Five Easy Pieces **** out of four
Directed by Bob Rafelson
Written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson
Starring: Jack Nicholson as Robert Eroica Dupea Karen Black as Rayette Dipesto Billy Green Bush as Elton Fannie Flagg as Stoney Sally Struthers as Betty
The calling card of Five Easy Pieces is Jack Nicholson's line "I want you to hold it between your knees." And indeed, nearly 30 years after it was released, this is what is ultimately remembered about the film: Jack Nicholson demanding from a waitress that he wants two slices of wheat toast and his explanation on how she should get it. A chicken salad sandwich, with wheat toast, hold the chicken. "You want me to hold the chicken?"
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that line imitated by people trying to do a Jack impersonation. Most times, people get it wrong, saying "stick it" rather than "hold it". It's famous, I guess, because it deals with our frustrations of never getting what we want. Nicholson has to go out of his way simply to get two slices of wheat toast. Imagine how challenging it must be when there are far greater possessions for him to obtain: love, respect, dignity, reliable transportation, etc...
However, it's unfortunate that the film is left standing by the side of the road with only that scene. People don't recognize it as a moment of frustration, only Nicholson saying something really Jack-like. Surrounding the famous line is a truly great and completely intelligent character study. Here, we see so many real people go in and out of this movie, providing layer upon layer of wonderful dialogue, moments and life. Now it's a chicken salad sandwich without the chicken salad.
Nicholson plays a drifter, who at the start of the film works on an oil rig. He soon quits, I think, because he realizes he's too good for this kind of work? Why? Because he used to be a talented musician, raised in a musical family. Instead of using those talents, he lives the life of someone who always wants something more, mistreating and hurting the things that he has. He mentally abuses and degrades his girlfriend, the only person in the film that seems to be able to love somebody unconditionally. But he's not interested in unconditional love, instead he does whatever he can to get her to run from him.
This is slow paced film, and I imagine that's a reason that this movie isn't mentioned in the same breath with other great films made in the seventies. Current movies must move incredibly quickly, with sharp editing, fast dialogue and speeches that can never be said. Even recent character studies won't allow characters to elaborate because it would take up too much screen time and make for slow pacing. Five Easy Pieces gives the audience a chance to savor its speeches and long moments of silence and reflection. Consider Nicholson's speech to his father, admitting his failures to man who cannot speak back, only sit in a wheelchair with condemning. It is moment that is as moving and powerful as the closing speech to "Death of a Salesman", full of agony and regret.
This is one of Nicholson's best performances, a variation on his character studies of men in search for purpose in an age when their role was dramatically shifting after 200 years of static. It reminds me, in a way, of Dostoyesky's Crime and Punishment, about a character who believed himself as a superman - so intellectually above the society he lives in that he feel he can do whatever he wants, regardless of consequence. Nicholson acts in a similar manner, wandering through people's lives and hurting them, mostly because he's too selfish to understand how not to.
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