Five Easy Pieces (1970)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Bob Rafelson

Writers:

Carole Eastman (screenplay)
Carole Eastman (story)

Release Date:

12 September 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

He Rode The Fast Lane On The Road To Nowhere.

Plot:

A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

Plot Keywords:

Pianist | Oil Field | Small Town | Bowling | Diner

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Jack Nicholson	...	Robert Eroica Dupea
Karen Black	...	Rayette Dipesto
Billy Green Bush	...	Elton (as Billy 'Green' Bush)
Fannie Flagg	...	Stoney
Sally Struthers	...	Betty (as Sally Ann Struthers)
Marlena MacGuire	...	Twinky (as Marlena Macguire)
Richard Stahl	...	Recording Engineer
Lois Smith	...	Partita Dupea
Helena Kallianiotes	...	Palm Apodaca
Toni Basil	...	Terry Grouse
Lorna Thayer	...	Waitress
Susan Anspach	...	Catherine Van Oost
Ralph Waite	...	Carl Fidelio Dupea
William Challee	...	Nicholas Dupea
John P. Ryan	...	Spicer (as John Ryan)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:11 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | New Zealand:R16 | USA:R | UK:15 | UK:AA (original rating)

Filming Locations:

19th & L Street, Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

BBS Productions

Trivia:

"Five Easy Pieces" refers to a book of piano lessons for beginners.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the game at the bowling alley, Betty and Twinky appear bowling on the next lane and several alternating times a league team is occupying that lane.

Quotes:

Rayette: You love me, Bobby?
Bobby: What do you think?
[they kiss]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Raquel Welch/Phoebe Snow, John Sebastian (#1.18)" (1976)

Soundtrack:

Stand by your Man

"stick it between your knees"

In 1969, Jack Nicholson made his big break in "Easy Rider", and the very next year, he got his first lead role in another "easy": "Five Easy Pieces". He plays Robert Eroica "Bobby" Dupea, a man from a well-off musical family. Bobby has given up his potential, choosing instead to work in the oil fields. Angry and with no goal in life, he spends most of his time drinking, partying, and ignoring his girlfriend Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black). Then, his father has a stroke, forcing Bobby to visit his family. Staying with his family prompts him to not only reconsider the path that he has chosen in life, but to reevaluate his whole existence, and how he abandoned his talent.

"Five Easy Pieces" was one of the movies that affirmed the new direction that the movie industry was taking in the late '60s and early '70s. Ten years earlier, they might have given the movie an idiotically sugary ending, but the movie does not have such an ending. The ending not only shows how unhappy Bobby is, but also the sense of cynicism that had come to pervade the country. A 10/10.

Of course, the really famous scene happens in the restaurant. Although that was probably just thrown in for comic relief, it truly is a classic.