Watching Dennis Hopper’s classic, counterculture, road trip
“Easy Rider” (1969) co-starring Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, you may wonder
what made this movie such a zeitgeist for its time. Of course, the America of 1969 was turbulent
in ways that seem a far cry from contemporary America. The divisive Vietnam war dominated the
headlines. Civil Rights activism had culminated with the assassination of Dr.
Martin Luther King, and hippie movement with all its flower power had
flourished. Reportedly, after Columbia Picture's chief executive Leo Jaffe saw
“Easy Rider,” he observed, "I don't know what the f*&k this picture
means, but I know we're going to make a f*&k of a lot of money." When
you look at the film, the simple plot amounts to little more than a picaresque
journey, with our protagonists on a cross-country trip from California to
Florida. They pause along the way to
meet a variety of people: a rancher, a commune, hostile Southern diners, and
Florida duck hunters who have a blast.
Essentially, “Easy Rider” is a fish-out-of-water fable, with Captain
America (Peter Fonda of “The Victors”) and Billy (Dennis Hopper of “Rebel
Without a Cause”) as the fish-out-of-water. At the time that it was made,
Dennis Hopper was a noted character actor.
Peter Fonda had starred in a few American International drive-in movies,
most notably “The Wild Angels,” and Jack Nicholson of “The Raven” was earning
his living as a character actor, too.
“Easy Rider” made star of all three.
Arguably, Nicholson went the farthest. Indeed, Nicholson is the heart of
“Easy Rider.” Simultaneously,
Nicholson’s small-time lawyer George Hanson inhabits both world: the
establishment and the counterculture. Nicholson has the best lines, too. The meditation that he provides on the
meaning of ‘freedom’ are point-on, brilliant. He explains to Billy that Wyatt
and he represent a threat to Americans who had pigeon-holed by society’s
expectation. Sadly, when Nicholson exits “Easy Rider,” the film never recovers
from his passing. Lenser László Kovács
makes everything look spectacular, with our heroes tooling through gorgeous
landscapes straight out of vintage westerns.
The source music from Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Jimi Hendrix,
Steppenwolf, Fraternity of Man, The Electric Prunes, Smith, and The Byrds
enhance the scenes, especially Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” as our heroes
hit the road. Although American
International Pictures and other low-budget film companies had exploited “The
Wild One” to produce scores of yarns about violent, murderous bikers, “Easy
Rider” departs from that formula. Wyatt
and Billy are unarmed and don’t go searching for trouble. Interestingly, Hopper had filmed a chase with
DEA helicopters in hot pursuit of Wyatt and Billy. Scenes like this would had imitated past
motorcycle movies and detracted from the film’s message. Hopper lensed “Easy Rider” as if it were a
documentary, with real-life locals are supporting characters. Furthermore, he filmed everything on
location, using natural light. The jail
cell that Wyatt and Billy occupy with George Hanson is the actual deal.
Peter Fonda was no stranger to motorcycles when he made
"Easy Rider" with Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. This seminal saga
cost roughly $360-thousand and reaped $60-million at the box office. Basically,
"Easy Rider" is all about intolerance and the Generation Gap in
America during the 1960s. A couple of hippies sell cocaine to a wealthy gent
(Phil Spector) and then set out for Mari Grais in New Orleans. Along the way,
they pick up an alcoholic lawyer, George Hanson (Jack Nicholson of "The
Terror") and rednecks ridicule them as they try to eat in a cafe. Although the older men deride our heroes, the
young, impressionable girls in another booth idolize them. Later, these evil
rednecks attack our heroes in the wild, and beat the lawyer to death. "Easy
Rider" is a forerunner of "Deliverance." In "Easy
Rider," rednecks slaughter the angelic but stoned motorcyclists, while the
rednecks rape the sportsmen in "Deliverance." Since Hollywood could
not depict back rape back in the 1960s, particularly man-on-man--sadistic
homosexuality, the rednecks simply beat them up. Captain America (Peter Fonda)
and Billy encounter intolerance from traditional society and die as a consequence of being too
different. This is liberal, gonzo film-making at its zenith and it exerted
considerable effect on Hollywood and the industry at large. The word is that
Fonda and company smoked real marijuana on the set which reflects the indie
nature of this venture. Columbia Pictures didn't understand this
counter-cultural masterpiece but they embraced its millions. "Easy
Rider" couldn't have come at an more opportune time in Hollywood and
social history. The imagery of the film influenced the cultural landscape and
it appeared at a time of deep social unrest in the post-Civil Rights era. So if
the marginal plot—call it existentialism—does nothing for you, the portrait of
America and the intolerance displayed toward the hippies stands as an accurate barometer
of the times. "Easy Rider" couldn't have been made much earlier
because the Production Code Administration had only recently been dismantled in
favor of a rating classification system. Fonda and Hopper don't so much deliver
believable performances as they inhabit their costumes. Jack Nicholson is
simply brilliant as the doomed lawyer George Hanson who understands the moral
conscience of the terrain. He summarizes this when he tells Billy, "What
you represent to them is freedom." The soundtrack features many tunes of
the times that immortalize this picture. For the record, Billy dies from the
first shotgun blast. Despite its laid-back pace and routine plot, “Easy Rider”
ranks as a landmark picture and speaks volumes about bigotry in America.
