I saw "Easy Rider" several decades ago and hated it. I had no idea what people saw in it. However, in the meantime, I have watched 457293811 films (give or take) and have changed a lot--as we all do over time. When I watched it again yesterday, I found so much to this film that I simply couldn't see the first time. Now I am NOT going to say that Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda (who made and starred in the film) were geniuses here but they managed, with some amazing luck, to hit on something with this movie. In other words, their use of drugs managed to help them create the right movie for the right time. However, Hopper's next chance at directing ("The Last Movie") was a complete mess--and listed as one of the films in the excellent book "The 50 Worst Movies of All Time" by Harry Medved)--because the drugs simply made his work incomprehensible.
The film begins with two friends (Hopper and Fonda) making a big score--selling some cocaine to a crazy rich guy (very appropriately played by Phil Spector). Now with a fortune, they plan on taking their motorcycles across the American Southwest to New Orleans to party it up at the Mardi Gras.
The film has little in the way of a strong plot--more just snapshots of their adventures along the way. Some of the vignettes seem to extol the virtues to the selfless and idealistic hippie movement (such as the group headed by Robert Walker, Jr.), some the importance of letting go and enjoying life (their bizarre meeting with Jack Nicholson) and many show the anger and hatred the 'squares' had towards these free spirits. However, what made this movie for me is that although it SEEMED to have a shallow plot and was often rather unprofessional looking, there was an amazing depth to the film that would make it excellent for repeated viewing. While the film would SEEM to make it look like it was idealizing drug dealing, it did not--as Fonda's character eventually realizes that all this money didn't give them the peace and happiness that some others had. It also was a great indictment of the state of America at the time--especially in the old South. All in all, well worth seeing.
By the way, I grew up in a very conservative home during this time period. My father would often drive us into Georgetown (in DC) so we could watch the hippies and laugh at them....seriously. We would never yell at them or anything--just snicker at their clothes, hair and lifestyle. One time, however, our car broke down and these 'filthy hippies' all came and helped fix our car! It was, incidentally, the LAST time we ever went out to laugh at the hippies! Perhaps this, too, is why I found "Easy Rider" to be so interesting.
The film begins with two friends (Hopper and Fonda) making a big score--selling some cocaine to a crazy rich guy (very appropriately played by Phil Spector). Now with a fortune, they plan on taking their motorcycles across the American Southwest to New Orleans to party it up at the Mardi Gras.
The film has little in the way of a strong plot--more just snapshots of their adventures along the way. Some of the vignettes seem to extol the virtues to the selfless and idealistic hippie movement (such as the group headed by Robert Walker, Jr.), some the importance of letting go and enjoying life (their bizarre meeting with Jack Nicholson) and many show the anger and hatred the 'squares' had towards these free spirits. However, what made this movie for me is that although it SEEMED to have a shallow plot and was often rather unprofessional looking, there was an amazing depth to the film that would make it excellent for repeated viewing. While the film would SEEM to make it look like it was idealizing drug dealing, it did not--as Fonda's character eventually realizes that all this money didn't give them the peace and happiness that some others had. It also was a great indictment of the state of America at the time--especially in the old South. All in all, well worth seeing.
By the way, I grew up in a very conservative home during this time period. My father would often drive us into Georgetown (in DC) so we could watch the hippies and laugh at them....seriously. We would never yell at them or anything--just snicker at their clothes, hair and lifestyle. One time, however, our car broke down and these 'filthy hippies' all came and helped fix our car! It was, incidentally, the LAST time we ever went out to laugh at the hippies! Perhaps this, too, is why I found "Easy Rider" to be so interesting.