Five Easy Pieces/Bd, Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray

Following Jack Nicholson's breakout supporting turn in Easy Rider, director Bob Rafelson (The King of Marvin Gardens) 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 thirty something oil rigger and former piano prodigy immune to any sense of responsibility, who returns to his upper-middle-class childhood home, blue-collar girlfriend (Nashville's Karen Black, in an Oscar-nominated role) in tow, to see his estranged ailing father. Moving in it's simplicity and gritty in it's textures, Five Easy Pieces is a lasting example of early 1970s American alienation. Blu-ray SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: - Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack - Audio commentary featuring director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson - Soul Searching in "Five Easy Pieces," a 2009 video piece with Rafelson - BBStory, a 2009 documentary about the legendary film company BBS Productions, with Rafelson; actors Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Ellen Burstyn; directors Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom; and others - Documentary from 2009 about BBS featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley - Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with Rafelson - Theatrical trailer and teasers - PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones.