Chris at Dreamers Rise mentioned that Studs Terkel had something to say about Five Easy Pieces (dir. Bob Rafelson, 1970). Did he ever. From “Do You Like Bruegel?,” in Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times (New York: Pantheon, 1977):
Though it is several years since I’ve seen the film Five Easy Pieces, my indignation is lasting. Remember that scene, oh God, in which the waitress is the virago? She refuses to serve Jack Nicholson and his companions toast or something. “It’s not on the menu,” the cold bitch says. Talk about a cheap shot. Nicholson, righteous, humiliates the waitress. The audience, our eighteen-to-thirty market, applauds and cheers. The young shits.These observations remind me of David Foster Wallace’s imagining of the life of a shopper waiting on line in a supermarket. From his 2005 Kenyon College commencement address, now known as This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (New York: Little, Brown, 2009):
What were we told of this nasty woman? Was it afternoon? Was it near the end of a long day for her? And how were her varicose veins? And what happened behind those swinging doors? Did she and the chef have words? And why was she waiting on tables? Was her old man sick? Did he run off? Was her daughter in trouble? And how many Bufferins did she just take? Perhaps she was indeed a Nogood Girlo. We’ll never know. We knew more than we needed to know about Nicholson, nothing about her. Yet there she was, Medusa. Why didn’t I have the guts to stand up in that darkened house and holler, “You fucking young solipsists!”?
But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who’s dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider.Wallace’s address has a milder version of standing up and hollering: when the audience begins to clap and cheer at the wrong spot, Wallace tells them, “this is an example of how not to think, though.”
Thanks, Chris.
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I just remembered the great account of waiting on tables from Dolores Dante in Terkel’s Working. I’ll post an excerpt soon.
[I’ve followed the audio version of Wallace’s address.]
comments: 6
Well said, Studs!
I haven't seen that movie in 40 years, but anyone who's ever worked with the public might very well take the waitress's side.
Sometimes customers at the thrift store ask me if we have a certain something, and I reply (not unkindly),
"This is a thrift store. Look around."
This also reminds me of the grocery store checkout scene in Terms of Endearment (which also has Jack Nicholson in the cast, though not in this scene). The cashier is giving Debra Winger's character a hard time because the latter doesn't have enough money on her, and when John Lithgow confronts the cashier for being rude, she replies that she didn't think she was being rude, prompting Lithgow to say "Then you must be from New York." The line always draws a roar from the audience, though the whole set-up is unfair to cashiers not to mention to New Yorkers.
Farther afield, there's a scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies where Indy has been cornered by an Arab who theatrically flourishes a scimitar. Indy pauses, pulls out a gun, and shoots the Arab dead, which also tends to provoke gales of laughter.
Fresca, do you think there’s a line to be drawn from the film’s character sweeping everything onto the floor and a recent president throwing his lunch against the wall?
Chris, I must admit, I’ve never seen Terms of Endearment (by choice). And I agree: New Yorkers can be as generous and kind as anyone else. I’ve seen it so many times.
I saw Five Easy Pieces with some boomer friends when it was new. I had exactly Studs Terkel's opinion about Bobby (and he gave plenty of other reasons to dislike him). Were we supposed to admire this jerk? What's to like about this film? Well, the wonderfull Susan Anspach. Worth the price of the ticket in each one of her films.
And speaking of customer service that starts badly but gets better, how about the sweet checkout line scene in You've Got Mail when Tom Hanks rescues Meg Ryan and charms the cashier in the process?
Yes, Susan Anspach gives a fine performance in that movie. Karen Black too.
Here’s the scene from Terms of Endearment. And here’s the scene from You’ve Got Mail.
Another checkout scene that comes to mind: John Updike’s “A & P.” And the last scene of the series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, though I won’t give it away.
Now I’m wondering why I called the main character in Five Easy Pieces Robert and not Bobby. I think it’s a marker of my distance from the character. “Bobby” makes me think of Company, and I’m not even a fan of musicals.
Oh damn. I hate the premise of “You’ve Got Mail”—
charms my corporate asshole makes Meg fall in love while he guts her indie bookstore…
BUT… watching that scene, there’s no disputing they go so so well together!
Big Baby Demands Toast.
Sets Capitol on Fire to Make Toast.
Hm.
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