Five Easy Pieces Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Five Easy Pieces
Year: 1970
Director: Bob Rafelson
Country: US
Language: English

"You want me to hold the chicken, huh?" - "I want you to hold it between your knees." 

The stories stemming from BBS Productions contributed to-and represented- the national counter-culture identity. They would capture the 60's attitude of rebellion against authority, while maintaining a sense of autonomy and freedom. Pictures like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces simultaneously celebrated and criticized America. Setting them apart from Hollywood, their characters were complex and could not be easily defined as either "good" nor "bad". Typical for a 60's picture, the anttagonist was usually society itself. 

A drop-out from upper-class America (Jack Nicholson) 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.

Five Easy Pieces represents the men and women who refuse to be tied to one place or one "stable" identity. They were discontent with the cards life gave them, and made great effort to find happiness, if it existed. It is easy to label these people as lost, selfish, cruel, depressed and likely even easier to get them a diagnosis, but in the 60's these people were celebrated and even admired. To be one of these people is largely discouraged now; mainly because most people who do this currently  leave their pregnant spouses, their established family and/or are in a mid-life crisis and have psychologically imploded well before they take another road. 

There's not any clear moral in this film, as was the standard at the time. The Director does not say Nicholson was right, nor does he say Nicholson was wrong. We sympathize with the character, because he is emotionally isolated in his solitude and obviously very troubled. Nicholson's lonely confession to his unresponding father at the top of a hill, written on the set by the actor, is an uneasy self reckoning that tells us a great deal about his pain and the reasons he drifts. The character tries very hard to ease his woes, but he can't find it in work, the bottom of a bottle, a hot (dumb) blonde or philosophical conversation. He is no saint either; Nicholson is impulsive, angry and misogynistic. He's not the kind of person you would want as a friend or lover.

Five Easy Pieces is easily one of my favourite films to come out of the American New Wave. The characteristically gorgeous cinematography from Laszlo Kovaks; a soundtrack that skilfully offsets Tammy Wynette and Chopin; excellent writing throughout, remarkable character development and some very black humor all contribute to a creative masterpiece of cinema. Praise it! 5/5