The first scene in this clip was a seminal one for its day (see the tab). Stop­ping off at a road­side diner on his way home, Bobby tries to order a meal from a small minded wait­ress (Lorna Thayer) and gets involved in Kafka-esque argu­ment.  He cannot win of course, even using the absurd logic of her rules against her, and ulti­mately he erupts with frus­tra­tion. It’s the film in micro­cosm – some­thing with which many could identify.

The second scene is memor­able for completely different reasons. Bobby plays a slow elegaic piece of Chopin while the camera slowly pans over a collec­tion of family photo­graphs. It is meant to be moving and Cath­erine, his brother’s girl, is moved – as are we, the audi­ence  – until Bobby shat­ters the illu­sion with a leer: “I faked a little Chopin … You faked a big response”

We’re used to Bobby’s rude­ness, a predict­able seduc­tion tech­nique, but the scene also delib­er­ately ques­tions the value of art as a way of reaching the truth. Bobby turns his back on music in the same way that the movie rejects easy solu­tions to the hero’s dilemma. A few years before Bobby might have ‘turned on and dropped out’ – now Nixon is on his way to the White­house and those days are over.

Dialogue in the Diner Scene:

Dupea: I’d like a plain omelette, no pota­toes, toma­toes instead, a cup of coffee, and wheat toast.
Wait­ress: (She points to the menu) No substi­tu­tions.
Dupea: What do you mean? You don’t have any toma­toes?
Wait­ress: Only what’s on the menu. You can have a number two – a plain omelette. It comes with cottage fries and rolls.
Dupea: Yeah, I know what it comes with. But it’s not what I want.
Wait­ress: Well, I’ll come back when you make up your mind.
Dupea: Wait a minute. I have made up my mind. I’d like a plain omelette, no pota­toes on the plate, a cup of coffee, and a side order of wheat toast.
Wait­ress: I’m sorry, we don’t have any side orders of toast…an English muffin or a coffee roll.
Dupea: What do you mean you don’t make side orders of toast? You make sand­wiches, don’t you?
Wait­ress: Would you like to talk to the manager?
Dupea: …You’ve got bread and a toaster of some kind?
Wait­ress: I don’t make the rules.
Dupea: OK, I’ll make it as easy for you as I can. I’d like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sand­wich on wheat toast, no mayon­naise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
Wait­ress: A number two, chicken sal san, hold the butter, the lettuce and the mayon­naise. And a cup of coffee. Anything else?
Dupea: Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sand­wich, and you haven’t broken any rules.
Wait­ress (spite­fully): You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
Dupea: I want you to hold it between your knees.
Wait­ress (turning and telling him to look at the sign that says, “No Substi­tu­tions”) Do you see that sign, sir? Yes, you’ll all have to leave. I’m not taking any more of your smart­ness and sarcasm.
Dupea: You see this sign? (He sweeps all the water glasses and menus off the table.)

Source: www.filmsite.org