American International Pictures, the low-rent but high-energy exploitation film studio Corman had helped make into a force, also made “hippiesploitation” films like Richard Rush’s Psych-Out (1967). The Trip also sported a small supporting performance from Dennis Hopper, and was written by Corman’s star discovery and acting protégé Jack Nicholson. Both of those films starred Peter Fonda, son of Hollywood legend Henry and brother of fellow rising star Jane. Call it Hopper’s How The West Was Lost.Įasy Rider owed much of its genesis to beloved low-budget impresario Roger Corman, who had, as the exploitation film market evolved in the 1960s and the youth audience’s tastes grew more rowdier along with the ‘60s zeitgeist, set out to please them with films about various precincts of the culture like the biker movie The Wild Angels (1966) and the LSD experimentation flick The Trip (1967). The loss of the pioneer spirit, so long celebrated in the culture, now like a narcotic addiction deadly to kick, the sense of the USA as a place on the move breaking down and squelching through the mud of Vietnam. And a more elusive, existential dagnosis, a background hum of anxiety that’s only grown louder in the last few years. In its cumulatively devastating wrestle not just with general and pervasive worries of the modern world, but with specifically American symptoms of that worry, particularly gun violence. With my most recent viewing it felt not just still vital but disquieting, even shocking, in how relevant it felt. Not bad for a movie often written off with that dread phrase, “time capsule.” What’s most fascinating about Easy Rider is that it continues to evolve: every time I’ve watched it it’s felt like a different movie. ![]() The film’s infamous climax still had its effect: several members of the young troupe were left blubbering and clinging to each-other. I sat encamped literally and figuratively between two other generations, with some aging former hippies a row behind me, reminiscing with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment, and a troupe of young people – late teens, early twenties – settled a few rows down, who had clearly not seen the film before and were there to bone up in their bohemian catechisms. Terrific movie.Screenwriters: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry SouthernĪ few years ago, I went to a revival screening of Easy Rider in a town that’s something of a magnet for alt-culture people. The fact that I'm a modern day hippy(if I get enough sticky) makes this film all the more enjoyable and also all the more infuriating. This is certainly a movie for those who have a similar view on life as that of the hippie generation. This is as anti-establishment as movies come and Dennis Hopper's direction is great. The cast is pretty good here with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and an excellent performance from Jack Nicholson. Along the way they pick up a couple of interesting characters, spend a little time in jail, smoke marijuana, and deal with the anti-long haired hippy stereotypes of the south. for a cross country road trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and then to their retirement in Florida. ![]() Two biker hippies make a big cocaine sale and then leave L.A. ![]() It's actually the only time I've seen a movie that gets the acid trip right. The acid trip scene in this film is the best tripping scene ever filmed in my opinion. It does the best job of any film I've ever seen at summing up the hippy state of mind and the hippy experience. And couldn't find it anywhere."Įasy Rider is the quintessential hippy movie. It's not every man that can live off the land, you know. ![]() Captain America: No, I mean it, you've got a nice place.
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