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Amazon.co.uk Review
This subtle, existential character study of an emotionally distant outcast (Nicholson) forced to confront his past failures remains an intimate cornerstone of American cinema of the 1970s. Written and directed with remarkable restraint by Bob Rafelson, the film is the result of a short-lived partnership between the filmmaker and Nicholson--the first was the zany formalist exercise, Head, while the equally impressive King of Marvin Gardens followed Five Easy Pieces. Quiet and full of long, controlled takes, this film draws its strength from the acutely detailed, non-judgemental observations of its complex protagonist, Robert Dupea--an extremely crass and frustrated oil worker and failed child pianist hiding from his past in Texas. Dupea spends his life drinking beer and sleeping with (and cheating on) his annoying but adoring Tammy Wynette-wannabe girlfriend, but when he learns that his father is dying in Washington State, he leaves. After the film transforms into a spirited road movie, and arrives at the eccentric upper-class Dupea family mansion, it becomes apparent that leaving is what Dupea does best--from his problems, fears and those who love him. Nicholson gives a difficult yet masterful performance in an unlikeable role, one that's full of ambiguity and requires violent shifts in acting style. Several sequences--such as his stopping traffic to play piano, or his famous verbal duels with a cranky waitress over a chicken-salad sandwich--are Nicholson landmarks. Yet, it's the quieter moments, when Dupea tries miserably to communicate and reconcile with his dying father, where the actor shows his real talent--and by extension, shows us the wounded little boy that lurks in the shell of the man Dupea has become. --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital Mono
Interactive Menus
Scene Selections
Filmographies
Arabic\Bulgarian\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital Mono
Interactive Menus
Scene Selections
Filmographies
Arabic\Bulgarian\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film proves beyond any other that there is much more to Jack Nicholson than the star, it showcases his enormous acting talent. For many people, the larger than life persona he adopts in so many of his films, most ntably in Batman and The Witches of Eastwick, is how they know him and this work is certainly entertaining but it is in the smaller often lesser known films that Jack the major acting talent appears. This is evident in offerings such as the brilliant Sean Penn thriller "The Pledge", the not so small "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and this, in my opinion Nicholson's finest film.
The film tells of a talented but reluctant pianist who leaves his privileged, middle class life behind in favour of an uncertain and impoverished yet infinitely more satisfying life as a manual oil field worker. He shares his life with an ill-educated and rather annoying girl-friend who embarrases him in public and who represents the low-life conditions he has adopted for himself. When word comes through that his sick father is close to death he returns to his previous life reluctantly taking his girlfriend with him. On the way, Nicholson acts out one of the most famous scenes from any of his films as he shows his displeasure with a waitress who is reluctant to alter the menu to accomodate his desire for a chicken salad sandwich on brown bread (at least he has a healthy diet!).
The final part of the film acts as a metaphor for the dichotomy of America's middle and working classes and the seeming inability they have for co-existence. Realising that the problem is entrenched and that as a thinking member of the American middle class who balks at its hypocrisy and one for whom a working class life fails to satiate his needs, the central character in a brilliant open ending makes the ultimate opting out step for those who find it difficult to find a place in society and simply walks away from all he knows to see what's over the next hill. In short,he has the nerve to do what so many other people would like to do.
The film is quite simply a piece of cinematic excellence with BRILLIANT performances from all concerned:- cannot possible be recommended highly enough
The film tells of a talented but reluctant pianist who leaves his privileged, middle class life behind in favour of an uncertain and impoverished yet infinitely more satisfying life as a manual oil field worker. He shares his life with an ill-educated and rather annoying girl-friend who embarrases him in public and who represents the low-life conditions he has adopted for himself. When word comes through that his sick father is close to death he returns to his previous life reluctantly taking his girlfriend with him. On the way, Nicholson acts out one of the most famous scenes from any of his films as he shows his displeasure with a waitress who is reluctant to alter the menu to accomodate his desire for a chicken salad sandwich on brown bread (at least he has a healthy diet!).
The final part of the film acts as a metaphor for the dichotomy of America's middle and working classes and the seeming inability they have for co-existence. Realising that the problem is entrenched and that as a thinking member of the American middle class who balks at its hypocrisy and one for whom a working class life fails to satiate his needs, the central character in a brilliant open ending makes the ultimate opting out step for those who find it difficult to find a place in society and simply walks away from all he knows to see what's over the next hill. In short,he has the nerve to do what so many other people would like to do.
The film is quite simply a piece of cinematic excellence with BRILLIANT performances from all concerned:- cannot possible be recommended highly enough
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Five Easy Pieces is a simplist road movie which gave Jack Nicholson as it's main performance, respect from Hollywood which has been granted ever since. This is the film that Nicholson made his start.
Robert Dupac is a typical blue-collar oil worker who migrates a lot to find temporary work and accommodation with his dumb waitress girlfriend. Dupac keeps a low profile who mixes in with fellow workmates he treats as friends, but whom don't understand him. Dupac, then has to face his sister whose own father is gravely ill and has to come clean about the piano career he ran away from.......
