DVD REVIEW

"Five Easy Pieces"
Directed by Bob Rafelson
Starring Jack Nicholson

Entertainment
Art

By RYAN COX

Bob Rafelson’s 1970 directorial masterpiece, "5 Easy Pieces," proved to be Jack Nicholson’s breakout role following "Easy Rider." After nearly 10 years in the business, which included both writing and directing, and it’s easy to see why. Nicholson’s character, Robert Dupea, is a character of unfathomable depth and complexity. In today’s popcorn fueled thrill-a-minute world of cinema, you rarely see actors even attempt someone of this nature, much less pull it off and make you believe it.

When the film opens, we meet Bobby and his best friend Elton (Billy Bush) working on oil rigs in the Southern California desert. Laszlo Kovacs’ cinematography in this scene is stunning, as we see the machinery rising, menacing and shadowed, out of the desolate landscape, but being surrounded by a brilliant pacific sunset. We glide easily through Bobby’s blue-collar world, meeting his dim-witted but slightly endearing girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black), who is obsessed with Tammy Wynette and frosted lipstick. They go bowling with Elton and his wife, and we see Rayette at the small diner where she works as a waitress with a very short skirt. Bobby’s life is aimless and unfulfilling, and we quickly learn that his loyalties lie nowhere: not to his job, not to his girlfriend, and not to his best friend. In one scene, Bobby learns through Elton that Rayette is pregnant, and when Elton begins lecturing him on the joys of family life, Bobby explodes in a rage, calls Elton a "cracker asshole, lives in a trailer park, compare his life to mine." This is our first glimpse into Bobby’s concealed self-opinion.

The second half of the movie, essentially, begins here. Bobby goes to visit a young woman at a recording studio, playing a piano, who begins to immediately sob upon seeing him. This young woman is Bobby’s sister, Partita (Lois Smith), who adores him, hasn’t seen him in years, and tells him their father has had a stroke and it’s time for Bobby to come home. It is only now that we begin to learn who Bobby really is.

Bobby is a deliberate outcast, having removed himself from his family years ago, his fear of success almost as heavy on him as his fear of failure. We learn that he is an accomplished pianist, who comes from a family of accomplished musicians, but who could never please his demanding father. We learn of the Bobby who falls in love with his brother’s lover, Catherine, also a musician, and a woman of high class, who has sex with Bobby, but scoffs at the notion of actually loving him. And finally, we meet the "real" Bobby, who takes his now-mute father out to an open field, and in a tearful monologue, tries to explain to his father why he has chosen the life he has, but can’t, and breaks down in tears. His father can only listen, not respond, and it is only here, with no one to make any judgments, that we see the Bobby that all the other Bobbys try so hard to conceal. Eventually, the film ends in the only way it possibly could, but is so open-ended it would never be allowed today, with the seeming requirement that the mainstream films of today practically bash you over the head with the "point" they’re trying to make.

"5 Easy Pieces" has the complexity and nuance of a really great novel, giving the viewer hints and pieces, but never spelling it out. It lets you make up your own mind about the characters and their trials, and doesn’t tell you how to feel about them. The characters in "5 Easy Pieces" are memorable and feel like people that you really know. Including, may be, yourself.