![]() ![]() The jaded Harry Bailey (Gould) has attained big-fish status in his unnamed West Coast college town. In Getting Straight, Oregon takes on another of its well-known dimensions as a left-wing petri dish. In Five Easy Pieces, Oregon represents catharsis, a vagabond's playground away from the tainted Rockwellian fantasy of the Central Valley. If both films lend a big-screen rebel shine to Oregon, they also borrow the freedom of the setting. These visceral, frenzied scenes later proved their relevance through tragedy, hitting theaters just one week after the Kent State shootings of May 1970. The Vietnam War, the sexual revolution and a whole slew of liberation movements were cresting, and in turn, the film's best sequences are of a student body violently clashing with the National Guard (filmed at Eugene's Lane Community College). Through the perspective of a failing grad student (Elliott Gould, fresh off M*A*S*H), Getting Straight touches a countercultural pulse that's verging on arrhythmia. While Five Easy Pieces is vastly superior, another Oregon-shot 1970 film, Getting Straight, is perhaps a clearer artifact from a half-century ago. Though only the middle section of this journey is set in Oregon, the film as a whole resembles a drifter's journey along I-5: Bobby can't hold down a job, commit to a relationship or remain sober for too long because, as he puts it, "Things get bad if I stay." After losing the job, he travels north to the San Juan Islands of Washington to visit his ailing father. Nicholson simmers in the role of Bobby Dupea, a Central California oil rigger whose blue-collar pattern of working, bowling and traipsing home to his girlfriend (Karen Black) doesn't quell his anger. The acclaimed Bob Rafelson drama typifies '70s New Hollywood, with its roving character study, small-budget, patient camerawork and rejection of what passed for American values and storytelling. Not only was a portion of Five Easy Pieces shot in our own backyard, it happens to be turning 50 years old, and you are likely relate to Nicholson's malaise building into rage while sheltering at home during a pandemic. That boiling point helped usher in a new era of cinema, making it the perfect movie to revisit right now. ![]() The server can't abide his snarky gambit for toast, so he clears the table with his forearm and storms out. ![]() With neither matinee looks nor polish, he sneered his way through an argument over menu substitutions, eventually ordering a chicken salad sandwich, hold everything but the browned bread. This standout scene from Five Easy Pieces (1970) was confirmation of Nicholson's new stardom-squirrely, venomous and cutting edge. This title is also available on A Woman Who.: Selected Works of Yvonne Rainer.A decade before "Heeeeere's Johnny!" and two before "You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson sat in a highway diner in Eugene (a Denny's that's still standing) and teed up his first iconic movie conniption. Camerawork by Phill Niblock.Ī blond woman (Susan Marshall) in white pants and shirt interacts with a moving round object and the camera. Performed by Steve Paxton and Becky Arnold. Two nudes, a man and a woman, interact with each other and a large balloon in a white living room. Cut to new angle, same characters and actions. Two legs in sneakers, seen from the knees down, enter the frame and stand beside it. Volleyball (Foot Film) 1967, 10:00 b&w, silent, 16mmĪ volleyball is rolled into the frame and comes to rest. A compilation of five early short films made between 1966 to 1969.Ĭlose-up of a hand, the fingers of which enact a sensuous dance. ![]()
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