He Rode The Fast Lane On The Road To Nowhere

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Dupea: I'd like a plain omelette, no potatoes, tomatoes instead, a cup of coffee, and wheat toast.

Waitress: No substitutions.

Dupea: What do you mean? You don't have any tomatoes?

Waitress: Only what's on the menu. You can have a number two - a plain omelette. It comes with cottage fries and rolls.

Dupea: Yeah, I know what it comes with, but it's not what I want.

Waitress: Well, I'll come back when you make up your mind.

Dupea: Wait a minute. I have made up my mind. I'd like a plain omelette, no potatoes on the plate, a cup of coffee, and a side order of wheat toast.

Waitress: I'm sorry. We don't have any side orders of toast. I'll give you an English muffin or a coffee roll.

Dupea: What do you mean you don't make side orders of toast? You make sandwiches, don't you?

Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager?

Dupea: You've got bread and a toaster of some kind?

Waitress: I don't make the rules.

Dupea: Okay, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce, and a cup of coffee.

Waitress: A number two, chicken sal san, hold the butter, the lettuce, and the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?

Dupea: Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.

Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?

Dupea: I want you to hold it between your knees.

Waitress: You see that sign, sir? Yes, you'll all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm.

Dupea: You see this sign? (sweeps all the water glasses and menus off the table)

I had come across this drop dead funny scene way too often to ignore the film and I finally watched the master piece called Five Easy Pieces. This is an era where things were very unsettling, the youth was unsure, perplexed with the events, the film makers were revolting with an emphasis on realism, the so called “American New wave”.

Robert "Bobby" Eroica Dupea( Jack Nicholson) is a brooding blue-collared laborer in an oil-rig, who spends his idle time in bowling, bars, motels, while trying to adjust with his simpleton and insecure waitress girlfriend, Rayette Dipesto (played by Karen Black), who aspires to be a country singer. The difference between the two is obvious and gets clearer with their music discussions when Bobby tries to explain his choice with words like, “It's a question of musical integrity" and is retorted by Rayette, “You can play on the piano. Your whole damn family can play some kind of musical instrument. All I'm asking is for you to help me improve my musical talent”. And one realizes, Bobby does not belong here. He  is a complex individual who has left a life of privilege and culture behind to become an oil rig worker, in an attempt to get away, a life where he was a child prodigy but an under achiever as per his father’s expectations leading him to oblivion, degenerating into meaningless existence.

His emotions are the typical Nicholson-schy; reactive, exploding with rage,  with some  shades of vulnerability, that vanished with age in other masterpieces like ‘The Shining’, ‘The Departed’ or ‘As good as it gets’. While on a runaway from his restlessness and upper class family, he is equally restive in his new sphere. He has a disdain to the surroundings while maintaining the indifference to his past.

There is a scene when Bobby gleefully jumps up on a truck in a freeway traffic jam, discovers a piano strapped on top and gives a spontaneous freeway concert, playing the film’s first piece of the five- Chopin’s Fantasy. What strikes one is his denial or the attempt at escaping from reality when the truck drifts in a wrong direction. His confused self resurfaces again in a spat with his co-worker where Bobby refuses to be compared to him and his trailer-living life that’s beneath him. He feels out-of place here, and recklessly quits his rig job when the film takes a subtle turn into his past life that he has been running away from.

 He visits his ailing father and his siblings, the house of music that he had run away from. He still feels alienated and yet plays another piece with dexterity. His lack of direction towards any one particular life does not let him be and he tries to make peace with it by making a remorseful confession to his father. This powerful scene leaves one choked, when Robert apologizes and says, “I am sorry, it didn’t work out”. 

Towards the end, he abandons his girlfriend, leaves his identifications behind and escapes as the same disenchanted lost soul with a lumber truck to somewhere unknown, looking for freedom. This abrupt ending leaves one feeling empty and depleted, yearning for escape, exactly how Nicholson's character feels, but realizing that one cannot escape self. This resonates with the theme of everyday life; just living life because this is where you are and then developing an indifference for life because you stop living. 

                          -  He Rode The Fast Lane On The Road To Nowhere.