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[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Five Easy Pieces (1970)

It’s hard to overlook Jack Nicholson when it comes to film icons.  Over the course of nearly half a century, he’s continuously provided compelling performance after compelling performance.  It’s easy to look back at his output from the 1980s and beyond, but sometimes you have to go way back, almost to the beginning, to truly appreciate a man and where he came from.  By that rationale, I figured it was time to give Five Easy Pieces a spin. 

Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) is a free spirit drifting his way through life.  He floats from menial job to menial job, with his latest job being a construction worker.  He lives with his girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black), and spends most evenings killing time with his friend Elton (Billy ‘Green’ Bush),drinking and playing cards, but even those closest too him don’t know much about his talented past as a piano player, or the family he comes from.  As relationship tension grows between Bobby and Rayette, Bobby is dealt the dual blow of finding out Rayette is pregnant via Elton just before Elton is arrested.  In an attempt to clear his head, Bobby heads to Los Angeles to meet his sister Partita (Lois Smith), also a pianist, at her recording session.  Bobby is dealt yet another blow, however, when he learns that his father has had two strokes and is terminally ill.  Bobby makes a trip to Washington to be by his father’s side, Rayette in tow, only to run into Catherine Van Oost (Susan Anspach), a young pianist engaged to his brother Carl (Ralph Waite).  Smitten, Bobby immediately begins making moves in hopes of winning Catherine over, all while trying to deal with his crumbling relationship with Rayette and his dying father.

Bobby Dupea is the embodiment of an inability to love anyone else until you’re honest about loving yourself.  His inability to show much compassion for anything creates a distance between himself and those he is closest to, which he seems to embrace.  He can be downright gentlemanly and charming as long as the women he seeks stay in line and don’t rock his boat.  When his mean streak emerges, it strikes hard and fast, though he is usually equally quick to try and make peace out of the chaos he creates.  His dynamic with his family explains much of his demeanor... his stern father barely recognizes him, Carl continues to impose his personality on everyone at the expense of Bobby, and Partita does little to nothing to bring peace to the proceedings despite her keen perceptive ability.

As dramatic as the this film is (and believe me, it wallows in the space between people who seemingly care for one another), there are more than a handful of deeply humorous beats from almost every member of the cast.  The passage of the film containing Nicholson, Black, Toni Basil and Helena Kallianiotes completely shifts the film tonally for the travel portion of the film, bringing a much needed chance for the audience to take a breath before going back into the dramatic depths... Basil’s ‘I don’t even wanna talk about it’ refrain will stick with you long after the film is complete.

The portrayal of love, or rather the absence of it, is the driving force of the film.  Rayette and Bobby have a surface relationship with drastically opposing ideas of how it will develop.  Carl is very possessive of Catherine, a trait that Bobby hopes to exploit despite Catherine’s unmatched interest in Bobby.  Even on his deathbed, the patriarch of the Dupea family continues to emit a coldness that is obviously the source of the coldness that his children have inherited, quite often using it to shut down one another’s moments of joy exuded.  The truly passionate moments of unbridled, unconditional love are shown when the siblings or Catherine find themselves at a piano, with their immaculate notes ringing loud and proud of their ability to make beauty emerge from thin air.

Jack Nicholson handles all of the dramatic weight the role dictates, but manages to show more than just glimpses of the charisma that would eventually make him a household name.  Karen Black plays the ever suffering girlfriend dealing with a lack of love to a tee, honest as the salt of the earth and shamed because of her down-home manner.  Billy ‘Green’ Bush hits the good ol’ boy mark right on the bullseye, dropping philosophical knowledge while seemingly not giving a care in the world.  Lois Smith brings waves and waves of emotion as Nicholson’s sister, enough to force Nicholson’s character into actions outside of his comfort zone.  Toni Basil and Helena Kallianiotes burst into the proceedings out of nowhere, and are the only ones sharp enough to give Nicholson what for.  Susan Anspach carries herself like a foreign dignitary in a hostile land, carrying herself above the sibling squabbling without coming off as pompous.  Ralph Waite plays clueless well, oblivious to the fact that the world does not revolve around him as moves are made right under his nose. 

Five Easy Pieces is one of those films that is deceptive in its depths.  It comes on like a simple tale of a free spirit anchored down by those he connects to, but quickly morphs into a whip-smart reflection on modern love, even nearly half a century after its release.