When the Hollywood establishment was dismissing motorcycle movies as an unpleasant low-budget fad, the kids already knew that something was happening here. In fact, the same kids who did "Easy Rider" were on dates in the drive-ins a few years ago when "The Wild Angels" and " Hell's Angels on Wheels" and all the other motorcycle pictures came along.
#PETER FONDA EASY RIDER MOVIE#
But these kids apparently sprang into existence full-blown, and did not grow up or go to any other movie before they found this one. (He also has made a great film, but more of that later.)Įverybody "knows" that "Easy Rider" is tremendously popular with high school and college-age kids. Hopper has applied this technique to the motorcycle movie. Fifty years ago, Hollywood figured out that if you put the good guys in white hats you could eliminate 10 minutes of explanation from every Western. He has told his story in cinematic shorthand, instead of spelling it out in dreary detail. Maybe the hippies were not entirely right by trying to live off the land, or smoking dope all the time, but they may have been onto something.But in fact, director Dennis Hopper has done an old and respectable thing. They captured the era in a raw, jump cutting fashion. Credit must be given to Fonda, Hopper, Nicholson, Kovacs, and Terry Southern for giving a new face to movie-making. His scenes on Fonda's chopper with the golden football helmet are absolute, cinematic classics. government is part of a hilarious conversation Nicholson and Hopper have over Whiskey and smoke. A bizarre notion of alien presence in the U.S. He realizes what the general public can think of the "long-hairs" and puts himself in danger just by traveling with them. As drunken lawyer "George Hanson", he creates an amazingly funny and perfect counterpoint to Hopper and Fonda. EASY RIDER also contains one of Jack Nicholson's 2 or 3 most memorable performances, even to this day. The immortal 'Born to be Wild' blares over the opening title sequence and everyone from Hendrix to The Byrds are heard throughout. Kovac's amazing camera work (especially on the road with the bikes) along with a virtual who's who in rock music of the late 60's makes for a sometimes visceral filmgoing experience. The expressions on the faces all seem different, some grinning, others just zoned out. One significant shot paints the commune with a 360 degree pan across the faces of the live-in hippies. There is a surreal experience at a commune the Kid and Wyatt stop at. Did they find what America was supposed to be about? I guess not according to Fonda. Their ultimate goal is never clearly defined, but Fonda's final comment to Hopper may sum it up for viewers. A major deal is made, much grass is smoked, and the film takes off from there.
It is some beautiful footage and essential to the trip. Much of the film consists of Kovacs' simple shooting of the riders as they travel spiraling highways and bigoted backroads. The stunning DVD version of the film notes the importance of Laszlo Kovacs, the director of photography. Peter Fonda plays cool "Captain America", otherwise known as Wyatt, while Hopper is a paranoid prophet of the hippies as "Billy the Kid". Sex, drugs, and music were exploding socially and 1960's ideology may have come to an end in 1969, literally and figuratively speaking - much like it shockingly does in this film. The sprawling journey shows filmgoers the multiple frictions and shattered idealism of a generation in the midst of cultural change. Of course, the stop at Mardi Gras is a necessity, but what Fonda and director Hopper are trying to tell us is that there was no 'freedom' as they saw it.
EASY RIDER is an exploration of vast and desolate parts of the country. I may not have been around at the time, but it is great to see a film portraying the long-haired, hippie attitude towards an America in turmoil in the form of a biker flick, circa 1969. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's story of two men who go in search of America and 'freedom' is a bona fide sign of the times. No film other than EASY RIDER captures the late 1960's as seen by the American counter-culture.
#PETER FONDA EASY RIDER DRIVER#
TAXI DRIVER is a masterpiece of social distortion and paranoia exemplary of the 1970's. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES captured the reality of the post-war 1940's. Not many films have documented an era of American culture the way it must have really been.
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