Five Easy Pieces

Jack Nicholson found his breakout role in this 1970 drama from director Bob Rafelson. Bobby Dupea (Nicholson) is an itinerant worker in the California oil fields. The black sheep in a family of classical musicians, Bobby lives with his dim bulb girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black), a woman he constantly insults. Bobby brings his anger and worldly cynicism with him when he returns home to Washington state to visit his dying father. The film's signature moment comes during a famed restaurant scene in which Bobby patiently orders a side of toast at a highway diner in a measured, calm voice and then after some back-and-forth with the waitress delivers a verbal kicker in the same measured tone, only now carrying an edge of gleeful malice. That mix of bad boy rebellion, emotional guardedness, and aggressive hostility catches the eye of his brother's girlfriend (Susan Anspach), who is both attracted to and repulsed by Bobby. Nicholson and Rafelson keep Bobby from slipping into cliché by riding the currents of his turbulent emotions, giving him moments of generosity between angry, hostile confrontations. If Easy Rider served as an epitaph for the ‘60s, Five Easy Pieces announced the silver age of American filmmaking in the ‘70s, with Nicholson redefining the leading man as someone who doesn't have the answers but still swaggers with a show of confidence and control as if he does. Previously available from Criterion in the boxed set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story (VL-3/11), extras include audio commentary, interviews, retrospective featurettes, and an essay. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)