Five Easy Pieces is a drama directed by Bob Rafelson and stars Jack Nicholson in one of his defining early performances. Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, a former piano prodigy from an affluent and cultured family who has abandoned his privileged background to work on an oil rig in California. Living a restless and aimless life, Bobby drifts through relationships and dead-end jobs until a family crisis forces him to return home.

Reunited with his wealthy, emotionally distant family, Bobby is confronted by the life he rejected and the emptiness of the one he has chosen instead. The film explores themes of alienation, class, identity and dissatisfaction, capturing the mood of disillusionment that defined much of American cinema in the 1970s. Quiet, subtle and deeply affecting, Five Easy Pieces is regarded as one of the key films of the New Hollywood era.