The New Hollywood era was partly defined by Bob Rafelson’s work. Towards the end of the 1960s when movie and TV trends were shifting towards the counter-culture movement and mainstream experimentalism Rafelson was one of the people behind-the-camera spearheading the change. When I think of movies that helped define a generation, Five Easy Pieces (1970) is one of the first to come to mind.
Rafelson was born in New York City and had a Hollywood connection as he was a once-removed cousin of Samson Raphaelson who wrote some of Ernst Lubitsch’s most beloved features. Rafelson grew-up attending boarding school and was drafted into the U.S. Army. During his stint in the Army, he was stationed in Japan and worked as a disk jockey, translator of films, and adviser to the famed Shockiku Film Company. He became invested in Japanese films and singles out the works of Yasujirō Ozu as having a great effect on him.
Rafelson started out in American show business working on television and became friends with producer Bert Schneider. Together, Rafelson and Schneider created Raybert Pictures and through this production they decided to come-up with a show about a rock band who got into misadventures together. Thus, TV’s The Monkees (1966-1968) was born which became not only a huge television hit that won Rafelson an Emmy but the group themselves became a major chart-topping band that helped define the music of the late 1960s.
On The Monkees, Rafelson served as co-creator and producer who also directed and wrote episodes of the show. He made his way towards film when he wrote and directed Head (1968) starring The Monkees. The movie is highly surreal and turned people and critics off at the time (film critic Pauline Kael admitted to walking out an hour in), but a few years later it was rediscovered and has since been labeled an essential stoner classic. It was also aided by a great soundtrack which the magazine Rolling Stone has listed as one of the greatest film soundtracks of all-time.
Jack Nicolson co-wrote Head (1968) which was his first collaboration with Rafelson and the two would end up having their careers briefly intertwined. Rafelson would serve as a producer on Nicolson’s big break, Easy Rider (1969) co-starring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. Rafelson would shortly reteam with Nicholson this time in the director’s chair (although he was also the producer and story writer) on Five Easy Pieces (1970). Five Easy Pieces is considered one of the very best movies of New Hollywood. It was funny, touching, and achingly relatable. Normally, a movie with a main character like Robert Eroica Dupea would come across as unlikable, but Rafelson’s touches, and Nicholson’s performance manage to make Dupea so believable that we cannot help but find ourselves understanding him and his decisions no matter how much we may disagree with them.
Five Easy Pieces was nominated for “Best Picture” and “Best Writing” at the Oscars. Rafelson followed this up with The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) which is another New Hollywood feature that has made some viewers frustrated while fascinating others. The movie once again paired Rafelson with star Nicholson. During this time, Rafelson did end up producing the notable features The Last Picture Show (1971), The Mother and the Whore (1973), and the documentary Hearts and Minds (1974) which are all well-received movies of the 1970s.
Rafelson’s next directorial films were less successful. His adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) is often liked by fans of Jack Nicholson, but it is also highly unnecessary as it isn’t the classic that the already two previous adaptations of the James M. Cain novel are (the 1946 version entitled The Postman Always Rings Twice and the 1943 Italian neo-realist drama Ossessione). Rafelson continued directing movies as well as making short features, documentaries, and music videos.
In his personal life, Rafelson was married twice and had three children. Aside from his Oscar nominations and Emmy win, he was also nominated for two Golden Globes and won “Best Director” at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Five Easy Pieces. He died at the age of 89 of lung cancer.
~Virginia
The Tinseltown Twins 