still love "Five Easy Pieces"

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 12:33pm

I have a fear of returning to beloved movies, and Raffelson's FIVE EASY PIECES was one. Made in '70, it could seem to take place in a galaxy far, far away.

But hardly. The issues in the piece -- centering around the fractured psyche of the American male -- could not seem more timeless. Nicholson's Bobby is one of the great complex creatures put on the screen. Watch him trash Karen Black's Rayette and turning on a dime, defend her sexuality to a pretentious elitist. Or back-slap with his oil rig buddy only to abruptly bark, "what am I doing, comparing your life to mine?" Great character, and perfectly structured 3 act movie -- at 93 minute!

The infamous set piece in the 2nd act -- the road trip to the Pacific Northwest with the disenfranchised post-hippie drop-out hitchers -- even holds up, and not as period quaint. Who's to say in this "green" obsessesed culture that one might not encounter an ecology freak with a similar mindset. And of course, the famous "hold the chicken" beat is truly timeless.

A great movie, the viewing of which still that poses many attendant questions: namely, why couldn't Karen Black ever play another role with emotional power? What happened to Susan Anspach? Why didn't Raffelson ever find another small canvas story with such depthy and subtlety? Why aren't films written by anyone about the damaged male in this culture? (As opposed to boilerplate stoner comedies about aging Peter Pans.) Only MICHAEL CLAYTON seemed to address these issues with the same attention to character.

I watched it in a double feature with BONNIE AND CLYDE, and could only deduce that movies really haven't gotten better.

Anyone who hasn't seen it, check it out.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 1:36pm

Do you know who was originally cast in Karen Blacks role, but her producer wouldn't let her off of her TV show?

Sally Struthers

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/29/08 at 7:10pm

No, actually, Struthers is in the film, though far from the Black role -- as a dimpled pick-up Bobby meets in the bowling alley, and later beds in a menage a trois and then apparently alone (in a famously vigorous sexual encounter, er, with both standing, racing, running...) She was cupie-doll cute.