Five Easy Pieces

Chapters 1-3

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, gives the reader insight on the behind the scenes of Hollywood in the late 60s & how it paved the way for the counterculture films of the 70s. Initially I was a little turned off by the book. For one thing I learned more about Warren Beatty than I ever imagined. Maybe the book would have been more interesting had I been more familiar with the films & actors/directors mentioned, but it's hard to get past the gossip. To be honest I'd rather hear about the struggles going into making films of the 60s & 70s instead of the rumors that follow the struggles.

Low-budget success Easy Rider started something new to the way Hollywood films were made from 1969 on. Talented young film makers we all know now were given cameras, and came back with classics like The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, and Jaws. Film forever changed, it was no longer about the hero saving the damsel in distress, but the new hero. The anti-hero. Many would say 70s film is filled with gritty depictions of sex, drugs, and violence. You could say film just got edge it needed.


With the 70s came the anti-hero of film. Five Easy Pieces portrays Robert, an 'average' man of the 70s in his daily routine as an oil rigger living with his needy girlfriend. Robert, unsatisfied with his lifestyle searches for a way to move on. He soon finds out his father isn't well, and takes it as an opportunity to leave his girlfriend, Rayette behind, until he is guilted into letting her tag along.

The character Jack Nicholson portrays is the counterculture to the heroes of 50s classic cinema. More than just the anti-hero, an achievable hero people can relate to. This isn't saying he is a good person by any means. Robert is the type of person that doesn't know what he wants in life. He travels, makes a life for himself, then leaves when he is bored without caring about who he affects.

Although the ending is ambiguous it is apparent Robert found the way out of the convenient relationship with Rayette he was looking for throughout the entire film.

Trivia

• 'Carole Eastman (II)''s original ending had Dupea driving his car off a bridge. Rayette survives the crash, Dupea does not.

Source: IMDB