Jack Nicholson plays a son of a well to do, musically inclined family. He has run away into a series of disappointments and ended up working as an oilman, living with a woman that he can hardly stand. The only reason he can stand her is that she'll put up with his abuse.
He 'slips around' on her (with a topless Sally Struthers of all people). He belittles her. He lies to her in the most obvious style. The one thing that he can't do is leave her.
I think this movie is remembered because Nicholson's character caught a popular wave of rebellion. His character is unhappy with the everyday idea of family. He's constantly searching for some kind of happiness that he never finds. The most famous scene from this movie involves a waitress who won't allow substitutions and his difficulty getting some toast. A petty rule that he can't get around. It's telling of his character that he ruins the sensible suggestion with rudeness and then violence.
One other notable part of the movie involves him picking up the most boring woman in movie history. She's picked up after her car is wrecked and she's heading to Alaska because it's clean. She's trying to get away from all the 'filth' that man has brought. And she won't shut up about it. Just the possibility of ending up sharing a car with this woman will keep me from ever picking up a hitchhiker.
A good movie? It's a period piece and you have to judge it on that basis. I didn't think it aged well. Nicholson plays a character that he reprises in roughly 78 future movies and if that doesn't excite you...well it didn't me either. It's not bad but it's not great either.
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