Directed by Bob Rafelson • 1970 • United States
Starring Jack Nicholson, Karen Black
Following Jack Nicholson’s breakout supporting turn in EASY RIDER, director Bob Rafelson devised a powerful leading role for the new star in the searing character study FIVE EASY PIECES. Nicholson plays the now iconic cad Bobby Dupea, a shiftless thirtysomething oil rigger and former piano prodigy immune to any sense of responsibility, who returns to his upper-middle-class childhood home, blue-collar girlfriend (Karen Black, in an Oscar-nominated role) in tow, to see his estranged, ailing father. Moving in its simplicity and gritty in its textures, FIVE EASY PIECES is a lasting example of early 1970s American alienation.
Up Next in New Hollywood
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The Last Detail
Directed by Hal Ashby • 1973 • United States
Starring Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis YoungJack Nicholson is at his very best in this acclaimed tragicomedy written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby. Two hard-boiled Navy petty officers, Buddusky (Nicholson) and Mulhall (Otis Young), ar...
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Mikey and Nicky
Directed by Elaine May • 1976 • United States
Starring Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Ned BeattyElaine May crafted a gangster film like no other in the nocturnal odyssey MIKEY AND NICKY, capitalizing on the chemistry between frequent collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk by casting them to...