Five Easy Pieces came out at the beginning of the seventies when the hippie movement was slowing dying out. The film is about lost opportunity of youths being denied free spirit and the urge of an anti-establishment against the wishes of their domineering families'.
His first with director Bob Ralefson, Nicholson displays Robert Dupac to be a man of despair, one who fails to question his troubled actions, who moves on and tries to erases the memory but lives with the pain of confirment and has no direction in his life whatsoever. Dupac has a rebellious soul, keen to break away from the fringes of society, but keeps drifting in and out, trying to settle down. Dupac feels that his people should learn to have fun, enjoy each other and hang out together instead of forming obessions like his musical family who pursure him to reach his goal of being an pianist.
The editing kept Dupac in the focus always and the slow revealing point of why his life amounts to nothing with a dead-end job. Nicholson stands out and for all the right reasons: his apperance; his attitude; his eccentric behaviour; his grief and sadness.
Many people say that Ralefson only had one film in him which is Five Easy Pieces-a tragic, roller-coaster, poetic piece of the generation that were ignored by the masses. Best recommened for a hardcore fan of 1970s semi-independant cinema or any Jack Nicholson fan.
Robert Dupac is a typical blue-collar oil worker who migrates a lot to find temporary work and accommodation with his dumb waitress girlfriend. Dupac keeps a low profile who mixes in with fellow workmates he treats as friends, but whom don't understand him. Dupac, then has to face his sister whose own father is gravely ill and has to come clean about the piano career he ran away from.......
Five Easy Pieces came out at the beginning of the seventies when the hippie movement was slowing dying out. The film is about lost opportunity of youths being denied free spirit and the urge of an anti-establishment against the wishes of their domineering families'.
His first with director Bob Ralefson, Nicholson displays Robert Dupac to be a man of despair, one who fails to question his troubled actions, who moves on and tries to erases the memory but lives with the pain of confirment and has no direction in his life whatsoever. Dupac has a rebellious soul, keen to break away from the fringes of society, but keeps drifting in and out, trying to settle down. Dupac feels that his people should learn to have fun, enjoy each other and hang out together instead of forming obessions like his musical family who pursure him to reach his goal of being an pianist.
The editing kept Dupac in the focus always and the slow revealing point of why his life amounts to nothing with a dead-end job. Nicholson stands out and for all the right reasons: his apperance; his attitude; his eccentric behaviour; his grief and sadness.
Many people say that Ralefson only had one film in him which is Five Easy Pieces-a tragic, roller-coaster, poetic piece of the generation that were ignored by the masses. Best recommened for a hardcore fan of 1970s semi-independant cinema or any Jack Nicholson fan.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is an example of the cinematic brilliance which Hollywood displayed briefly during the 70s before the age of the mind-numbing blockbuster. This film has a fantastic script and performances (Nicholson's best in my opinion), and is made so well, with such depth, tenderness, humour, intelligence and GENUINE human emotion that it is a joy to experience, and highlights so easily the generally poor standard of American cinema, but also its potential.
The transfer is a good one, the anamorphic picture a big plus. The sound is good old mono, but hey, most of the best films ever made are mono, and no amount of remixing them is going to enhance the film or make it into some kind of super surround sound experience, which they aren't anyway.
I highly recommend this to anybody with a serious passion for cinema. A film triumph.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
STANDS THE TEST OF TIME
Have to confess I'm more than a little biased here. Saw the film when it was originally released and loved it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by starchy97
Chancery Stone
I find it difficult to watch this 'classic' 1970 movie. Yes i own the dvd of Five Easy Pieces, and i have watched it a few times in the last 10 years, but i do not have a soft spot... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Billy Ray Cyrus
Ivory & Oil
It's not easy to imagine Jack Nicholson as an oil worker or a pianist, but somehow as Robert Dupea he manages to pull it off, gliding between these two worlds with a mixture of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Chrissy Tuttle
One of the greatest films of 1970. Superb.
The late 60s and early 70s are often called a "golden age" of cinema, and this film is one that still stands out from that time, even 40 years later. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Close Range.
5 Easy Pieces re-told in 5 paragraphs....
I feel contempt for everyone who's not me, because I'm so talented and come from such a nice family, and here I am slumming it with these thick lower class types. Lucky them. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Chancery Stone
Typical Nickolson
This is an excellent movie with Nickolson playing his favourite character type. It is amazing how well he manages to convey internal troubles, anger, passion, mood changes, just... Read more
Published 16 months ago by F. Panin
Poor quality visuals & sound
This is a poor quality disc. The film itself is very enjoyable but the quality of the transfer is poor. Read more
Published on 29 April 2009 by Gerard McGowan
'70s Classic
This a beautifully understated film that stands as one of the landmark films of the 70s' era when young directors like Scorsese, Coppola and Terrence Malick were making small but... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2009 by The Bookworm
Watch it more than once.
I've watched the film several times over the last 15 years and I enjoy it each time: it is good to capture the different character performances. A surprising film.
Published on 27 Aug 2007 by LearnedViking
Without Nicholson, this film wouldn't have been half as watchable
This involving movie is an odd mix of new wave cinema exploring the soul of modern America and plain old fashioned melodrama. Read more
Published on 25 July 2007 by Lou Knee
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