Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces is about an escape. It's about a man who tries his best to run from his family and his history by going as far away from them as possible. Until he finds out that he can only truly run after he meets his family one last time, even if it means bringing his two worlds together.

Jack Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, who is introduced to the audience as a blue-collar worker, handling a job at a California oil rig. Bobby, his girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) and his friends go bowling, they watch television together and get drunk together. He even discovers that Rayette is pregnant. It all sounds like a simple existence until about 30 minutes into the film, when we're left wondering why Bobby is going to a recording studio. He's visiting his sister, Patricia (Lois Smith), who is making a piano recording. When she tells him that his father has had two strokes and he may never recover, Bobby decides that it's finally time to head up to the family's Puget Sound home.

There, it becomes pretty clear why Bobby wanted to leave this place, where everyone calls him Robert and nothing anyone does is good enough for anyone else. Even his stoic father seems to look at him disapprovingly. But, he does meet Catherine (Susan Anspach), his brother's student. For Bobby, Cartherine is someone he can save from being completely drawn into the horror of the Dupea family. Unfortunately, with Rayette suddenly showing up, he soon realizes that he'll have to escape alone.

Five Easy Pieces is Jack Nicholson's coming out party. While Nicholson had been in the business for years (you can actually spot him in a hilarious part in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors), he didn't really get going until he met up with Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson. Jack actually took co-writing credit on Head, starring the Monkees, and then went on to earn an Oscar nomination for his starring role in Easy Rider. But it's not until Five Easy Pieces that Hollywood really gets an introduction to Nicholson's power as an actor.

Bobby is easily among his best characters as a restless man looking for a life that only he can define. It's like the famous scene at the diner is all you need to know about Bobby – he doesn't want what's on the menu. He wants life on his own terms. That may sound a bit Charles Foster Kane-esque, but Bobby does try to feel for others, especially Rayette, it just doesn't turn out the way he'd hoped.

Of course, Rafelson filled Five Easy Pieces to the brim with really fantastic supporting roles. Karen Black, who just died last week after a battle with cancer, is just perfect as Rayette, to the point that you can't picture any other actress playing that role. She is the perfect counter-point to Bobby as a real blue-collar, Tammy Wynette-loving waitress.

One of the unsung heroes during the New Hollywood era is cinematographer László Kovács, who not only shot Five Easy Pieces, but also did Easy Rider. He creates several iconic, unique images using the West Coast landscape throughout the film, including some amazing shots driving up the coast. It's amazing that as character-driven as Five Easy Pieces is, Rafelson and Kovács never shy away from strong visuals.

Bobby Dupea remains one of the great movie characters that refuses to go away. That restlessness and desire to get away from the life your prescribed to is captured perfectly by Nicholson's performance and Rafelson's directing. Five Easy Pieces can never grow old as long as there are people looking for an escape plan from life.

On Home Video: You can get Five Easy Pieces on DVD by itself. The Blu-ray is available only in the Criterion Collection's amazing America Lost And Found: The BBS Story box set.

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