Five Easy Pieces (Blu-ray)

Following Jack Nicholson’s breakout supporting turn in Easy Rider, director Bob Rafelson (The King of Marvin Gardens) 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 uppermiddle-class childhood home, blue-collar girlfriend (Nashville’s 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.

• Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography László Kovács, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson
• Soul Searching in “Five Easy Pieces,” a 2009 video piece with Rafelson
• BBStory, a 2009 documentary about the legendary film company BBS Productions, with Rafelson; actors Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Ellen Burstyn; directors Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom; and others
• Documentary from 2009 about BBS featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley
• Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with Rafelson Trailer and teasers
• PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones