‘Five Easy Pieces’

Bob Rafelson’s 1970 film, which became one of the key pictures of the decade, stars Jack Nicholson (pictured) as a feckless, charming drifter who has forsaken his highly refined family of gifted musicians (who live on an island in the Pacific Northwest) to work as an oil field roughneck. Yet he yearns to return home, and the film becomes an odyssey of self-discovery, touching upon the rootlessness and dissatisfaction of contemporary life. Bergman-esque, yet its idiom is completely American; sad but often outrageously funny (Cinemax Sunday at 8 p.m.).

Other four-star films airing this week:

And Then There Was None / ABC, Sunday, 11:35 p.m.

Atlantic City / Cinemax, Monday, 8 p.m.

Body and Soul / AMC, Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. and early Wednesday, 3 a.m.

Going My Way / AMC, early Wednesday, 5 a.m.

Anna / Bravo, Thursday, 8 a.m.

Rebecca / AMC, Thursday, 11 a.m.