Easy Rider

Easy Rider

Original movie poster
Directed by Dennis Hopper
Produced by Peter Fonda
Written by Peter Fonda
Dennis Hopper
Terry Southern
Starring Peter Fonda
Dennis Hopper
Jack Nicholson
Music by Roger McGuinn
Cinematography Laszlo Kovacs
Editing by Donn Cambern
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) July 14, 1969
Running time 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $340,000 (estimated)[1]
Gross revenue $60,000,000 (Worldwide, January 1972)[1]

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the late sixties. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.

A landmark counterculture film,[2] and a "touchstone for a generation" that "captured the national imagination",[3] Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. Easy Rider is famous for its use of real drugs in its portrayal of marijuana and other substances.

Contents

Plot

The protagonists are two bike-riding drug dealers: Wyatt, nicknamed "Captain America" (Fonda), and Billy (Hopper). Fonda and Hopper have said that these characters' names refer to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid.[4] Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather, while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat.

After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their contraband to "Connection," a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce. With the money from the sale stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-adorned fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward in an attempt to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for Mardi Gras.

During their trip, Wyatt and Billy meet and have a meal with a rancher, whom Wyatt admires for his simple, traditional farming lifestyle. Later, the duo pick up a hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and agree to take him to his commune, where they stay for a day. Life in the commune appears to be hard, with hippies from the city finding it difficult to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil. (One of the children seen in the commune is played by Fonda's four-year-old daughter Bridget.) At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a communard: A chance "to make a stand," and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste." The commune is also host to a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two women seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking communard, and who then turn their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people."

While jokingly riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. In jail, they befriend ACLU lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson). George helps them get out of jail, and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square," George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff"), but he quickly relents.

George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) with Wyatt (Peter Fonda)

While attempting to eat in a small rural Louisiana restaurant, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant want to meet the men and ride with them, but the local men and police officer make mocking, racist, and homophobic remarks. One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line." Wyatt, Billy, and George leave without eating and make camp outside of town. The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom, but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.

In the middle of the night, the local men return and brutally beat the trio with baseball bats while they are sleeping. Billy luckily manages to scare the men off by pulling a switchblade on them. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George is killed by a machete strike to the neck. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.

They continue to New Orleans and find the brothel George had intended to visit. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest LSD. They experience a psychedelic bad trip infused with Catholic prayer, represented through quick edits, sound effects, and over-exposed film.

Making camp afterward, Wyatt declares: "We blew it." Wyatt realizes that their search for freedom, while financially successful, was a spiritual failure. The next morning, the two are continuing their trip to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two hillbillies in a pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun. As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun at Billy who immediately hits the pavement, seriously wounded in the side. As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt races back to put his jacket over his injured friend already covered in blood before riding off for help. But by this time, the same pickup truck has turned around and closes on Wyatt. The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by the pickup, hitting the bike's gas tank which instantly erupts in a fiery explosion with parts flung everywhere along with Wyatt. The movie ends with a shot of the flaming bike before the camera ascends to the sky: the duo's journey has ended.

Cast

Production

During test shooting on location in New Orleans, Hopper fought with the production's ad hoc crew for control. At one point he entered into a physical confrontation with photographer Barry Feinstein, who was one of the camera operators for the shoot. After this turmoil, Hopper and Fonda decided to assemble a proper crew for the rest of the film.[4]

Allegedly, the characters of Wyatt and Billy were respectively based on Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds.[5] According to Terry Southern's biographer, Lee Hill, the part of George Hanson had been written for Southern's friend, actor Rip Torn. When Torn met with Hopper and Fonda at a New York restaurant in early 1968 to discuss the role, Hopper began ranting about the "rednecks" he had encountered on his scouting trip to the South. Torn, a Texan, took exception to some of Hopper's remarks, and the two almost came to blows, as a result of which Torn withdrew from the project and had to be replaced by Jack Nicholson. In 1994, Hopper was interviewed about Easy Rider by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, and during the interview, he alleged that Torn had pulled a knife on him during the altercation, prompting Torn to sue Hopper successfully for defamation.

The hippie commune was recreated from pictures and shot near Santa Monica, California overlooking Malibu Canyon, since the New Buffalo commune near Taos in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico did not permit shooting there.[6]

A short clip near the beginning of the film shows Wyatt and Billy on Stone Avenue in Tucson, Arizona, passing a large figure of a lumberjack, once in front of a lumber store. The lumberjack is still there in 2010.

Most of the film is shot outside with natural lighting. While this can be attributed to the film being a road movie, at the time Hopper said all the outdoor shooting was an intentional choice on his part, because "God is a great gaffer." The production used two five-ton trucks, one for the equipment and one for the motorcycles, with the cast and crew in a motor home.[6] One of the locations was Monument Valley.[6]

The restaurant scenes with Fonda, Hopper, and Nicholson were shot in Morganza, Louisiana.[6] The men and girls in that scene were all Morganza locals.[6] In order to inspire more vitriolic commentary from the local men, Hopper told them the characters of Billy, Wyatt, and George had raped and killed a girl outside of town.[4] The scene in which Billy and Wyatt were shot was filmed on Louisiana Highway 105 North just outside of Krotz Springs, Louisiana, and the two other men in the scene were Krotz Springs locals, Johnny David and D.C. Billedeau.

While shooting the cemetery scene, Hopper tried to convince Fonda to talk to the statue of the Madonna as though it were Fonda's mother (who had committed suicide when he was 10 years old) and ask her why she left him. Although Fonda was reluctant, he eventually complied. Later, Fonda used the inclusion of this scene as leverage to persuade Roger McGuinn to allow the use of his cover of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)".[4]

Despite being filmed in the first half of 1968, roughly between Mardi Gras and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, with production starting on February 22[7] the film did not have a U.S. premiere until July 1969, after having won an award at the Cannes film festival in May. The delay was partially due to a protracted editing process. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of Hopper's proposed cuts was 220 minutes long, including extensive use of the "flash-forward" narrative device, wherein scenes from later in the movie are inserted into the current scene. But only one flash-forward survives in the final edit, when Wyatt in the New Orleans brothel has a premonition of the final scene. At the request of Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, Henry Jaglom was brought in to edit the film into its current form, with Hopper effectively removed from the project. Upon seeing the final cut, Hopper was extremely pleased, claiming that Jaglom had crafted the film the way Hopper had originally intended. Despite the large part he played in shaping the film, Jaglom only received credit as an "Editorial Consultant".

Motorcycles

"Easy Rider" Replica in the German Motorcycle and NSU Museum in Neckarsulm

The motorcycles for the film, based on hardtail frames and Panhead engines, were designed and built by chopper builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, following ideas of Peter Fonda, and handled by Tex Hall and Dan Haggerty during shooting.

"Easy Rider" Replica in Alabama Barber Motorsports Museum

In total, four former police officer bikes were used in the film. The 1949, 1950 and 1952 Harley Davidson Hydra-Glide bikes were purchased at an auction for US$ 500 (equivalent to approx. US$ 2500 at 2007 currency rates). Each bike had a backup to make sure that shooting could continue in case one of the old machines failed or got wrecked accidentally. One "Captain America" was demolished in the final scene, while the other three were stolen and probably taken apart before their significance as movie props became known. The demolished bike was rebuilt by Dan Haggerty and shown in a museum. He sold it at an auction in 2001. Many other replicas have been built since the film’s release.

Hopper and Fonda hosted a wrap party for the movie and then realized they hadn't shot the final campfire scene. Thus, it was shot after the bikes had already been stolen, which is why they are not visible in the background as in the other campfire scenes.[8]

Significance

A box office hit with a $19 million intake, along with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, Easy Rider helped kick-start the New Hollywood phase during the late 1960s and early 1970s.[9] The major studios realised that money could be made from low-budget films made by avant-garde directors. Heavily influenced by the French New Wave, the films of the so-called "post-classical Hollywood" came to represent a counterculture generation increasingly disillusioned with its government and the world, the Establishment.[9] Although Jack Nicholson appears only as a supporting actor and in the last half of the film, the standout performance signaled his arrival as a movie star,[9] along with his subsequent film Five Easy Pieces in which he had the lead role.

The film's success, and the new era of Hollywood that it helped usher in, led to Hopper getting the chance to direct again, making whatever film he wanted with complete artistic control. This turned out to be 1971's The Last Movie, which was a notable box office and critical failure, effectively ending Hopper's directorial career for well over a decade.

Awards and honors

Hopper received the First Film Award (Prix de la première œuvre) at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.[10] At the Academy Awards, Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the film was also nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced.

The film appears at number 88 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years, 100 Movies. In 1998, Easy Rider was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

American Film Institute recognition

Music

The movie's "groundbreaking"[11] soundtrack featured The Band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Steppenwolf.[11] Editor Donn Cambern used various music from his own record collection to make watching hours of bike footage more interesting during editing.[6] Most of Cambern's music was used, with licensing costs of $1 million, more than the budget of the film.[6] When CSN viewed a rough cut of the film, they assured Hopper that they could not do any better than he already had.

Bob Dylan was asked to contribute music, but was reluctant to use his own recording of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", so a version performed by Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn was used instead. Also, instead of writing an entirely new song for the film, Dylan simply wrote out the first verse of “Ballad of Easy Rider” and told the filmmakers, “Give this to McGuinn, he’ll know what to do with it.” McGuinn completed the song and performed it in the film.

In popular culture

Peter Fonda's American Flag Patch, sold for $89,625 in 2007

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Internet Movie Database. Box office/Business for Easy Rider (1969). Retrieved on April 18, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Peter Fonda's Easy Rider auction". Boing Boing. 2007-09-16. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/16/peter-fondas-easy-ri.html. Retrieved 2008-10-18. 
  3. ↑ "BORN TO BE A CLASSIC: "EASY RIDER" WAS A TOUCHSTONE FOR A GENERATION AND FOR AMERICAN FILMMAKING". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 2001-07-29. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED904BFDE2A32EA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2008-10-19. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Interviews in Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage at the Internet Movie Database. A Making-of documentary.
  5. ↑ Walker, Michael. Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. New York: Faber and Faber, 2006, p. 210.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 "Easy Rider: 35 Years Later". Moviemaker.com. 2004-06-24. http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/easy_rider_35_years_later_2921/. Retrieved 2008-10-19. 
  7. ↑ http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/this_day_in_indie_history/P100/
  8. ↑ (as told in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Canby, Vincent. "Easy Rider (1969)". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/15197/Easy-Rider/overview. Retrieved 2008-10-18. 
  10. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Easy Rider". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2517/year/1969.html. Retrieved 2009-04-05. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "The greatest week in rock history". Salon. 2003-12-19. http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2003/12/19/rock/index.html. Retrieved 2008-10-19. 
  12. ↑ http://www.indieflix.com/film/iron-city-blues-22237/#director-statement
  13. ↑ Biography of Mike Doonesbury, Doonesbury@Slate.com. Retrieved June 21, 2007.

Bibliography

External links

Films directed by Dennis Hopper
Writer/director
Easy Rider (1969) · The Last Movie (1971) · Out of the Blue (1980)
Director
The Trip (1967, second unit) · Colors (1988) · Catchfire (1990) · The Hot Spot (1990) · Chasers (1994) · Homeless (2000, short)