Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Bob Rafelson was the co-creator of The Monkees music group and TV show, as well as director of the groups 1968 feature film Head. Rafelson evidently wanted to do something quite different from what he'd been doing when he directed his 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, an impressively strong work for what was essentially a first feature, Head excepted. Five Easy Pieces also provided Rafelson with what would become a reputation as a 'one hit wonder' director, as he was never again able to achieve the critical and creative heights of this picture. The plot, which is lose and rambley and works because of that, concerns Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson, strong just as his career was taking off), the black sheep of an established and well respected family of classical musicians, who like many an anti-hero of his era just can't seem to cope with social constraint or obligations. Bobby 2 to 3 years previous to the start of the films narrative, just up and left his (presumably promising) career, home and family in Washington state and traveled to the California oil country were he got a job working on a well, and hooked up with a not-so-bright waitress played by Karen Black.

In course of the film Bobby discovers both that he has impregnated his girlfriend ( a pending source of responsibility he does not want), and that his father, with whom he's never gotten along, has suffered a series of strokes and may be dying back on Puget Sound. Bobby is convinced by his sister (Lois Smith) , the only member of his family he seems to be on good terms with, to travel home and visit his father in a last ditch effort to heal the past. Bobby reluctantly takes Rayette (Karen Black) with him and they have a series of misadventures on the road (including picking up some eccentric hitch-hikers) before arriving in Washington, where Bobby leaves Rayette at a  hotel while he goes ahead to the island to scope out conditions there.

Bobby's return home is awkward, and becomes even akwarder when he takes a fancy to his brothers (Ralph Waite) lover and protégée (Susan Anspach) before a neglected feeling Rayette shows up. This is a film about relationships and also a character study of Bobby and thusly what plot and action there is in the film is there to facilitate that purpose. So there's not a lot else I can tell you about Five Easy Pieces because I don't want to spoil anything and you should probably see it yourself. It's certainly a product of its era but it also patches into larger themes that transcend time and place, and lets face it we all know someone kind of like Bobby. This movie took a little bit to get me, but it certainly got me, and I was impressed. ****