Synopsis
A drop-out 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.
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Cast
- Jack NicholsonRobert Eroica Dupea
- Karen BlackRayette Dipesto
- Susan AnspachCatherine Van Oost
- Lois SmithPartita Dupea
- Ralph WaiteCarl Fidelio Dupea
- Billy Green BushElton
- Irene DaileySamia Glavia
- Toni BasilTerry Grouse
- Lorna ThayerWaitress
- Richard StahlRecording Engineer
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Tribune
What is more striking about the film is that its secondary characters are also real. The acting appears to be non-acting. . . . Karen Black is a letter-perfect Rayette, and Lois Smith, as Robert's sister, gives the most sensitive small performance in the film. (Jack) Nicholson makes it all go. He proves he is more than a character actor with many scenes, especially the confrontation with his father. - 100
The Dissolve
Five Easy Pieces is the very definition of a character study, and one of the best American cinema has produced. - 100
Empire
A key turn-of-the-decade film, with Nicholson railing against waitresses and barking at noisy dogs as Rafelson observes seedily picturesque roadside America. - 100
The Guardian
This superbly composed film comes as close to perfection as it gets. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Deceptively simple, Pieces is one of the most complex pictures of the 1970s. - 90
Village Voice
It’s a great work of the Discover America Seventies. - 80
Village Voice
The plot is sometimes too odd, the style too strained, but the movie holds you just the same. Jack Nicholson plays skillfully and honestly against the sure-fire pathos of the alienated loner, the fallen angel in life’s game of musical chairs. - 80
Variety
The film’s nervewracking quality is consistent with its content. Nicholson’s performance is a remarkably varied and daring exploration of a complex character, equally convincing in its manic and sober aspects.
