Easy Rider (1967)Director: Dennis Hopper
Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Another double up, again as a result of the New Hollywood unit of Screens, Images, Ideas. This time it was Dennis Hopper's highly influential Easy Rider. Again, I don't want to just repeat myself, so I'll only mention a few other things which came up.
Easy Rider has this iconic tagline: "A man went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere." It has been just as iconic an element of the film as the image of Billy and Wyatt on their Harleys or the rock and roll soundtrack. However, after watching the film we watched an excerpt from a documentary called Wanderlust, all about the American road movie. In this documentary there was a clip in which Dennis Hopper talked about this tagline. It was interesting because he takes no credit for this iconic tagline, it was just a piece of crap some guy in publicity thought up. In fact he doesn't even like it because in his opinion, and when I think about it mine, they do find America absolutely everywhere and that is the problem.
What I also found interesting on watching this film again is that for a film which is seen to be such a icon of a particular political time, the political message of the film is not very easily determined. Basically, Easy Rider deals non-specifically with this idea that America is somehow no longer free. The causes of this lack of freedom are never really suggested and thus neither are solutions. It doesn't actually attempt to make an argument for their particular political perspective, but rather relies on an audience who already thinks that way. So it really struck a chord with the counter-cultural youth of 1969, because they finally had a film which was speaking from their perspective, but if you aren't a part of the choir, the preaching isn't all that effective.
While I think I got more out of Easy Rider this time than I did earlier in the year, it didn't really change my view of the film. It is a very important and influential film, but it hasn't held up well and apart from certain elements, mainly the soundtrack and Nicholson's performance, it doesn't do much for me.
Another double up, again as a result of the New Hollywood unit of Screens, Images, Ideas. This time it was Dennis Hopper's highly influential Easy Rider. Again, I don't want to just repeat myself, so I'll only mention a few other things which came up.
Easy Rider has this iconic tagline: "A man went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere." It has been just as iconic an element of the film as the image of Billy and Wyatt on their Harleys or the rock and roll soundtrack. However, after watching the film we watched an excerpt from a documentary called Wanderlust, all about the American road movie. In this documentary there was a clip in which Dennis Hopper talked about this tagline. It was interesting because he takes no credit for this iconic tagline, it was just a piece of crap some guy in publicity thought up. In fact he doesn't even like it because in his opinion, and when I think about it mine, they do find America absolutely everywhere and that is the problem.
What I also found interesting on watching this film again is that for a film which is seen to be such a icon of a particular political time, the political message of the film is not very easily determined. Basically, Easy Rider deals non-specifically with this idea that America is somehow no longer free. The causes of this lack of freedom are never really suggested and thus neither are solutions. It doesn't actually attempt to make an argument for their particular political perspective, but rather relies on an audience who already thinks that way. So it really struck a chord with the counter-cultural youth of 1969, because they finally had a film which was speaking from their perspective, but if you aren't a part of the choir, the preaching isn't all that effective.
While I think I got more out of Easy Rider this time than I did earlier in the year, it didn't really change my view of the film. It is a very important and influential film, but it hasn't held up well and apart from certain elements, mainly the soundtrack and Nicholson's performance, it doesn't do much for me.
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