| Poche Pictures |
| e-mail: rich@pochepictures.com |
| "Five Easy Pieces" I must admit first off that I'm a huge fan of 1970s art cinema. It is hard to explain. Part of it is nostalgia and part of it is the signature look the majority of the low budget films of this era had. A lot of films in this time period had nihilistic and downer endings which made them seem more true to life than some of the fodder we have today. If a film like "Five Easy Pieces" were made to day it certainly wouldn't progress beyond a few minor film festivals and the Independent Film Channel. Indeed, cinema has regressed a long way since the time this movie was made. |
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| The story is rather simple. Jack Nicholson's character "Robert" is a rich guy slumming it amongst the working class. He has a jackball friend named Elton who is constantly running his yap. They chase whores together and go bowling. He has waitress girlfriend named Rayette (Karen Black) who constantly plays Tammy Wynette songs. She also serenades him with some off key renditions of these songs and constantly seeks his approval, moping when she doesn't get it. Basically, the whole movie is an inner struggle of Robert's character to go back to the bourgeois piano playing life of his youth or the lower middle class life of working on an oil rig and sleeping with assorted dim bulb women. When he is told that his father is sick, Robert makes the decision to go back home and and face down his past insecurities. I know I am committing cinematic blasphemy here but there was one scene where I didn't find Nicholson all that believable. There is a scene where he finally has a long time coming, sit down talk with his father who has now a vegetable. Nicholson keeps wiping his eye and seems to try and force the emotion. The cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs is superb. The acting of Karen Black is a surprise in this as well. She is totally believable as the waitress girlfriend. In my opinion, she steals the show as in the final scene Robert ditches her at the gas station. The camera pulls back and we see her frantically looking to and fro for the departed Robert...I felt as if in her own way she was the more tragic figure than Robert as I thought more of what would become of her than Nicholson's character. Anyway, it is a great little flick with a lot of scenes that you can dissect, critique or just talk about.. Check it out if you never have. |