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 romantic or familial responsibility, who returns to his childhood home to see his ailing, estranged father-his blue-collar girlfriend (Karen Black, like Nicholson nominated for an Oscar) in tow. Moving in its simplicity and gritty in its textures, Five Easy Pieces is a lasting example of early 1970s American alienation.

Supplements Audio commentary featuring director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson Soul Searching in Five Easy Pieces, a 2009 video piece in which Rafelson discusses the film BBStory, a 2009 documentary Excerpts from an audio recording of Rafelson at the American Film Institute in 1976

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