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Five Easy Pieces

original movie poster
Directed by Bob Rafelson
Produced by Robert Daley
Written by Carole Eastman
Bob Rafelson
Starring Jack Nicholson
Karen Black
Cinematography László Kovács
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) September 11, 1970 (USA)
Running time 96 min.
Language English
Budget $1,600,000 (estimated)[1]
Gross revenue $18,099,091 (USA, 1971)[1]

Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. The cast also includes Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Ralph Waite, Sally Struthers, Lois Smith, and Toni Basil. The film tells the story of a surly oil rig worker, Bobby Dupea, whose blue-collar existence belies his youth as a child prodigy. When word reaches Bobby that his father is dying, he reluctantly takes his girlfriend, Rayette (Black), a dimwitted, pregnant waitress, back home to make peace with his family. Nicholson's character and performance present a powerful picture of a troubled man, born to privilege and culture.

A title sequence as written in the screenplay showed earlier scenes in the Dupea family's life, including 10-year-old Bobby's recital program music: (the apparently fictitious) Grebner's "Five Easy Pieces". However, the sequence was not used, and the film titles open instead with the adult Bobby at the oil rigs.

The soundtrack employed five songs by Tammy Wynette, including "Stand By Your Man."

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Karen Black), Best Picture and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.

In 2000, Five Easy Pieces was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Notable filmmakers Lars Von Trier, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Ingmar Bergman have expressed deep admiration for the movie, as have award-winning novelists Cormac McCarthy and William Gaddis.

Contents

The chicken salad sandwich scene

The waitress, Bobby, Rayette, Palm and Terry.

The movie's most famous scene takes place in a roadside restaurant where Bobby tries to get a waitress (Lorna Thayer) to bring him a side order of toast with his breakfast. The waitress refuses, stating that toast is not offered as a side item, despite the diner's offering a chicken salad sandwich on toast. Bobby appeals to both logic and common sense, but the waitress adamantly refuses to break with the restaurant's policy of only giving customers what is printed in the menu. Ultimately, Bobby orders both his breakfast and the chicken salad sandwich on toast, telling the waitress to bring the sandwich to him without mayonnaise, butter, lettuce, or chicken, culminating in Bobby's responding to the waitress' incredulity at his order to "hold the chicken" with "hold it between your knees!"

The waitress then indignantly orders them to leave, upon which Nicholson knocks the drinks off the table with a sweep of his arm.

The scene is iconic as a metaphor for the rebellious, free spirit of the youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a strong theme in the film as a whole. Thirty years later Nicholson would perform a scene in the movie About Schmidt which directly drew from this scene (available as a "Deleted Scene" extra on the DVD release). Nicholson's character in About Schmidt, an emotionally downtrodden retiree, in contrast, humbly accepts the waitress' "no substitutions" rule.

Trivia

The five classical piano pieces — not necessarily "easy" — played in the movie are:

References

  1. ^ a b Internet Movie Database. Box office/Business for Five Easy Pieces (1970). Retrieved on April 18, 2009.

External links


Quotes

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From Wikiquote

Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 film about a trashy oil rigger who returns home to comfort his dying father, where he is confronted with the past he ran away from: a successful career as a classical pianist.

Directed by Bob Rafelson. Written by Carole Eastman and Bob Rafelson.
He Rode The Fast Lane On The Road To Nowhere.

Contents

Robert 'Bobby' Dupea

  • If you wouldn't open your mouth, everything would be just fine.
  • [to his father] I don't know if you'd be particularly interested in hearing anything about me. My life, I mean... Most of it doesn't add up to much... that I could relate as a way of life that you'd approve of...I'd like to be able to tell you why, but I don't really...I mean, I move around a lot because things tend to get bad when I stay. And I'm looking...for auspicious beginnings, I guess...I'm trying to, you know, imagine your half of this conversation...My feeling is, that if you could talk, we probably wouldn't be talking. That's pretty much how it got to be before... I left...Are you all right? I don't know what to say...Tita suggested that we try to...I don't know. I think that she...seems to feel we've got...some understanding to reach...She totally denies the fact that we were never that comfortable with each other to begin with...The best that I can do, is apologize. We both know that I was never really that good at it, anyway...I'm sorry it didn't work out.
  • I move around a lot, not because I'm looking for anything really, but 'cause I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay.
  • I said don't point at her, you pompous celibate!
  • [out of his car during a traffic jam, yelling at other motorists] Ants! Why don't we all line up like a goddamned bunch of ants! Its the most beautiful part of the day!

Rayette Dipesto

  • [to Dupea] I'll go out with you, or I'll stay in with you, or I'll do anything that you like for me to do, if you tell me that you love me.
  • There isn't anybody gonna look after you AND love you, as good as I do.

