is Black. A lesser actress would have portrayed Rayette as a dumb bunny. Black saw more complexity in her character. Rayette is certainly unlearned but Black brought out the sweetness and the sadness in her. It's unfathomable how Black lost the Oscar to Helen Hayes in "Airport"(?!). On a final note any film that puts Tammy Wynette and Chopin on equal footing has to be great.
Summary of Five Easy Pieces
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 McCoyReturning home to his father's deathbed, a gifted pianist who has been living a wasted life is forced to face issues which will change his life forever.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 28-AUG-2001
Media Type: DVD
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