One of my all time favorites.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A review of this film could be filled with cliche's like "they don't make them like this anymore" and "a masterpiece", because whenever you describe the best, hyperbole is the only thing that fits. People who were not born when this movie was made may be shocked to see there was a time when movies didn't all portray male protagonists as being obsessed a fear of loosing they're wife, family, and babies. If you feel like there is something missing, it may be that Nicholson's character isn't obsessed with his kids, he doesn't have any. His only true alliance is with himself. Not that he is selfish, he jumps in to fight when a buddy is at risk. But he see's traditional family life as too confining, and those trapped in it pretentious, faking happiness but deep down actually unfulfilled.The piece is about an iconoclast played by Jack Nicholson, who comes from a family of brilliant musicians. He decides to take off and work on an oil rig for a while, and escapes 'the asylum" as he puts it, for a few years. He develops a love interest in a bimbo waitress played by Karen Black. He decides to go back home, and drama unfolds.There are many reasons they don't make films like this anymore. One is that they usually don't make much money. The other is that we have to be politically correct and film writers, many born after this movie was made, can't even imagine a world the way it was in the 1970s. There are still men like the Nicholson character, but we don't see them on the big screen anymore , at least not as anyone we are suppose to relate to. This film is a good story and is distinctly un preachy , it just shows a man the way he is, instead of the way he should be.When Nicholson gets home his family has the typical dysfunction families have today. The father is old and sick, the brother's relationship with his love is tenuous, and the sister feels excluded. Nicholson plays a man torn between his desire for freedom and the security of love and family so perfectly that he could be performing in a documentary. His acting is the best I have ever seen, and he seems to have been born to play this role. I won't spoil it be revealing the drama that unfolds, other than to say that it is good.I don't know if we will ever make movies again that portray rugged, independent men in a positive way, it took a generation to loose them, and it make take another generation for them to return. I would just hope that young film writers would watch this sort of movie and learn. There are people who live in a way not preached by most movies, please write more of them so we can see.

One of the towering achievements in art house cinema, Five Easy Pieces is a wonderfully underrated drama that features one of Jack Nicholson's best performances with magnificent direction from Bob Rafelson.Forget the self-parodic performances that has dominated Jack Nicholson's career from the late eighties onwards, here Jack is a vulnerable, complex and somewhat unlikable Bobby Dupea. Abandoning the privileged and affluent lifestyle of his youth he is introduced at the start of the film as a blue-collar drifter wandering aimlessly around California, earning his living on oil rigs. Nicholson gives a measured and emotional performance as a man who gives off an aura of 'existence precedes essence', rootless and raw.There is a powerful moment in the film where Bobby and his simple and naive girlfriend Rayette pick up two women, one of them (a mesmerising performance by Helena Kallianiotes) completely disillusioned with Western society. For the next ten minutes she describes the filth of man, Western society's obsession with mass consumerism and materialism. Her shaky and sombre tone adds such realism to the scene. She isn't passionate about her words; she says what is true, and wants away from it all.A brilliant film of the counterculture era, Five Easy Pieces handles disillusion, existential despair, alienation and love in a visually and intellectually stimulating film experience for those looking for something different in life.

So here I sit in the year 2016, years after This Film has been made and I recently watched this in is entirety on TCM and what an impact this had on me. This without doubt IS Jack Nicholson's best film ever. As far as I am concerned this is just as relevant today as it was when it was released. There are no mindless sex, violence and car chases and not one second of cgi graphics. There are many powerful scenes in this Film. The ones that came to mind is the famous 'hold the chicken between your legs' The one with Jack with his invalid father next to the lake. Jack playing the piano in the family room. My favourite is the last few minutes with Karen Black looking great wearing that animal print jacket dress with legs looking for Jack. All in all a great Film from the days of great Film making without the tripe that is films of today

The character of Robert "Bobby" Dupea, performed brilliantly by Jack Nicholson, is the focus of this movie. Dupea is a character at a point in his life where he does not fit into either of two separate worlds, one is a world where he is free and the other where he is tied to his family's life of isolation, tradition and detachment. He was born with all the advantages others would envy, which he rejects for a life that his family no doubt feels is below his talents. When the show opens Bobby is living and working in an oil drilling region in Southern California. His partner is a café server named Rayette, performed by Karen Black. In that world, he hangs out with co-workers Elton and his family, where they booze, attend wild parties, go bowling and watch television. It's not a life that Bobby was born into but he can have fun with the women he seems to easily attract and not be tied down to the rigid life he knew growing up in a family of music artists. Bobby takes out his frustration on Rayette, who represents all the blue collar boredom he resents in his adopted life away from his own buttoned-up family. They have a rocky relationship in a small house where Rayette listens to country music, probably the last thing Bobby wants to listen to. When he meets up with his sister in Los Angeles, he finds out that his father has suffered two stokes. Partita, the sister, tells him to go home for a final visit.The movie then switches to an island in Puget Sound, near Seattle, where his family of professional musicians resides. His sister Partita, an accomplished pianist, lives there with the ailing father and brother Carl, played by Ralph Waite, a pleasant enough man but very stiff in the horse collar he has to wear as the result of an accident that has curtailed his career as a violinist. The whole family is stiff by Bobby's standards with the exception of his brother's fiancée Catherine, played by Susan Anspatch. Catherine is a free spirit like Bobby, who is not totally at ease in the family's isolated world in Puget Sound. Bobby charms her when he shows his talent on the piano, playing Chopin. His family's island home is presented as a dark, damp, dreary place in the movie, which fits the mood. People living here must take a ferry to the "mainland". When Rayette is here, she is like a fish out of water. A telling scene near the end with a group of family friends brings her discomfort into focus; in this encounter, Bobby shows his devotion to Raylene but the ending shows Bobby is not ready to find a direction to his life. This is a powerful movie about family, freedom, social class, and trying to find purpose in life.