Others

  • Palm Apodaca: People. Animals are not like that. They're always cleaning themselves. Did you ever see, umm... pigeons? Well, he's always picking on himself and his friends. They're always picking bugs out of their hair all the time. Monkeys too. Except they do something out in the open that I don't go for.
  • Catherine Van Oost: You're a strange person, Robert. I mean, what will you come to? If a person has no love for himself, no respect for himself, no love of his friends, family, work, something - how can he ask for love in return? I mean, why should he ask for it?
  • Betty: When I was four, just four years old, I went to my mother and I said, "What's this hole in my chin?" - I saw this dimple in my chin in the mirror, and didn't know what it was. And my mother said - get what my mother says - she says, "When you're born, you go on a assembly line past God, and if He likes you, He says, [grabs her cheeks with both her hands] "You cute little thing!" and you get dimples there. And if He doesn't like you, He goes, [presses one finger on her chin] "Go away." So about six months later, my mother found me saying my prayers, and I was going, [holds one hand over her chin] "Now I lay me down to sleep..." My mother says, "What are you covering up your chin for?" And I said, "Because if I cover up the hole, maybe He'll listen to me."

Dialogue

Dupea: You're just gonna sit here?
Rayette: Yes.
Dupea: Okay. I hope no one hits on you.
Rayette: I hope they do.
Rayette: That was real good, wasn't it? I finally did it!
Dupea: Great. You throw the big Z's for 19 frames, and then you throw a strike on the last ball of a losing game. Wonderful. Just wonderful. [Turns around to bowlers at next lane] Isn't that wonderful, ladies?
Twinky: Are you talking to us?
Dupea: Wonderful.
Rayette: You love me, Bobby?
Bobby: What do you think? [they kiss]
Palm Apodaca: Hey, follow that truck. They know the best places to stop.
Rayette: That's an old maid's tale.
Palm Apodaca: Bullshit! Truck drivers are the only ones that know the best places to stop on the road.
Rayette: Salesmen and cops are the ones. If you'd ever waitressed, honey, you'd know that.
Palm Apodaca: Don't call me honey, mac.
Rayette: Don't call me mac, honey.
Dupea: I'd like a plain omelette, no potatoes, tomatoes instead, a cup of coffee, and wheat toast.
Waitress: No substitutions.
Dupea: What do you mean? You don't have any tomatoes?
Waitress: Only what's on the menu. You can have a number two - a plain omelette. It comes with cottage fries and rolls.
Dupea: Yeah, I know what it comes with. But it's not what I want.
Waitress: Well, I'll come back when you make up your mind.
Dupea: Wait a minute. I have made up my mind. I'd like a plain omelette, no potatoes on the plate, a cup of coffee, and a side order of wheat toast.
Waitress: I'm sorry, we don't have any side orders of toast...an English muffin or a coffee roll.
Dupea: What do you mean you don't make side orders of toast? You make sandwiches, don't you?
Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager?
Dupea: ...You've got bread and a toaster of some kind?
Waitress: I don't make the rules.
Dupea: OK, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
Waitress: A number two, chicken sal san, hold the butter, the lettuce and the mayonnaise. And a cup of coffee. Anything else?
Dupea: Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
Dupea: I want you to hold it between your knees.
Waitress: Do you see that sign, sir? Yes, you'll all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm.
Dupea: You see this sign? [He sweeps all the water glasses and menus off the table]
Palm Apodaca: Fantastic that you could figure that all out and lie that down on her so you could come up with a way to get your toast. Fantastic!
Dupea: Yeah, well, I didn't get it, did I?
Palm Apodaca: No, but it was very clever. I would have just punched her out.
Palm Apodaca: You know, I read where they, uh, invented this car that runs on, ummm... that runs on, ummm... when you boil water?
Terry: Steam.
Palm Apodaca: Right, steam. A car that you could ride around in and not cause a stink. But do you know they will not even let us have it? Can you believe it? Why? Man! He likes to create a stink! I mean, I've seen filth that you wouldn't believe. Ugh! What a stink! I don't even want to talk about it.
Dupea: That's dangerous, you know.
Catherine: Riding?
Dupea: Mm-hmm. You play the piano all day and then jump on a horse, you could get cramps.
Dupea: What are you doing screwing around with all this crap?
Catherine: I do not find your language very charming.
Dupea: It isn't. It's direct.
Catherine: I'd like you to leave so that I can take a bath. Is that direct?
Dupea: What else do you do?
Catherine: Well, there's fishing, boating, and concerts on the mainland. [Laughs] I feel funny telling you this. This is really your home. You probably know better than I what there is to do.
Dupea: Nothing.
Catherine: Nothing?
Dupea: Nothing.
Catherine: Well, it must be very boring for you here.
Dupea: That's right.
Catherine: I find that very hard to comprehend. I don't think I've ever been bored. Excuse me.
Betty: That's a wig you wear, isn't it?
Dupea: Me?
Betty: Yeah, I told her it was you but that you were wearin' a wig because on the TV you're mostly all, uh - [pats him on the head] bald up there! [laughs]
Dupea: [laughs] Your, your little friend's real, real sharp. Uh, I don't, uh, I don't wear the wig on TV because if you're gonna be out there in front of two and a half million people, you've got to be sincere. I mean, I like to wear it when I'm in bowling alleys and slipping around, stuff like that. I think it gives me a little class. What do you think?
Truck driver: Where we're goin', it's gonna get colder than hell.
Dupea: Nah, it's okay. I'm fine. Fine. I'm fine.

Cast

External links

Wikipedia
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