Among my favorite films ever - I was in college, 21 or so, circa 1991 the first time I saw this, courtesy of a filmgeek friend who owned a copy. He made a point of not telling any of us a thing about it before we watched it, and from the start I was hooked. It begins slowly - the plot takes a bit of time to get moving - but with great detail, as Rafelson's quiet, unfussy direction (qualities I later discovered in masters like Ozu, Tarkovsky and Satyajit Ray, who I doubt I would've appreciated had I not seen this first) provides plenty of space to establish character.
*Spoilers ahead*
There's a dramatic, revelatory shift in the story, unveiled in 2 scenes:
Nicholson's spontaneous freeway concert, and the visit to his sister shortly thereafter - about 1/3 of the way in. Right at the point where you think you have this character (in fact, several of the characters) pegged, there's a sudden revelation of something else, a critical piece of background very casually revealed (coming completely out of nowhere, yet completely plausible) that not only completely alters this character's identity, but obliterates any stereotypes potentially associated with him.
The diner scene is famous, but there are several others of note - the screaming narcissism of Nicholson's character comes to the foreground during the homecoming scenes, and the implosion of the intellectual conversation about TV, media, and "kitty cats" is pretty memorable as well. Karen Black's performance is stunning as well - her character is so needy that it almost arrives as a shock when, in one of her final moments in the film, she lets Bobby (Nicholson) know that she's got his number, so to speak. And the ending is completely devastating...
Rafelson and screenwriter Carole Eastman aren't exactly making Bobby out to be a hero here - the cowardliness and misogyny of his behavior is apparent throughout, but so is the pretense and overripe unreality that has provoked (or actually encouraged) his utterly self-absorbed individualism. In any case, this is a devastating film, one of the great high-water marks in 60s-70s American cinema.
*Spoilers ahead*
There's a dramatic, revelatory shift in the story, unveiled in 2 scenes:
Nicholson's spontaneous freeway concert, and the visit to his sister shortly thereafter - about 1/3 of the way in. Right at the point where you think you have this character (in fact, several of the characters) pegged, there's a sudden revelation of something else, a critical piece of background very casually revealed (coming completely out of nowhere, yet completely plausible) that not only completely alters this character's identity, but obliterates any stereotypes potentially associated with him.
The diner scene is famous, but there are several others of note - the screaming narcissism of Nicholson's character comes to the foreground during the homecoming scenes, and the implosion of the intellectual conversation about TV, media, and "kitty cats" is pretty memorable as well. Karen Black's performance is stunning as well - her character is so needy that it almost arrives as a shock when, in one of her final moments in the film, she lets Bobby (Nicholson) know that she's got his number, so to speak. And the ending is completely devastating...
Rafelson and screenwriter Carole Eastman aren't exactly making Bobby out to be a hero here - the cowardliness and misogyny of his behavior is apparent throughout, but so is the pretense and overripe unreality that has provoked (or actually encouraged) his utterly self-absorbed individualism. In any case, this is a devastating film, one of the great high-water marks in 60s-70s American cinema.