Title: EASY RIDER

Date: 6/15/1995; Publication: Magill's Survey of Cinema;

Magill's Survey of Cinema

06-15-1995

EASY RIDER

Abstract:
Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) smuggle cocaine into California and begin a motorcycle journey across America in this landmark film of the 1960's. Along the way, they visit a commune, drop acid, and meet an alcoholic lawyer, George (Jack Nicholson), who joins them briefly on their odyssey.


Summary:
EASY RIDER was, in 1969, both a propaganda film and a phenomenon of popular culture. It was the first time that what had come to be called the "counterculture" was featured in a major motion picture, and the men who made the film were well aware of the fact. The viewpoint of EASY RIDER is not, however, wholehearted endorsement of its two counterculture "heroes," as too many people supposed; its outlook is more subtle than that and makes the film more than a period piece.

EASY RIDER is basically the creation of two men: Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Together with Terry Southern, they wrote the screenplay; Fonda produced the film, Hopper directed it, and both played leading roles. The story is essentially that of a journey. Two men, Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt (Peter Fonda), who is also called Captain America, smuggle cocaine from Mexico to California. Then, with the huge amount of money they have made, they head east on their motorcycles, bound for New Orleans and the Mardi Gras.

On their journey they encounter a variety of people. At a small ranch where they stop to fix one of their motorcycles, they stay to eat a meal, and Wyatt proclaims that the rancher should be proud because "You do your own thing in your own time." At a commune they find some of the members bickering and others sowing seed on unplowed, sandy ground, but Wyatt says, as if pronouncing a benediction, "They're gonna make it." In a small town where they join a parade on their motorcycles and are jailed for parading without a permit, their scruffy appearance does not endear them to the police -- Billy has especially long hair and a moustache.

Also in jail is George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), a liberal young lawyer whose alcoholic binges frequently land him there. Dissatisfied with his restricted life, George decides to go to New Orleans with Wyatt and Billy. The next day when the three go into a cafe, all the customers make ill-natured comments and the waitress refuses to wait on them. That night around a campfire (hotels and motels will not take them), George tells Wyatt and Billy that people are certain to resent anyone who is free. After they all go to sleep, they are attacked by some of the men from the cafe, and George is killed.

Wyatt and Billy next go on to New Orleans, where they pick up two prostitutes in a brothel and wander through the Mardi Gras celebration. Then, in a cemetery, all four take a hallucinogenic drug. We see their drug experience, represented in a long, purposely chaotic sequence of brief and often distorted glimpses of the characters and the cemetery. After they leave New Orleans and continue east, Wyatt says to Billy, "We blew it." Billy does not understand, and Wyatt does not explain. The next day on the highway, two men in a pickup truck pull alongside Billy and point a shotgun at him; when he replies with an obscene gesture, they shoot him. Wyatt goes for help, but the men shoot him also, and the last thing we see is his burning motocycle beside the road.

Not only in its story but also in its style, EASY RIDER broke with many Hollywood conventions. Little time is spent giving the background of the characters or explanations of their actions. In addition, two devices are used alternately to speed up and slow down the pace of the film. Rather than using a dissolve between scenes (having one scene slowly disappear as the next slowly appears), the makers of EASY RIDER show a few quick glimpses of the next scene just before the previous scene ends. For example, a night scene will be interrupted by a few momentary views of daylight shortly before a morning scene begins. In an extension of this device, there is one flashforward in the film. While they are in the brothel in New Orleans, Wyatt is looking at the pictures on the wall, and he suddenly sees, for only a moment, an image of his motorcycle burning beside the road. At that time neither he nor the audience knows what it means. The flash shots quicken the pace of the film, but at other times the pace is deliberately relaxed by sequences of the men riding their motorcycles to a background of rock music. Besides varying the pace, these interludes serve to break up the story into stanzas and to emphasize the continuity of the journey. In addition, the fact that the words of the songs frequently reinforce or comment on the action can be suggested by some of their titles: "The Pusher," "Born To Be Wild," and "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."

EASY RIDER is too often seen as a blatant attack on middle-class mores, but its depiction of values is neither so simple nor so one-sided as that. The generation gap and the counterculture are perhaps overemphasized and overdiscussed, but the fact remains that, especially in 1969, the hair, clothes, and motorcycles of the protagonists were certain to provoke a strong reaction in any viewer. The feelings expressed in the cafe scene were the feelings of many in the audience; many others uncritically admired Wyatt and Billy. The film itself tries to change the uncritical reaction of both groups. It tries, usually successfully, to make a viewer who at first automatically rejects Wyatt and Billy feel sympathy for them ninety minutes later, enough to be moved by their deaths and by the film as a whole. The film also tries, although less successfully, to make the uncritical admirer of the two "heroes" see that behind their rebellion is little but emptiness and greed.

After smuggling the cocaine, for example, the two men begin their journey with a flourish of freedom -- Wyatt throws away his wristwatch -- but on the sound track is "The Pusher," a song that is strongly and quite overtly against the pushers of such drugs. They stop at a gas station and take gas without paying, even though they have thousands of dollars. The last shot of the station shows a poor child looking out the window. At the commune, Billy and Wyatt find a group of people who are barely surviving, yet they give them nothing more than a short ride on their motorcycles. Finally, in a moment of introspection, Wyatt recognizes that they "blew it." Though the statement seems out of character and Billy does not understand it, we can see that they certainly did blow it, both by choosing to sell hard drugs and by what they did with their lives and money afterwards. Indeed, in this way EASY RIDER is like a gangster film, in which the audience is expected to feel some sympathy or identification with the gangster without admiring him.

EASY RIDER is a film of contrasts. The interludes of motorcycling to rock songs contrast with the episodes between; the way of life of Wyatt and Billy contrasts with that of all the people they meet; and the low-key and rather flat characterizations of Wyatt and Billy sets off the fully realized characterization of George Hanson. As a counterbalance to the emptiness of Peter Fonda's Wyatt and the vague restlessness and paranoia of Dennis Hopper's Billy, Jack Nicholson's portrayal of George is crucial to the film, and Nicholson more than meets the challenge. First seen in a jail cell as he awakens from an alcoholic binge, he immediately animates the screen. He then proceeds to create a memorable and moving portrayal of the young lawyer, the son of a powerful man, who finds himself stuck in a small town until the chance encounter with Wyatt and Billy pushes him into trying to escape. Whether explaining freedom or expounding on UFO's, he is articulate and engrossing.

The other actors are not so exceptional. Fonda and Hopper satisfactorily fill the emotionally limited roles they wrote for themselves, but some of the people in the cafe and jail scenes were chosen because they were "real" people rather than actors and looked "right." Unfortunately, they sound more like bad actors than like real people.

Though much of EASY RIDER'S immense popularity when it was first released was due to its contemporary subject matter and music, it is much more than a topical film. It remains remarkable for its artful stanzaic structure, for the performance of Jack Nicholson, and for its theme of the use and abuse of freedom.


Release Date: 1969

Production Line:
Peter Fonda for Columbia

Director: Dennis Hopper

Cinematographer: Laszlo Kovacs

File Editor: Donn Cambern

MPAA Rating: R

Run Time: 94 minutes

Cast:
Wyatt (Captain America) - Peter Fonda
Billy - Dennis Hopper
George Hanson - Jack Nicholson
Karen - Karen Black
Jesus - Antonio Mendoza
Connection - Phil Spector
Rancher - Warren Finnerty
Lisa - Luana Anders
Sarah - Sabrina Scharf
Joanne - Sandy Wyeth
Jack - Robert Walker, Jr.
Mary - Toni Basil
Chief - Robert Walker, Jr.
Girl - Luana Anders

Review Sources:
Newsweek: July 21, 1969, p.95
New York Times: July 15, 1969, p.32
Time: July 25, 1969, p.73
Variety: May 14, 1969, p.6

Named persons in Production Credits:
Peter Fonda

Studios named in Production Credits:
Columbia

Screenplay (Author):
Peter Fonda
Dennis Hopper
Terry Southern

Color



Video Available.
Genre:
Drama

Award Citations:
Academy Awards - Nomination - Best Supporting Actor - Jack Nicholson
Academy Awards - Nomination - Best Story & Screenplay (based on material not previously published or
Golden Palm (Cannes International Film Festival) - Winner - Feature Film; First Work - Dennis Hopper
National Society of Film Critics - Winner - Best Supporting Actor - Jack Nicholson
National Society of Film Critics - Winner - Special Award - Dennis Hopper as director, co-writer & co-star
New York Film Critics - Winner - Best Supporting Actor - Jack Nicholson produced - Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern

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