"Five Easy Pieces" is a very unusual film because the star (Jack Nicholson) plays an incredibly unlikable guy. Robert badly mistreats his girlfriend, Rayett (Karen Black),and cheats on her. She IS often annoying and slow, but he chose to live with her and spends much of his time making fun of or ignoring her. He's easily bored and prone to self-defeating and selfish behaviors because he's emotionally stunted--unable to really love anyone.

This is also an unusual film because it doesn't have a traditional plot. Much of it spent just watching the man go through life. The main focus of the film, when it does occur, is Robert returning home to visit his family. The father is quite ill and it's obvious Robert does NOT want to visit and is only doing so out of obligation. But, guilted into this, he goes. There, you learn that the family is full of gifted musicians and intellectuals--and Robert is very ill-at-ease in this environment--and seeing these folks, it is understandable. They are about as unlike him as possible.

If a psychotherapist watched this film and wanted to form a diagnosis of the two main characters, they would probably see Robert as a relatively high functioning antisocial personality (meaning, his violations of laws and norms are usually NOT the sort to get him imprisoned) and Rayette as a Dependent Personality. Dependents NEED someone to love them--even if that person is abusive and distant. Like a whipped dog, they wait and hope to get an occasional bone tossed their way in the form of a kind word here or there. And, they are quite sad to see. Because these two were done so realistically, you have to admire the writing of this film.

Overall, a very well written film. In spots, it's VERY enjoyable (such as the famous diner scene) and in others, it's very painful. To carry it off, the actors (particularly Nicholson and Black) are at the top of their game. Also, the musical choices were wonderful. Playing all the low self-esteem Tammy Wynette songs (such as "Stand By Your Man") seem to be perfect to describe Rayette's life.

All was not easy with the relationship of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. There's a famous story that Tracy made a crack about Hepburn's whole family saying that they all talked like they had a feather up the old booty. I can only imagine that Karen Black must have thought that about Jack Nicholson's family in Five Easy Pieces.

Nicholson's an oil worker and Black is a waitress with whom he's co- habitating and who he's gotten pregnant. What Black doesn't know is that Nicholson comes from an artistic family and is a classically trained pianist. That he'd doing all kinds of blue collar type work like oil rigs is part of his rebellion against his pretentious family.

What Nicholson does in Five Easy Pieces is make an essentially unlikeable character interesting and entertaining. His family is as pretentious as the Hepburns, but he's not really any better. But dint and force of the personality that we've come to know and expect from Jack Nicholson he lifts Five Easy Pieces into Oscar category. He got one of his many nominations for Best Actor, the film was nominated for Best Picture and Karen Black who got her innings in was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

A couple of really iconic Nicholson moments occur here with Nicholson playing a piano on top of a truck hauling said piano through traffic. Also a scene in a coffee shop when he can't have it his way with the meal. But for him Five Easy Pieces is more than fodder for impressionists doing Jack Nicholson. His scene with his father William Challee who is wheelchair bound and speechless reveals a vulnerable Nicholson rarely seen afterward on the big screen.

If Five Easy Pieces touches greatness as a film it's all due to Jack Nicholson.

Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) abandoned his concert pianist career. He is working in a California oil field having fun with his emotional waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black). He also likes to party with his low class best friend Elton (Billy Green Bush). Elton is arrested for a gas station robbery a year earlier. Bobby goes to LA to see his sister Partita (Lois Smith). She tells him that their father is ill. Bobby goes to see his father in Washington State and reluctantly takes Rayette along. They pick up a couple hitchhikers.

There is a real rambling quality to this which is fitting for the aimless Bobby Dupea. This is simply a great showcase of Jack Nicholson's power of personality. He just takes over every scene. He is truly a movie star. The movie isn't much more than that but that's plenty enough. The diner scene is one of the most iconic scenes of the era and Nicholson makes it by the simple power of his voice.