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The last day of school. Alice Cooper’s trashy anthem ‘School’s out’ sets rhythm and vibe for the juvenile anarchy played out in what would otherwise be corridors of strict rules and discipline. Notebook confetti and thumping jubilation fill the air as students ransack their private lockers. One locker door pops open to reveal a cut out of Jack Nicholson grinning his trademark wild wolf grin. Etched below, with much passion, is the word ‘REBEL’.

The film is Richard Linklater’s seminal classic ‘Dazed and Confused’. Set in the 70s, a nostalgic and uber-hip chronicle of the auteur’s days of being carefree and wild, the film was part two of Linklater’s continuing efforts to define his generation- the one that came in a little too late for the great sixties lovefest, the one that got caught up in the ebb of the magnificent wave. Rebellion and counterculture were already being sold off the counter as denim pants and KISS records. Like the dope dealer puts it so effectively in the cult classic ‘Withnail and I’-”The greatest decade in the history of the world is nearly over. They’re selling hippy wigs in Woolworths.” The universal and essential cycle of youth of discontent, disillusion and rebellion could no longer bloom into the magnificent and innocent freedom that characterized the 60s. Instead it was stifled, put through university and institutionalized. In Linklater’s last attempt at framing his generation ‘Before Sunset’, protagonists Jesse and Celine, full of life, idealistic and living for the moment 10 years ago in ‘Before Sunrise’ have mellowed into an adjusted practicality of work and family.

‘Five Easy Pieces’ directed by Bob Rafelson, made towards the lag end of sixties offers an incisive and poignant study of this lost rebellion. The protagonist, Robert Eroica Dupea, described by Roger Ebert as one of the greatest characters of all time in American cinema, is a character study of that unresolved cycle of youth, of a pure soul defeated and turned cynical by the utter disregard for life epitomized by the time it lives in. That it is played by Jack Nicholson gives it greater significance. Previous to ‘Five Easy Pieces’ Nicholson put in his first mainstream turn, away from the B graders of Roger Corman in the movie that is widely regarded to have defined the 60s, Dennis Hopper’s ‘Easy Rider’. In ‘Easy Rider’s search for America, Nicholson put in a scene-stealing turn as an alcoholic lawyer, a portrayal of easy going tolerance in the parochial South of the nation. In his milieu, he is as much of a rebel and subversive as mod hippies Hopper and Peter Fonda. He may not have long haired, be draped in psychedelic yarn or drop slang but the moment he hooks up with the bikers he is game for all they are up to.

While in ‘Five Easy Pieces’, the film opens with Nicholson toiling blue collar, dwarfed and subdued by the industrial landscape that surrounds him. He heads home to his archetypical dumb blonde waitress girlfriend Ray who insists on playing Tammy Wynette records and when she isn’t playing records, she prefers to sing them much to Robert’s annoyance. Director Rafelson gradually reveals Robert is a trained classical pianist born into a pedigree family through conversational allusions. He is rude to his wife as he outright dismisses her choice in music but later in the movie when his brother’s fiancé mentions that a Las Vegas music assemble cannot be called music, Robert snaps back in its defense. Robert’s rebellion is about non-conformation. What is right to the world is wrong for him and if the world agrees to switch positions he would in an instant do a complete turnaround. That is the balance that he has chosen to keep with the world, it is what defines him as an individual no matter how uncomfortable or vulnerable it may make him.

His vulnerability makes him brash, rude, disrespectful but it is but a coping mechanism as he struggles to defy a society which is hell bent on dragging his existence to the dust. Throughout the movie he continues to bitterly insult his girlfriend each time threatening to walk out on her but the essential goodness in him makes him walk back and make up with her.

The title ‘Five Easy Pieces’ was intended to refer to a book young Robert owned which was a piano instruction manual that was part of the opening credit sequence as per the script but which did not make it to the screen. This decision allowed Director Rafelson to tenderly unfold Robert’s present as a window to the past. Instead of establishing a childhood which would serve as a base for plot mechanics, Rafelson achieves a quiet poetry of the present which flows from the past. The title ‘Five Easy Pieces’ now acquires a connotation that suggests five poetic segments into which the movie broadly is divided.

The first piece details Robert’s blue collar life that he spends working, drinking, gambling, bowling, scuffling and screwing about. There is however one moment of defiance- a glorious sequence of momentary escape from the dirt-and-grime squalor. Robert and friend Elton are stuck in a traffic jam when on sheer impulse Robert leaps out of his car and screams,” Why don’t we all line up like a goddamn bunch of ants in the most beautiful part of the day?” at the other cars as he clambers on top of a truck only to discover a piano which he starts to play and is lost in the performance even as the jam clears and all the cars head in one direction while the truck takes a diversion onto an empty lane. It’s a rare uplifting moment that ends with him jumping out of the truck in town and waking past the quaint dead-end establishments like barber shops, motels and porn film theatres. The first piece draws to an end with happy-go-lucky Elton, married with a loving wife and kid is dragged out of the blue and without regard for life, is caught by cops for jumping bail on a crime he might or might not have committed.

The second piece is when Robert makes a visit to his nervous-wreck of a sister in Hollywood where she is being bullied and chided for breaking into full fledged operatic glory while giving soundtrack to a musical comedy. The piece continues to show the damnation of human life when her five minutes of break culminates with a mechanical voice from the speakers beeping their conversation into a closure.

The third piece has Robert and wife on a road trip to visit his ailing father of whom he has learnt from his sister. When they run into a couple of hippies- Palm Apodaca and Terry Grouse who have just totaled their car and offer them a lift it is impossible not to recall ‘Easy Rider’ and hope perhaps for a resolution to Robert’s rebellion. The hippies are on their way to Alaska to escape the filth of society. Palm’s tirade against the accumulating filth seems like a manic version of Travis Bickle’s in Taxi Driver. When they stop-over to eat at a restaurant, ‘Five Easy Pieces’ has its iconic scene. It establishes with power and wit, Robert’s need to non-confirm, to bring the oppressive inflexible system on its knees. It is impossible not to cheer as Robert trashes the table with a grand sweep of his hands. As Palm puts it,” Fantastic that you could figure that out so that you could come up with a way to get your toast.” As the trip continues, even hippies don’t go down well with Robert who leaves them stranded in the middle of the road putting firmly to an end all ‘Easy Rider’ allusions.

The fourth piece has Robert visit his family in their mansion on an island away from the mainland after a period of more than two years. His father is comatose, unable to move a muscle, his brother who used to be a fiddler has taken to piano as an accident has left him with a permanent anomaly of the neck, his sister repressed as she is has taken a liking on the father’s male nurse- a burlesque sailor and also at the house is his brother’s fiancé and piano student Catharine Van Oost. Robert constantly endures portentous jabs from both his brother and Catherine while still falling for her. He manages to seduce her by playing the piano but is quick to dismiss her admiration for his skill. (I faked a little Chopin, you faked a big response!)When Ray whom he has left at a motel on the mainland decides to turn up at the house, Robert is embarrassed at her loud-mouth naivety. Outside the island Robert is his own man with no one to answer to, a regular blue collar but on the island he is reminded of his pedigree and the presence of his haughty brother and his fiancé makes him further uncomfortable. But later in the evening when a bunch of intellectuals sitting around the fireplace making pretentious discussions begin to disregard Ray, he lashes out in fury and ends up fighting with the sailor. The piece draws to an end with the most poignant scene of all with Robert trying to connect with his father. Here he and his father are away from the sights of others and for the first time Robert breaks down. He doesn’t have to resort to arrogance, he doesn’t have anything to shield and we see him as weak, exposed and seeking redemption. He tells his dad,” My feeling is that if you could talk, we wouldn’t be talking.”

The fifth piece has Robert and Ray driving away from the island. For the closure, Rafelson avoids the dramatic. He doesn’t arch for redemption or for a definite climax. The ending is open, it could be one of hope or damnation, Rafelson just keeps a cold, static camera at a clinical distance away from the characters and allows life to go on.

‘Five Easy Pieces’ is easily Jack Nicholson’s most nuanced performance. He manages to find the cause and core behind the callousness. It is a rare kind of performance where there more than what is evident and the actor allows us to peer deep inside to understand the conflict that is Robert. Karen Black as Ray gives an extra-ordinary performance lending a heart and unabashed naivety to the blonde bimbette. Among supporting turns all are competent but Helena Kallianiotes as Palm Apodaca trips on all barrels for an absolute tour-de-force.

The film features some spectacular cinematography by the late Laszlo Kovacs, also like Nicholson, fresh off ‘Easy Rider’ and like his work on that film has something unforced and natural about it. It’s as if images on screen have come together by sheer chance and with innate grace. There are no skewered angles, nothing obtrusive, nothing to detract attention away to technique. Together with Christopher Holmes and Gerald Shepard‘s smooth editing and Rafelson’s refusal to fuel the narrative with artifices and set-pieces, what plays on the screen plays like a river- silent, deep, genuine and with an inherent order.

There were times during ‘Five Easy Pieces’ when I was reminded the question I had after reading ‘Catcher in the Rye’ for the very first time- ‘What happened next?’. I searched the net to lookout for maybe a sequel afraid that if I would find it, it wouldn’t maybe live up to my expectations. But I can’t help but feel that maybe Holden perhaps would have ended up something Robert. Like that great book there is something in this movie that will appeal and relate to a generation. Times have moved on but the cycle of discontent, disillusion and rebellion is a part of every life. Some move on, some are scarred, some resist, some forget. ‘Five Easy Things’ offers to define it, like ‘Catcher in the Rye’ to the tune of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.

For more:-

Roger Ebert’s Review

Video of the famous diner scene

Last Seen on Sony Pix.