Five Easy Pieces (1970) (Criterion Collection)

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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 (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.

Features:

- 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