Five Easy Pieces

The way Five Easy Pieces introduces the protagonist, as we discussed in class, is similar to the way we get to know a stranger in our life. As the audience gradually starts to know more about Bobby, they feel more and more connected to him. At the beginning of the movie, when Bobby was first shown as a construction worker, there aren’t enough clues to understand Bobby. But just a few more minutes into the film, Bobby surprises us with his sudden improvisational performance on the highway. The scene is so random, yet so appealing. The scene is the first time for the audience to get the access to Bobby’s background. His mysterious family background appeals to the audience to know more about his story. The music theme plays a really important role in the movie. For example, the movie begins with the song “Stand by Your Man”, and then after Bobby returns home, he scolds Rayette for playing that song. The song is an analogy of the relationship between the two. Rayette sometimes feels it hard to “stand by” Bobby, as Bobby does not allow her to understand him. Also, the scene when Bobby threatens her to turn off the music also signifies their power dynamic. Furthermore, when he finally gets to play in his family house in front of Catherine, Catherine compliments him for his performance, but he says that he picks the easiest piece, and he knows he could play it better when he was 8. The piece he plays signifies his permanent lost of the potential in the music world, that he would never be able to get back to playing piano. Because he left his family, his connection with the family is also perpetually lost, as he can no longer feel any emotions as Catherine feels in the song. His inability of connecting with his family can be also seen from Catherine’s later comment on him:

“You're a strange person, Robert. I mean, what will you come to? If a person has no love for himself, no respect for himself, no love of his friends, family, work, something - how can he ask for love in return? I mean, why should he ask for it?” It is hard to imagine what internal sufferings Bobby is going through, when he is confronted, for the first time, by realizing his lacking of human connection and emotions. After that, Catherine’s comment is the last straw that crushes him, and eventually leads him to “confess” to his father before his departure, crying and saying that: “I move around a lot, not because I'm looking for anything really, but 'cause I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay. I’m looking for auspicious beginnings…I guess” This is the only time he is no longer avoiding the problem anymore. It is also the first time that he himself could finally understand the choices he made in his life and their consequences. The overall film sometimes appears to be fragmented, that there would be certain jump cuts from scenes to scenes, and from events to events. But it is the fragmentation that makes the story so real and relevant, as moments in life do exist in fragments in our memories. In fact, our memory doesn’t need to be coherent for us to relive the experience we had, but more like uncontinous memory dots.

Notes: Bob Rafaelson: the director of The king of Marvin Gardens, the Postman Always Rings Twice BBS Productions: Around Nicholson and Rafaelson How the story is told The camera is decisive in the sense that the short shots can tell a lot of the story It abandoned the continuity editing in the Hollywood era; also no longer has the clear resolution endings. Hostility towards the traditional story arch We learn about the characters as if we are knowing a friend The film does not acknowledge our presence He feels he is superior than his girlfriend Running away from being defined, and from his failed talent Implicit political: the disengaged and disoriented adults; disaffection of the war The political connection with the Vietnam War A man’s misery is seen as the misery of the humans; but a woman’s misery is first that she is a woman The protagonist is not who we are supposed to side with He is an un pleasant person The other siblings are weird characters but we have compassion for them The highway scene: barking to the dog — he is volatile; the foreshadowing of the ending, he is literally drifting away from the main stream (alienation, and him drifting away from the symbolic order); directionless, and self destructive This movie is definitely not in the studio era. Nicholson’s own actor persona and identity Karen Black: Mistreated; in the car scene, Bobby is angry with himself that he has compassion for the woman. Moral core that Bobby does not have; the woman is damaged He is in analogy with Macbeth: they realize what they have done The last scene is gentle. The internalization of the ideology: from the music Testing the water by leaving the wallet and the jacket; the accidental nature of life; people are never in control The oppressive parent theme