Easy Rider

1969, Rated R, 95 minutes Directed by Dennis Hopper, written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Souther, produced by Peter Fonda, cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs

With: Peter Fonda (Wyatt), Dennis Hopper (Billy), Jack Nicholson (George Hanson)

Easy Rider is on many must see movies lists; #84 on the AFI Top 100 movies list. Even though the film is over 40 years old, it still garners praise as a must see movie. Many have seen pictures of the two main characters riding their motorcycles to Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.” It has become an iconic image to numerous generations. After finally sitting down to watch the film myself, I say with certainty that the film lives up to its hype.
Easy Rider is a beautifully done minimalist movie with a sweeping social commentary on the cultures of the 60s. More than a countercultural film, it is a commentary on American society. It stands up against the test of time and continues to address relevant issues in today’s culture.



Easy Rider focuses its story on two countercultural bikers who have made enough money through drug dealing to go on a cross-country trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. It chronicles their journey across the United States and the people and places they encounter along the way. They stop off at a farm, a commune, several small towns and finally New Orleans. Denied admittance to even second rate motels, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) make camp and we are able to witness their drug induced campfire musings. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a leader at a commune where they get to spend some time with the men, women and children who were part of the Back to the Land movement. After being jailed simply for being who they were, they meet George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) an alcoholic lawyer of the small town who decides to join them on their pilgrimage to New Orleans.

The story line itself is simple but the movie is beautifully complex. The antagonists are the countercultural bikers and the protagonists are everyone else, mainly “normal” society. Each stop that Wyatt and Billy make they encounter a part of an establishment. Some places like the commune openly accept them while others, namely small town America and the deep South reject them with open ridicule, throwing them in jail, and beatings. The time Wyatt and Billy and once George camp for the night is an opportunity for the film to decompress from the last scene. We see the characters sit under the stars, smoke marijuana (which they actually smoked during the filming of these scenes) and reflect on their place in society, the freedoms they have and those they do not. While their destination is New Orleans, that is simply another stop for them and then they move on. The story is the journey, and that journey is represented more often visually than through spoken words. Dennis Hopper (also the films director) started with a three hour film and cut it down to 95 minutes leaving the skeleton of the story and little else to be heard.

Throughout the movie you find yourself sympathizing with the bikers as they are ridiculed and turned away in town after town even if you do not personally endorse their lifestyle. With each snide comment made by the local townsfolk-- who are actual townsfolk in the deep south as opposed to professional actors-- you want them to take up for themselves and speak out. But you soon realize that if they were to do this they would be in worse shape than when they started. However the movie is not necessarily a call to compassion and acceptance. It is more often an observational drama that exposes the reality of intolerance in a free society. While the bikers represent an extreme counterculture, their experience can be juxtaposed on to many subcultures or people who have experienced ridicule and resentment for their difference. Easy Rider strikes at the heart of American society and does not hold back.

Not only is the film thematically impressive, but is also a cinematic masterpiece. The cinematography gives you a sweeping and grand picture of the American landscape. Every motorcycle ride is perfectly captured and truly surrounds the viewer with scenery and lighting. You quickly get lost in the landscape and transfixed in each scene. The music of the film is perfectly integrated. Easy Rider was one of the first films to use already composed music as opposed to an original score and this groundbreaking cinematic move fits perfectly with the movie. Songs like “Weight” (the Band), “I Wasn’t Born to Follow (the Byrds) and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (Bob Dylan) to name a fit the mood and the place of the movie perfectly. The music quickly brings the viewer to the time period of the film.

The acting, which was predominantly improvised, was excellent. Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson do an excellent job playing their characters and further the viewers immersive experience. Every word cries out to the tone of the film and fits perfectly in its place to create a wholly simple, sparse and complex atmosphere that makes Easy Rider such a seminal masterpiece.

Easy Rider will enlighten and evoke sympathy for those who are not the same as the mainstream. It will immerse you in a counterculture and allow the viewer to see the world from their perspective. It does an excellent job of exposing the society of the 60s but still speaks to today. It is a visually impressive film with great imaging, editing, sound and acting. Easy Rider will take the viewer back to the 60s and spark conversation about prejudice, intolerance and freedom all while mesmerizing and entertaining those who behold this classic film.

A

Content Advisory
brief scenes with female nudity, several beatings in the film, drug use throughout the film, mild language and adult themes



Food for thought/discussion:
1. Compare and contrast the reaction of Wyatt and Hanson to others, and the reaction of other to Wyatt and Hanson. What is the film trying to teach through these interactions?

2. The main characters are obviously involved in illicit behavior; what would be a more fitting reaction to this behavior when confronted with it by those around you? How do you balance love of others with confronting wrong behavior?

3. Jack Nicholson’s character Hanson said “They’ll talk to ya and talk to ya about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.” What does he mean by this? Is it an accurate statement about society then and today?