Cover of Five Easy Pieces

The 1971 Bob Rafelson picture, Five Easy Pieces, is highly imperfect but hardly without meaning.

It serves up the dissatisfied man as antihero (played by Jack Nicholson).  It tells us life is insufficient and shows us how one senses he or she is wasting time after hopes are unfulfilled, promises unkept.  Nicholson’s Bobby Dupea, that is, discontinued his career as a concert pianist because he found his playing inadequate.  Now, for much of the film’s running time, he works with oil rigs.

The concepts here are very engaging.  Rafelson’s film should be seen.