Review of Five Easy Pieces (1970) by Compi24 — 08 Mar 2020

Protagonism is the key to good drama. If I don't find your lead character interesting or worthy of my time, everything else surrounding them starts to crumble. The narrative loses steam. The thematics never take shape.

The whole world of the film starts to crack and peel away. In the case of Bob Rafelson's "Five Easy Pieces," you're not only presented with a protagonist who's uninteresting and unworthy of your time, but one who's genuinely unlikable altogether.

And I get it. "That's the point." Here's the thing, though -- if you want to challenge an audience into empathizing with a bad person, at least make them a bad person in more interesting ways than "he cheats on his girlfriend" and "he's rude.

" Lou Bloom is a murderer with ambition. Salieri is a schemer with an inferiority complex. Travis Bickle is a deviant with an intriguing worldview. Bobby Dupea is just. . .not a great dude and that's about the extent of it.

No, he doesn't have to be a full-blown antihero for me to find him interesting to watch. Just give me something to work with. There's almost nothing worthy of note to report here for me. Nothing beyond an expectedly committed performance from Jack Nicholson and a couple of neat-looking shots.