Following JACK NICHOLSON’s breakout supporting turn in Easy Rider, director BOB RAFELSON (The King of Marvin Gardens) 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 (Nashville’s 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.
USA | 1970 | 98 MINUTES | COLOUR | 1.85:1 | ENGLISH
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography László Kovács, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson
- Soul Searching in “Five Easy Pieces,” a 2009 video piece with Rafelson
- BBStory, a 2009 documentary about the legendary film company BBS Productions, with Rafelson; actors Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Ellen Burstyn; directors Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom; and others
- Documentary from 2009 about BBS featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley
- Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with Rafelson
- Theatrical trailer and teasers
- PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones