Five Easy Pieces

I was sitting in a restaurant off the highway outside Eugene Oregon. When I looked out the window I thought, "I've seen this view before but where..." That night I remembered: Five Easy Pieces, a movie I barely remembered watching. So I went and got it and, hey, that's a good show! Jack Nicholson is as he always is--brilliant. I enjoyed it. I don't like telling people what a movie was about in the hopes that they'll watch it. I just say, well, it's good, and leave it at that.

This is an excellent film, but not a happy, Disney, feel good story. The American dream eludes some very smart and capable people. Others are simply not satisfied with what the dream offers. This is a story about an intelligent, capable outsider who wants to have fun along the way, but he finds he just can't fit in to the normal nine to five American lifestyle. His friends like him, his very loyal and sexy girlfriend wants him, but it is not enough for him. It's not about money. It's about meaning. Excellent acting by Jack Nicholson and the other actors with an ending that fits the plot perfectly.

This was a really wonderful period piece, capturing the suffocating, conflicting, and absurd archetypal and ingenuine truths of the time which gave rise to the bust out later in the decade. Outstanding acting performance with range and depth by Nicholson. The variety of characters and energies. along with the landscape and angles resulted in a very entertaining and introspective experience.

Quite simply Jack Nicholson's best film. Good writing, realistic settings and dialogue, and a great road trip section are the ingredients to the all Americana picture, Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, a man in search of something better; like a westerner something over the next horizon or in another place. He knows he's not a gentleman. He's not a good partner for women, his own family or himself. He's lost. He's incipient alcoholic. It's also an exploration of American classes in conflict, and how that plays out in Nicholson's character. He can't stand the bourgeois middle class values of his family, and wants to disappear into the underclass, but there is no salvation there either. He feels nothing. His treatment of his girlfriend is harsh in the extreme. All this is redeemed by a realistic treatment of the subject and the talent of a young Nicholson, and support by Karen Black and others. The way he clears things up in the restaurant scene is worth the price of admission.

On a whim I watched Five Easy Pieces, not having seen it when it was released. I love Jack Nicholson's acting and back when, this story was probably an enormously intriguing movie. The female lead is a sort of weird ineffectual woman, and Jack's character plays her shamelessly. I am left wondering if there are people like that in the world today--the story took me back to a time I remember well, maybe the late 60's, when life was more muffled, and expectations for women were a lot different than they are at present. The story is worth it, if you like taking sentimental journeys. I recommend the movie for mature viewers.

I like this movie, but I must admit to sympathize with the character of the girlfriend Ray the most. She was a little melodramatic, but a good person who happened to be with a man, Bobby, who was deeply dissatisfied with his life but lacked the courage to change it. I don’t really see the main character as a hero at all, just a guy who can’t figure himself out.

I was a fan of this movie when it came out. Saw it several times 'back in the day.' What a treat to watch again in 2021. It's as tight and well made as I remembered it. Jack Nicholsan's best performance ever, I would say to this day. Highly recommend you watch, whether for old time sake or to see high quality movie making that passes the test of time.

One of my favorite movies just can not beat all the wonderful actors and great story.

-Restored High definition digital transfer, supervised by the director of Photography, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack-Audio commentary with the director and the interior designer-Soul searching in Five easy pieces (2009 piece)-BBStory 2009 documentary about the legendary film company BBS production, with cast and crew interviews- Documentary from 2009 about BBS, featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley-Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with the director-Trailers and teasers-An essay by critic Kent Jones

The late sixties through to the early eighties was a fascinating era for American cinema. I don't mean the bloated blockbusters by Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg et al (however good they may or may not be) but the independent, low-budget, or simply unclassifiable films being made by directors such as Arthur Penn, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman, Alan Rudolph, Nic Roeg ... and Bob Rafelson, whose second film this was, following the Jack Nicholson-scripted Monkees extravaganza Head.Seeing FEP again after many years, I am more convinced than ever that it is one of the most soulful, melancholic, truthful films of its period.Others (incl Amazon) have outlined the plot ~ such as it is ~ so this will be a personal response to what I believe to be a key film of the early seventies.Jack Nicholson is an actor who allows himself to take his time, managing to fill a screen with his mere presence, against the odds of (or because of?) his thinning hair, slitted-steely eyes and callow grin. I find his portrayal of the eternally restless son of a wealthy musical family from the Pacific NW one of his most affecting performances. He is never wholly likeable, never wholly unsympathetic either. In fact, he has many moments in which he seems to be the only sane person in sight.He is more than matched by a truly great performance by Karen Black (who was far better known in those days) who never sentimentalises her role as talkative, tactless, needy 'dumb blonde' Ray, and who gives Nicholson/Bobby as good as he gives her. The two spark off each other so well that one longs for the two of them to, as it were, ride off into the sunset together, their differences somehow reconciled. Of course, this is not to be.There are several other wonderful performances, not least Ralph Waite as Bobby's nerdy, well-meaning brother, Susan Anspach as his almost-loyal, plain-speaking wife, Helena Kallianotes as a terminally verbose moaner Bobby and Ray give a lift to, the remarkable Lois Smith as Bobby's nervy sister, and Billy 'Green' Bush as Bobby's co-worker and friend in the early scenes.FEP is a sadly beautiful film both to watch and to look at, artfully chosen shots of the northern American landscape accentuating the sense of lives wasting away, sleepwalking through the American Dream.I disagree profoundly with those who would have us believe this is in some way either a sexist film or one centred wholly on an ungrateful yet privileged man. The women in FEP are never patronised, and are indeed given a voice often unheard in more recent cinema, with its sweaty heroes and CGI gimmickry.The only scene ~ though it's a delicious one ~ which seems a little unearned by what has gone before is when, at the family mansion, an artily pretentious guest is proving what a tactless drone she is, and Bobby {to our delighted relief, I must admit} tells her in so uncertain terms where to get off. It`s just a little too 'set up'.But for the most part, Rafelson rarely puts a foot wrong. He went on to direct the marvellous The King Of Marvin Gardens, then his decline began, all too soon. Five Easy Pieces was and is not only a fine achievement by all concerned, but a key film from a creative moment in American cinema.Do see it!

This is a gift for my son. It arrived super quick and well before the required date. I am delighted with the service and will definitely use this seller again.

This a beautifully understated film that stands as one of the landmark films of the 70s' era when young directors like Scorsese, Coppola and Terrence Malick were making small but brilliant and intensely personal films about America. Jack Nicholson plays a gifted classical musician from a well-to-do family who has squandered a promising future and is working on an oil-field, living hand-to-mouth with his blue-collar girlfriend Karen Black. He's neither happy nor depressed by his situation, he's more indifferent to his life. Then he's asked to go home to visit his dying father and confront the family that he wanted nothing to do with. The film deals with issues of personal identity, social class and personal freedom that were very pertinent in the late '60s and haven't dated that much at all.Two things make this film great - Nicholson's performance is wonderful (he was Oscar nominated for it) and a real breath of fresh air for people who only know him for his OTT 'Crazy Jack' roles. Bob Rafelson's direction is distinctly low-key, unshowy and focuses on characterisation and dialogue - qualities that are so lacking in American cinema at the moment. It's a quiet film, not one that blows your head off with set-pieces or visuals. It also has a great ending that reminds me a lot of the ending of 'The Graduate' in its ambiguity.This DVD is pretty lousy for extras - filmographies of the stars and nothing more. A shame for such a classic and interesting film. Still, it's absolutely worth seeing.

For all Jack Nicholson fans....unfortunately the DVD was poorly packed and most of the plastic cover of the DVD was destroyed during the transport to Switzerland.... :-(