Five Easy Pieces

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1970	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	94:14 minutes	Other Extras	Cast & Crew Bios
RSDL/Flipper	No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Rob Rafelson
Studio Distributor	Columbia TriStar	Starring	Jack Nicholson Karen Black Susan Anspach
RRP	$34.95	Music	Tammy Wynette

    One of the better actors of the last thirty years is Jack Nicholson. Between the late sixties and the early eighties, he actually gave his performances a soul, and made them believable. In Five Easy Pieces he gives a performance which earned him an Oscar nomination, and rightly so. Here is a man out of joint. He is intelligent, musically gifted and comes from a wealthy family. Yet, he drifts from job to job, and has an dim girlfriend (Karen Black) who spends most of her time just annoying him. When he learns his father is dying, he is confronted by a way of life he left behind.

    This movie runs at a nice, relaxed pace, reflecting the outlook of Jack's character Robert Dupea. There is no rush, just an examination of people and their ways. Indeed, the movie ends as it begins, and we are simply given a brief look at his life, with no actual closure. I enjoyed this movie and found it refreshing.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. Some scenes do appear a little cramped, suggesting that the theatrical ratio may be wider than is presented here.

    The image is generally sharp. Detail is of course not up to today's transfers, but this is to be expected. Shadow detail is very good. There was little to no low-level noise. There was a hint of edge enhancement.

    The colours are slightly muted, but nevertheless very natural in appearance. Flesh tones seemed a little pale at times, but were generally well rendered.

    There were no MPEG artefacts during this movie, and this is a fine compression.

    Film artefacts are infrequent, and include the odd scratch and fleck of dirt. Of some disturbance are a multitude of vertical lines running down the entire screen between 61:18 and 61:49. Also, there is some luminance pulsing around 89:13. These can be easily forgiven given that this movie is 30 years old. Film-to-video artefacts are non-existent. There is no aliasing at all during this movie, which is always appreciated. Aspects of this transfer would put some contemporary transfers to shame!

Audio

    There are five audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 2.0; French Dolby Digital 2.0; German Dolby Digital 2.0; Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0. All soundtracks are mono. I listened to the default English track.

    Dialogue was at times quite difficult to make out, especially early on in the movie. It did improve however, and was generally clear afterwards.

    There were no significant problems with audio sync apart from the occasional ADR re-recording.

    Credits for the music are given to various pianists, and Tammy Wynette, who graces us with some of her country-style music. This is essentially a dialogue driven movie, and I did not note much incidental music other than piano work actually played by characters in the movie themselves.

    The soundtrack is distinctly mono, and sounds very thin and compressed. High frequencies are often harsh, and there is no depth or presence to the soundtrack at all. Again, this movie was made thirty years ago, so no real complaints from me.

    The subwoofer was weeping to itself in the corner, feeling very left out.

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Cast & Crew Biographies

    The video quality is excellent given the age of the movie.

    The audio quality is poor.

    No extras apart from bios.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall