Easy Rider (1969)

Directed by: Dennis Hopper | 94 minutes | drama, adventure, crime | Actors: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Phil Spector, Luke Askew, Robert Walker Jr., Karen Black, Toni Basil, Antonio Mendoza, Mac Mashourian, Warren Finnerty

Get your motor runnin’, Head out on the highway, Lookin’ for adventure And whatever comes our way. Just imagine: the wind in your face, a good friend by your side. The world revolves around you, the endless road and your Harley Davidson. The movie ‘Easy Rider’ represents the ultimate sense of freedom that arose as hippie culture entered American society. The film has been groundbreaking in many ways, because it deviated from everything that was used in Hollywood. There is no structured script, no traditional love story, the film was made for young people and by young people and has a soundtrack that consists entirely of pop music. You can therefore say that ‘Easy Rider’ was the first low-budget cult film that was a huge success worldwide and opened doors for future filmmakers.

‘Easy Rider’ is a film that has been of much greater importance than just as a work of art in its own right. Two young men, known as Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper), make a lot of money from the drug trade. Feeling wealthy and king of the world, they decide to fulfill an old wish and travel by motorbike to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Along the way, they encounter countless intriguing characters. They end up in a commune, they meet the sympathetic country lawyer George (Jack Nicholson) who gets them out of prison and they trip with a few prostitutes in a New Orleans cemetery. Their wild journey through America leads to a violent apotheosis that abruptly brings the viewer back to the ground.

This seemingly trivial story turned out to be one of the most influential films of all time, as well as the first film to be made about the alternative scene. The two bikers are iconic figures: Hopper with his long hair, sunglasses and Indian necklace and Fonda as a Captain America with his helmet with the stars and stripes and his quasi-philosophical statements. ‘Easy Rider’ is also a perfect example of method acting; the actors actually do what the main characters in the film do, to better empathize. So all drug scenes are real. This is also incorporated in the film, for example in the psychedelic-looking scene in which the protagonists experience a trip with two hookers. Storylines are rarely written out, because the drug users naturally start a conversation. So the steering is only based on key concepts and it is impossible to get the storyline completely clear. Hopper and Fonda are not only the main protagonists but also involved in the film as director and producer respectively. The script, as far as you can speak of it, was written together with Terry Southern (also known for Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’).

‘Easy Rider’ knocks down just about every hallowed house in Hollywood, paving the way for critical films like ‘Five Easy Pieces’ and ‘The King of Marvin Gardens’ (coincidentally, both starring Jack Nicholson), which were also averse of Hollywood traditions. The film’s ideological message is embodied by Nicholson’s character. This George, son of a rich father, rejects ordinary society and thinks the country is going to the buttons. America is afraid of everything that is unconventional, he believes. “It’s really hard to be free when you’re being bought and resold in the market,” is a famous statement. The contradictions between the free-spirited coastal states and the narrow-minded Midwest and Southern states is the central theme and is also the direct reason for the penetrating climax. It is not accepted in 1969 America if you dare to be different from others, that is the message that lingers afterwards.

Thanks in part to the beautiful landscapes – famous landmarks in the American west such as Monument Valley and Taos Pueblo are reviewed – and the legendary soundtrack with music by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Steppenwolf, among others, the feeling of ‘the American dream’, that the two protagonists seek to emulate. Even now, almost fifty years later, the theme is still relevant. Even today, people decide to look for their personal freedom. The freedom that everyone should have in order to fully develop within a fast-paced society. The freedom that allows everyone to do and not do anything and thus become happy as an individual. And that is precisely why ‘Easy Rider’ still stands as an indestructible rock.