Perhaps one of the defining films of the New Hollywood era, Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces is a powerful, grim view of America run aground. In one of his career-best roles, Jack Nicholson plays Robert Dupea, a former pianist prodigy who rejects his wealthy, intellectual upbringing to work as a roughneck on the California oil fields. Karen Black is Rayette, his sweet, innocent live-in girlfriend who he mistreats and manipulates. Their toxic relationship is disrupted one day when Bobby learns that his father is terminally ill. He is then forced to confront his past and reckon with the consequences of his nihilistic self-loathing.

Working from Carole Eastman’s colorful script, Rafelson creates a bleak, unsparing and complex reflection of early-70s America, where the country’s post-war optimism had faded and its direction grown increasingly uncertain. Terrific cinematography, editing and supporting performances from Lois Smith, Susan Anspach and especially Karen Black are also integral to its success. They ensure Five Easy Pieces is a funny, gut-wrenching movie that beautifully highlights a country that is oppressive and expansive in equal measure.

At the end of the day, though, this is very much Nicholson’s show. The actor had broken through with his Oscar-nominated supporting turn in Easy Rider one year earlier. But in Five Easy Pieces, he truly comes into his own. Nicholson’s volcanic yet nuanced work is riveting to behold. It powers the story forward and serves as the “auspicious beginnings” of one of cinema’s great and most enduring antiheroes.