Holding It Between My Knees

You know how when people talk about Psycho, all they ever seem to focus on or even remember is the shower scene? Nothing against that scene, it's still undeniably amazing, but the movie has so much more to offer than just a single memorable set piece.

That being said, I'm totally guilty of the same thing regarding Five Easy Pieces. I've seen it a few times before but all that really stuck with me were the infamous diner scene ("I want you to hold it between your knees") and Nicholson playing the piano on the back of the truck. Watching it again last night, it was suddenly a whole new movie. Maybe it's just because I'm older and see an unnerving similarity between the way Nicholson's character behaves to the way I've behaved at certain points in my life. I'm significantly less than proud of that, but it's true, and the movie hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. It made me sad, but it also made me feel less alone. It was made five years before I was born but still spoke to me as if it was made expressly for me, and any movie that can affect me so powerfully stuns me and lingers in my mind for days afterward.

The other day on Twitter, a guy I follow named Sid put out a series of tweets (since deleted, unfortunately) that talked about how social media has made him feel lonelier, it's made true social interaction more difficult, and he was having a rough moment where he was feeling alone and angry. Reading what he posted helped me feel less alone, because I was feeling very much the same way for a time. His tweets really helped me to gain perspective and feel less socially anxious, and I didn't know why at the time, but they also made me want to watch Five Easy Pieces. When we lost Karen Black yesterday, I decided to revisit Five, and Sid's tweets popped right back in my head. Obviously the movie doesn't directly address social media because it didn't exist at the time, but so much of what it has to say about the way we relate to other people fit with what Sid was talking about. In truth, I don't know if watching it made me feel better or worse, but it sure as hell made me feel and made me think and sometimes that's all we need to start healing. That's part of why I love movies to begin with, they can affect us in the most unexpected ways, and Five Easy Pieces has left me reconsidering the way I've treated certain people in my life and the way I've handled certain situations in my life, and it'll never just be "that movie with the diner scene" again.

Thanks for your help, Sid, even if you didn't know you were helping. I'll totally split the royalties from this blog post with you. What's 50% of 0?