FRIDAY MOVIE SUGGESTION NIGHT PRESENTS: "FIVE EASY PIECES"!

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Five Easy Pieces was filmed in 1970 and is easily one of the more unpredictable films I've ever programmed for "Friday Movie Suggestion Night". My decision to go ahead with it was further driven by the fact that in just the last five years alone, the sheer number of films Jack Nicholson has appeared in has carried with it the human tendency of taking for granted that Nicholson doesn't have much of a stretch to play as an often cantankerous, overweight-cast character who appears to "walk through" a role. In fact, quite the opposite is true when you watch "A Few Good Men", and to quote an ex-acting teacher of mine, it is vividly evident what Nicholson is "fighting for" in that role. Also, it is quite shocking to stop and realize just how long Nicholson has been a working actor in Hollywood; today's films (such as "The Bucket List" which I treated myself to this past Monday night co-starring Morgan Freeman--another "national treasure" of ours here in the U.S.) is quite a stretch from Nicholson's break-through role in 1969's "Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. So, basically I saw an opportunity to show anyone over the age of 20 what an enigma Nicholson really is as a serious actor. The Screenplay was written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson who serves as the film's Director and Producer with Richard Wechsler as Assistant Producer. THE PLOT: We have Jack Nicholson in the role of Bobby Dupea, born into aristocracy within a household of musical prodigy's. Dupea becomes alienated from what he experiences as a claustrophobic daily grind of rehearsals as a concert pianist. And shockingly makes a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn to work on an oil rig and later frittering away his nights in a bowling alley when he isn't arguing with his live-in girlfriend, Rayetta (Karen Black), a waitress. When word reaches Dupea that his father is ill, he returns to Puget Sound, Washington to confront the upper class world he turned away from. This film is a character study of a distraught and angry man who seemingly can't find himself in the world. THE CAST also includes: Billy "Green" Bush as Elton; Fannie Flagg as Stoney; Sally Struthers as Betty; Lois Smith as Partita Dupea; Susan Anspach as Catherine Van Oost; Ralph Waite as Carl Fidelio Dupea; Toni Basil as Terri Grouse; William Challee as Nicholas Dupea and Helena Kallianiotes as Palm Apodaca. This will come as a surprise to unsuspecting bloggers when I tell you that this film was Nominated at the 1971 Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson); Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Karen Black); and Best Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Not Previously Published of Produced (Adrian Joyce and Bob Rafelson). In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. And for the curious at heart; the "Five Easy Pieces" are really not all that easy. Nevertheless here they are: Chopin's "Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49 (played by Dupea on the back of a moving truck), Bach's "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue (played by Dupea's sister in a recording studio and in last year's "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" feature "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould"), Mozart's E flat Major Concerto (K. 271) played in the film by Dupea's brother, Carl, and Catherine upon Bobby's arrival to the island, Chopin's Prelude Opus 28 in E Minor, No. 4 played by Dupea for Catherine and finally Mozart's Fantasy in D Minor (K. 397). Don't be intimidated by the Classical music. Tammy Wynette has five songs on the soundtrack. If there was ever a movie about raw human emotion, this film delivers.

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ENJOY!