Five Easy Pieces – Ein Mann sucht sich selbst (1970)

Five Easy Pieces – Ein Mann sucht sich selbst: Directed by Bob Rafelson. With Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Green Bush, Fannie Flagg. A dropout from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil rigs when his life isn’t spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

“Previously known only for creating u0026#39;The Monkeesu0026#39;, Bob Rafelson produced an underrated masterpiece when he made u0026#39;Five Easy Piecesu0026#39;, a film that deserves to be a lot better known. Jack Nicholson, typically intense but atypically understated, has possibly his finest hour as Bobby Duprea, a self-hating misogynist ill at ease with himself and the world. Many people will, when thinking of Nicholson, bring to mind his pantomime pyschopath Johnny from u0026#39;The Shiningu0026#39;; but Bobby, a profoundly human creation, is actually far more scary. Elsewhere the film features characteristically gorgeous cinematography from Laszlo Kovaks; a soundtrack that skilfully offsets Tammy Wynette and Chopin; excellent writing throughout and some very black humour. Like a less extreme version of Mike Leighu0026#39;s u0026#39;Nakedu0026#39;, and bristling with uncomfortable truth, u0026#39;Five Easy Piecesu0026#39; is a true classic of 1970s cinema. Few films today are as good.”