Oscar Movie Review: "Five Easy Pieces" (1970)

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Oscar Movie: "Five Easy Pieces"
Year Nominated: 1970
Director: Bob Rafelson
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Robert Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson) is a miserable man. He was raised in a wealthy family with a strong musical background but chooses to work odd jobs on oil riggs than use his privileged advantages.  He is a philanderer and treats most people around him like crap. He faces a string of bad news all at once, his best friend Elton (Billy Green Bush) is arrested,  his girlfriend is pregnant,  and he has just found out is father (William Shallee) is very ill. With the urging of his Sister, Partita (Lois Smith), Robert reluctantly goes back home to Washington to pay his respects. 

"Five Easy Pieces" is a character sketch of a man who, for all intents and purposes, is an asshole. Robert is almost a completely unlikable person, yet for some reason, he is able to charm many women in this movie, despite throwing infantile tantrums, yelling at them and sometimes even hitting them. This film received much critical acclaim for its realness and even garnered a few Oscar nominations, but we really can't see why because it's not all that great. To be honest, the film is boring as hell and drags slowly along, struggling to keep the attention of the audience. Jack Nicholson does put on an excellent performance and plays a total jerk in a very convincing manner. The diner scene where he verbally abuses a waitress who won't sell him toast because it's not on the menu has become pretty iconic and we definitely see his logic...so maybe we're assholes, too. There are a few decent scenes in the movie, but overall, the film is pointless and it has no profound advice to make you think. It also has a limited entertainment value apart from Nicholson, who can throw an awesome tantrum, and most of the characters are unlikable, even Karen Black, who is clingy and pretty oblivious to the world around her. In the grand scheme of Oscar nominees, maybe this film was much more profound in the 1970's when it came out and had some cultural relevance then, but today in 2015, it just doesn't hold up, sort of like "Easy Rider," although BigJ's mom would hate us for saying so. This may be a good watch for film students or those who are interested in film history, but it's definitely not something that we would call a "must see" by any means.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 6.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?