Sunday 31 July 2022

Five Easy Pieces | Bob Rafelson, 1970

Five Easy Pieces | Bob Rafelson, 1970

There are a hundred ways to end this film. A rootless man, or rather a man who rejects the idea of laying roots, once again abandons his family for an easier life somewhere else, anywhere else, anywhere but here. A truck at a highway gas station is a potential escape route to a new life free from responsibility, and so he leaves his girlfriend alone by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Rafelson, after cutting away from the inside of a truck cab, settles on a wide shot of the forecourt and the highway, and then just leaves it rolling as the man makes his escape. No cuts, no reaction shots, no dialogue. Just a truck driving away, and a woman asking questions nobody can hear. Drizzle continues to fall and it doesn’t look like stopping.