FIVE EASY PIECES (CRITERION) (4K UHD+BLU-RAY)

Following Jack Nicholson’s breakout supporting turn in Easy Rider, director Bob Rafelson devised a powerful leading role for the new star in the searing character study Five Easy Pieces. Nicholson plays the now iconic cad Bobby Dupea, a shiftless thirtysomething oil rigger and former piano prodigy immune to any sense of responsibility, who returns to his upper-middle-class childhood home, blue-collar girlfriend (Karen Black, in an Oscar-nominated role) in tow, to see his estranged, ailing father. Moving in its simplicity and gritty in its textures, Five Easy Pieces is a lasting example of early-1970s American alienation.

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

Audio commentary by director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson

Soul Searching in “Five Easy Pieces,” a 2009 program featuring Bob Rafelson

BBStory, a documentary about the legendary film company BBS Productions, with Rafelson; actors Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Ellen Burstyn; filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom; and others

Documentary featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley

Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with Rafelson

Trailer and teasers

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones

Cover by F. Ron Miller