Five Easy Pieces

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Timing: 1:38 (98 min)

7.145/10
483

7.409/10
5043

7.4/10
44000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 25

Actors and characters

Release date

1970-09-12

Country

United States

Production

Columbia Pictures, BBS Productions

Genre

Drama

Budget

$1 600 000

Revenue

$18 099 091

Website

Director

Bob Rafelson

Actors

Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Lois Smith, Ralph Waite, Billy Green Bush, Irene Dailey, Toni Basil, Lorna Thayer, Richard Stahl
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Bob Rafelson, Richard Wechsler, Bert Schneider

Operator

László Kovács

Composer

Artist

Audition

Fred Roos

Editing

Christopher Holmes, Gerald Shepard
All team (29)

• “Five Easy Pieces” is the title of a collection of pieces for beginning pianists.
• In the original script, Katherine was supposed to be much older, but director Bob Rafelson made her a young beauty, the protégé of the character played by Ralph Waite (1928-2014).
• The situation in the film's ending at the cafe, when Bobby sweeps all the dishes off the table after a quarrel with the waitress, was inspired by a real-life incident. Jack Nicholson did the same thing when his coffee was taken away and carried off, even though he had just arrived and placed an order. This happened because a group of actors who had been there for several hours were being kicked out of the cafe, and Nicholson had just entered and joined them.
• A disagreement occurred between director Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson over how to play the scene where Bobby talks to his father. The director insisted that Nicholson's character burst into tears, but the actor flatly refused. Eventually, they decided not to complicate things and allowed Nicholson to play the scene as he saw fit, and at a certain point, the actor actually did cry. The scene was filmed in one take.