Five Easy Pieces (1970) Directed by Bob Rafelson.
6A
Though he had made eighteen low budget pictures before
Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson seemed to burst on the scene all of a sudden with the release of that counter culture road movie.
Easy Rider opened doors for him, but it was
Five Easy Pieces that established his reputation as both leading man material and a very good actor. Like many of Nicholson’s best works,
Five Easy Pieces is a character study. Nicholson play Bobby, not a happy guy. He works on an oil rig until he abruptly quits, tries to cope with a brainless partner with whom he feels trapped, and has ignored his family and his now dying father for years. Bobby comes from a family of musicians, and he himself is an accomplished pianist. But nothing he did ever came to much of anything. Getting laid occasionally by whomever is handy helps a little, but never enough. He’s amiable about it mostly, but the rage seeps through from time to time.
The ‘70s was a good decade for antiheroes and nobody brought as much depth, energy and spirit to these types of roles than did Nicholson. On screen, he exudes smarts, a sense of mischief and easy charm that appealed to both men and women, albeit for different reasons. His characters somehow manage to be likeable even when they are having temper tantrums. Unfortunately,
Five Easy Pieces presents some overdrawn caricatures as foils, and all of them are women: a testy waitress, a neurotic lesbian couple headed to Alaska; an obnoxious intellectual; and the blonde bimbo who he is somehow stuck with (very well played by Karen Black). Flaws and all, though,
Five Easy Pieces (refers to pieces of music…not, well, you know) is one on Nicholson’s signature performances.