Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

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After a shaky start in "B" pictures Jack Nichoslon arrived as one of our greatest and most instinctive actors, with a reservoir of charisma to boot. In Five Easy Pieces (1970) he stars as Robert Dupea, a former concert pianist turned oil-rig worker, having completely lost hope, faith, or both. He lives a kind of half-life, dating a not-too-bright waitress (Karen Black) who fancies herself the next Tammy Wynette. He drifts, drinking too much beer, bowling, working among the dust and grime and facing little catastrophes like a pregnant girlfriend and a dying father. Returning home gives him another taste of what might have been, but -- as directed by Bob Rafelson and written by Adrien Joyce (really Carole Eastman) -- the film doesn't care if Dupea finds himself again. Rather, it's interested in the notion of passing time and the roads not taken. In one great scene, during a traffic jam, Dupea mocks his own past by jumping in the back of a truck and playing a strapped-down piano. When traffic begins to move again, he remains, disappearing into the haze. Rafelson never made another film as good (though some might make a case for The King of Marvin Gardens) and it hasn't aged as well as some of its 1970s counterparts, but it's still a heartbreaking film and a minor classic.

This review appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly, Junen 17, 2004.