Cult Classic Corner: Easy Rider

By Nate Storey

Directed by Dennis Hopper
Starring
Peter Fonda—Wyatt/Captain America (same character)
Dennis Hopper—Billy
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 94 minutes

Synopsis: Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star as two hippie bikers traveling to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. On the way, they encounter hookers, rednecks, a hitchhiker and visit the hippie commune where he lives, are thrown in jail, and subsequently saved by a young lawyer played by Jack Nicholson.

Why it’s Great: Written by Fonda and Hopper as they were filming, Easy Rider is one of those movies that embodies an era. In this case, the movie captures the hippie ideals and the counterculture lifestyle of the 1960′s. It has it all: drugs, communes, hitchhikers, campfires, hippie philosophy, and Mardi Gras; all centered on the ultimate search for America. The movie is filled with important and influential music from the era, including songs by Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, and The Byrds.

Best Scene: Upon finally arriving in New Orleans, Wyatt and Billy find the brothel that George Hanson (a young Jack Nicholson) recommended to them. They take two prostitutes and go out into New Orleans’ lively Mardi Gras celebration. They take LSD, and go on a bad trip. They eventually find their way to a Catholic cemetery, where Wyatt speaks to a Madonna statue (Hopper told Fonda to talk to the statue as if it was his mother, who had committed suicide. Fonda’s performance nearly drove Hopper to tears). This section of the movie is done in such a way as to visually depict their drug trip, partially through the overexposure of film, giving it an odd lighting and coloring.

Trivia: Real marijuana was smoked in many scenes, but the “undescribed white powder” sniffed by Fonda was powdered sugar. In various interviews, Fonda has said he was told by Hopper it would be real cocaine.
Peter Fonda’s character is named only three times in the film, as “Captain America” in prison and in the brothel, and then as Wyatt at the final campfire.

Great Quotes

George Hanson: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.

Captain America: [Reading inscription] If god did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

CREDIT: www.imdb.com