The film that solidified Jack Nicholson as a leading star as this New Hollywood classic about alienation follows an empty shell of a man who decides to visit his estranged ailing father while trapped in a loveless relationship with his girlfriend.

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Made as part of the BBS Productions which produced films like Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971), Five Easy Pieces was also one of their most well-known titles. 

It was the time of New Hollywood as a burgeoning community of directors, screenwriters and actors decided to try something different, inspired by the distanciation and alienation storytelling style of ‘60s European cinema. 

As such, one might argue for Five Easy Pieces to be closer in spirit to, say, Antonioni than Capra or Wilder, though it is still distinctively an American film, shot largely in Oregon and California. 

Scenes of oil fields and bowling alleys adorn Bob Rafelson’s work, and so are car rides as Jack Nicholson’s Robert Dupea makes his way to British Columbia in Canada to visit his estranged ailing father. 

Nicholson’s performance, an early defining one that further solidified his status as a leading star, is natural and reactive but he also reins in his emotions when necessary, never playing it too dramatically. 

“I move around a lot because things tend to get bad when I stay.”

Hence, the story of this empty shell of a man is made more poignant—he’s trapped in a loveless relationship with his girlfriend, while his work as an oil rigger gives him neither joy nor solace. 

Born into a family of musicians, Robert left everything behind many years ago, including the prospect of being a piano prodigy and his upper-middle-class roots, in order to find himself.  Yet, Five Easy Pieces does enough to make us pity him despite his somewhat unlikable personality. 

The temptation to just walk away from it all and make “auspicious beginnings” as Robert would say, is a problem of the modern world, where capitalism renders everything transactional, even human relationships. 

Rafelson’s work is a last cry for the past when things made more sense and were simpler, like the titular basic piano exercises.    

Grade: B+

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