Easy Rider (1969)
Road movies were never the same after Billy (Dennis Hopper) and
Wyatt - aka Captain America (Peter Fonda) embarked on a magical
mystery tour in a quest for "the real America".
The movie about two rootless drug-dealing drop outs was the
brainchild of Hopper and Fonda. Its exclusive use of location
filming and contemporary music on the soundtrack made it a
surprise box-office hit, and altered all the rules in an industry
suffering from financial elephantiasis at the time - Easy Rider
cost just $400,000 to make (and took about 25 times that amount at
the box-office).
The heroes were so representative of the time, and their
motorcycles became emblems of both their rebelliousness and their
freedom, independence and mobility. At the time, the film felt
fresh and modern and helped popularise the look of a psychedelic
experience.
Jack Nicholson earned the first of numerous Oscar nominations
for his portrayal of George Hanson - a parasitic middle-aged
alcoholic Southern lawyer who attaches himself to Billy and Wyatt
in a last desperate fling at youth and freedom. George is the
heart of the movie, and at one stage perfectly expresses its
theme;
"This used to be a helluva country. I can't tell you
what's wrong," he says. "They're scared not of you but
of what you represent to them . . . Freedom".
The shocking violence at the end of the film (when Billy and
Wyatt are shot by bigoted rednecks) was attacked by some at the
time as being unprepared and excessively pessimistic.
Yet it seems the inevitable culmination of the antagonism
between youth and age in the movie. Thematically, Easy Rider is an eloquent eulogy for the Sixties.
Famed record producer Phil Spector makes a brief appearance at
the beginning of the film as a drug dealer.
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