Five Easy Pieces

From the era that brought us Easy Rider until Raging Bull aka The Second Golden Age of Hollywood/American Cinema. The 1970's were a time where new American directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Hal Ashby, Terrence Malick and many others redefined the way films were made. Influenced by European Cinema of the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, the American directors digested the those influences and used them to analyze and criticism the modern America. Of that group of filmmakers, actors, producers Jack Nicholson was one of the center actor. He wrote and acted in many films now classics of that era. On his side Bob Rafelson was mainly a producer and his most known and succesful film is Five Easy Pieces . Sadly, for his directorial career Rafelson was a cocaine addict and it took all of his credibility appart from him. Five Easy Pieces is the story of...

"I'm tootin' my horn right now, can't you SMELL IT!" Genre: Drama Music Starring: Jack Nicholson ( Batman ; The Shining), Karen Black (House of 1000 Corpses; Family Plot ) Directed By: Bob Rafelson (The Postman Always Rings Twice; The King of Marvin Gardens) Overview: A mistreatin' drifter finds out his father's had a stroke, and returns to the high society household he ran from years ago. Performance: Jack Nicholson, can't go wrong. Maybe it's the era, but there was a feel in the film that I couldn't grasp, and I'll blame the director and the characters in the story itself. They did well. I know Nicholson is the big star here and he excels, but it wasn't anything special. Rating: 7 Cinematography: The dirty oil worker, the hoity high society house, the truck stops and trailers, good settings, but nothing spectacular. In fact, I would even go so far as to say uninspired. Rating: 6 Script: "You want a chicken sandwich, and you want me to hold the chicken?" "Yeah, I...

***** USA In his first - and, very possibly, still strongest - lead, Jack Nicholson at first appears to be playing a moody blue collar worker itching to ditch a dumb girlfriend he doesn't love. Through terse yet textured, consistently ingenious vignettes, you gradually get to glean an unwieldy personal history and an equally unwieldy mind that has contributed towards his unsteady handle on things like responsibility and contentment. The subject matter - the oppressive bourgeoisie pushing one of its own into uncertain drifterhood - is very much tied to the early 70s zeitgeist. But the film's timelessness comes from the maturity and complexity with which it is explored. It remains a strong influence on today's moody independent filmmakers, conscious or otherwise.

Five Easy Pieces , 1970 Directed by Bob Rafelson I’m sure you’ve seen at least one scene from Five Easy Pieces, Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) orders from a waitress in a diner, he asks for a side of wheat toast, she tells him they don’t serve toast, he proceeds to order a chicken salad sandwich (which is served on toast) asking her to hold the lettuce, mayo, butter and eventually the chicken itself, when she asks him incredulously if he wants her to hold the chicken, he replies with the now famous line “I want you to hold it between your knees.” In this singular scene, the essence of the film, and in some ways the entire New Hollywood is perfectly captured. In the beginning of what would later be called the New Hollywood, the easiest and most discernible trait of the films was a rejection of contemporary American culture, the rules of society, a distinct bent towards the counter culture. Instead of making American films, the directors of New...