| | | He rode the fast lane on the road to nowhere.
Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Mono Audio, English, Dubbed & Subtitled, Spanish, Korean, Subtitled
In an Academy Award®-nominated performance for Best Actor (1970), Jack Nicholson is outstanding in Five Easy Pieces, the acclaimed drama from director Bob Rafelson. Although a brilliant, classical pianist from an intellectual, well-to-do family, Robert Dupea (Nicholson) made a career out of running from job to job and woman to woman. Presently working in an oil field, Dupea spends most of his free time downing beers, playing poker and being noncommittal with his sexy but witless girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black). But when he is summoned to his father's deathbed, Dupea returns home with Rayette, where he meets and falls for a sophisticated woman (Susan Anspach). Now caught between his conflicting lifestyles, the gifted but troubled Dupea must face issues that will change his life forever. Deceptively simple, but one of the most complex and interesting films of its time, Five Easy Pieces garnered a 1970 Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, with Black receiving the 1970 New York Film Critics award (Best Supporting Actress) for her excellent performance.
"Nicholson's performance is a remarkably varied and daring exploration of a complex character." Variety
Editor's Note
FIVE EASY PIECES is one of the most notable collaborations between Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, with Nicholson in an outstanding performance as Bobby Dupea. In the film, Rafelson and Nicholson capture the difficult, awkward life of a gifted man who hasn't discovered a way to fully express his talent or found his place in the world--and maybe never will.Bobby is a classic misfit--disillusioned about being a musician, unhappy as an oil rigger, and unable to make a commitment to his girlfriend, Rayette (ubiquitous '70s starlet Karen Black), who hopes for marriage. When he visits his family home on Puget Sound after a long absence, things don't get better. Bobby hates the repressive atmosphere: his brother is unbearable, his father can't speak, and his sister is involved with his father's supercilious male nurse. When Bobby sets his sights on his brother's fiancée, Catherine Van Ost (movingly played by the beautiful Susan Anspach), things seem to be getting better--that is, until Rayette arrives and Bobby realizes he is caught in a collision between his two lives. The film features characteristically gorgeous cinematography from Laszlo Kovaks and a soundtrack that skillfully offsets Tammy Wynette with Chopin. FIVE EASY PIECES is a riveting American story about a former musical ingénue whose gift becomes a burden to him as he grapples with the implications of his choices in work, relationships, and family.
| Features | Bonus Trailer | | Talent Files | | Scene Selection | | Chinese Subtitles | | Korean Subtitles | | Thai Subtitles | | English Subtitles | | Spanish Subtitles | | Portuguese Subtitles | | Production Notes | | Interactive Menus | | English Dolby Mono | | Widescreen Version | | Digitally Remastered Audio | | Anamorphic Video |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 12/21/2004 |
| Running Time: 98 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1970 | | Catalog ID: 09659 | | UPC: 00043396096592 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Chinese | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1971) | | | Jack Nicholson, Nominee, Best Actor | | | Bob Rafelson, Richard Wechsler, Nominee, Best Picture | | | Karen Black, Nominee, Best Supporting Actress | | | Adrien Joyce, Bob Rafelson, Nominee, Best Screenplay Based On Factual Material Not Previously Published or Produced | |
Golden Globe (1971) |  | Karen Black, Winner, Best Supporting Actress | | | Jack Nicholson, Nominee, Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama | | | Bob Rafelson, Nominee, Best Director | | | Adrien Joyce, Bob Rafelson, Nominee, Best Screenplay |
| Memorable Quotes| "I am not a piece of crap."----Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black) to Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) | | "I faked a little Chopin. You faked a little response."----Robert to his brother's fiancée (Susan Anspach) after he plays piano for her | | "You want me to hold the chicken?"----Waitress|"I want you to hold it between your knees."----Robert |
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| | Professional Reviews | Chicago Sun-Times
"...FIVE EASY PIECES has the complexity, the nuance, the depth, of the best fiction..." 03/16/2003 p.4Total Film
"...A subtle and thoughtful character study which is just as effective more than two decades later..." 06/01/2000 p.88 Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 10 of 10
Brilliant character study of musician with great promise who gave up a career to work on an oil rig. Nicholson's performance is superb, but Black, Anspach, Smith, and Bush all contribute heavily. Helena Kallianiotes is hilarious as a malcontent hitchhiker; this is the film with Jack's famous "chicken salad sandwich" speech. Beautifully written by Adrien Joyce... - Leonard Maltin
The Motion Picture Guide 10 of 10
A wonderful film from the same people who brought us the incredibly successful Easy Rider... Instead of continuing in the free-wheeling tradition of Rider, director Rafelson decided to attack a much more conservative topic in an equally conservative fashion and the results were superb... Quality and care are in every frame, with none of the gimmicky or camera trickery so many directors were guilty of during this period... Nicholson is Robert Eroica Dupea, a roughneck in a California oil field... Nicholson was superbly convincing in the role, and every supporting role, down to the smart-alec waitress, Thayer, was exquisitely cast. It's a perfect portrait of a man between lifestyles, careers, and totally out of his element wherever he goes. But instead of reaching for the 1960s rebelliousness so often seen in minor movies, Rafelson and screenwriter Joyce...opted for a unique telling of what might have been a tiresome film in other hands... The search for a person's identity has seldom been better shown... Deceptively simple, it's one of the most complex pictures of the 1970s.
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