Five Easy Pieces ***** (1970, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Susan Anspach, Lois Smith, William Challee, Ralph Waite) – Classic Movie Review 2877

Co-story-writer/producer/director Bob Rafelson’s greatly admired 1970 classic Five Easy Pieces was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. It stars Jack Nicholson, who is stupendous as Robert Eroica Dupea, a middle-class musician drop-out who, along with his buddy Elton (Billy Green Bush), gets work on West Coast oil rigs when he isn’t haunting seedy bars and motels.

This is a quirky, marvellously well-observed character study of a bunch of misfit oddballs, with rare insights into American class distinctions and the success ethic.

There are outstanding performances too from Bush, Karen Black as Rayette Dipesto, Nicholson’s ditzy waitress girlfriend who becomes pregnant, Lois Smith as his sister Partita, William Challee as his invalid father Nicholas and Susan Anspach as his brother Ralph Waite’s fiancée, Catherine Van Oost.

The Oscar-nominated Best Picture is enormously thoughtful, poignantly funny and hugely impressive, and now a splendid, precious relic of its tempestuous time. The screenplay is by Carole Eastman (under the pseudonym of Adrien Joyce) from a story by Rafelson and Eastman.

Also nominated for 1971 Oscars were Rafelson and Eastman for Best Original Screenplay, Nicholson for Best Actor and Black for Best Supporting Actress. Black did win a Golden Globe, sharing the 1971 Best Supporting Actress award in a tie with Maureen Stapleton for Airport.

Also in the cast are Fannie Flagg, Sally Struthers, Richard Stahl, Toni Basil, John P Ryan, Helena Kallianiotes and Lorna Thayer.

The title refers to a book of piano lessons for beginners.

The dialogue ‘You want me to hold the chicken, huh?’ – ‘I want you to hold it between your knees’ between Dupea (Nicholson) and the waitress was voted as the number 98 of The 100 Greatest Movie Lines by Premiere magazine in 2007.

Rafelson says Blood and Wine (1996) is the final part of his informal trilogy with Nicholson starting with Five Easy Pieces and then The King of Marvin Gardens (1972).

RIP actress Susan Anspach, best known for roles in landmark 1970s films Five Easy Pieces and Play It Again, Sam, who died in Los Angeles on April 2, 2018, aged 75.

Bob Rafelson (February 21, 1933 – July 23, 2022). He is remembered for Head, Five Easy Pieces (1970), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), Stay Hungry, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Black Widow, Mountains of the Moon (1990), Man Trouble, Blood and Wine, and No Good Deed (2002).

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Dupea says: ‘Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a cheque for the chicken salad sandwich and you haven’t broken any rules.’

The waitress says: ‘You want me to hold the chicken, huh?’

Dupea says: ‘I want you to hold it between your knees.’

The waitress says: ‘You see that sign, sir. Yes, you’ll all have to leave. I’m not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm.’

‘You see this sign,’ Dupea snarls, sweeping four glasses off the table with his right arm.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2877

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Karen Black and Jack Nicholson at the premiere, 11 September 1970.