MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 500 titles—from the silent era through the ’90s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
Five Easy Pieces (1970, 98 minutes)
1969’s Easy Rider turned out to be the end of the road as leading men for both Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. But his brief appearance as attorney George Hanson served as a calling card for Jack Nicholson, whose storied film career began to slow down only 10 years ago. As Kern County, Calif., oil-rig laborer Bobby Dupea in Five Easy Pieces, Nicholson found just the vehicle to show the world his selfish, womanizing side.
Bobby’s idea of cutting loose is oiling himself up with a six-pack of Lucky Lager and rolling around on the bed with Rayette Dipesto (Karen Black), still dressed in the apricot uniform she wears down at the nail salon. Then it’s off to roll a few games with his pal Elton (Billy Green Bush) and Elton’s gal Stoney at the local bowling alley. “Not too much of a match, is it Elton?” grouses Bobby, rolling his eyes, as Rayette knocks down the 10-pin with her first ball. After tanking her second into the left-hand gutter, she explains to Bobby, “It’s the pins, honey. I can’t make ’em out.” Bobby volunteers, “Well, there they are at the end of all those little boards.”
More confident in her ability, Stoney wiggles her rear end provocatively before delivering a ball that scatters nine pins. “There she is, doing her variation on the Apache shift!” roars Bobby approvingly, while Elton slowly pulls a long string of tissue from his nose, to everyone’s disgust. Relying more on brute force than technique, Bobby’s up next and sends 10 pins screaming into the pit from the “Brooklyn” side. With her final ball, Rayette somehow manages a strike and rushes back to Bobby for approval. “I finally did it,” she smiles. “Great! You throw ‘Z’s’ for 19 frames and then get a strike on the last ball.” As Rayette, joined by Stoney, stomps off to mope in the car, Bobby and Elton are already chatting up Shirley and Twinkey, a pair of loose girls bowling on the adjoining lane.
The next morning, Bobby and Elton get stuck in a freeway traffic jam on their way to work. Bobby screams out the window, “What the hell are all these goddam people doin’ out here!” It’s the last straw when the guy behind them starts blowing his horn. Bobby steps out onto the roadway and hoists himself onto the back of a nearby flatbed truck. Elton is startled to see his buddy remove the drop cloth from a battered upright piano and begin to play a classical number.
Bobby takes no notice when the truck takes the Wasco/Shafter off-ramp. It’s just the first step in a long journey that will lead him far away from the sun-blistered oil fields of Southern California to rediscover a past he thought was buried long ago.
