I think there’s something thematically revealing in the fact that CSN and/or Y’s “Find the Cost of Freedom” was written for the Easy Rider soundtrack. It wasn’t included in the film, but it says something about the film’s intent.
Oh, and BTW, the American Film Institute lists this “old turd” as the 84th most important movie of all time.
And Wyatt and Billy weren’t exactly short on cash, if you’ll recall the contents of “Captain America”'s gas tank.
It’s a reasonably good movie about moral ambiguity in the 60s. I knew people like them. Stoners like Billy really irritated me. Pontificators like Wyatt made me homicidal. “Yeah, man, you’re doing your thing. That’s cool.” Bite me. And George had an urgent need for psychiatric intervention.
The sad commune was one of the better parts of the movie. The bad acid trip was ambitious, and if it wasn’t quite successful, well, they tried. The fact that Wyatt and Billy were pushing drugs adds to the moral ambiguity, and is a detail that’s often overlooked. Also, Wyatt’s recognition that they blew it was a nicely-scripted bit of perceptive honesty.
So I kind of like the movie because in a lot of places it’s a good portrayal of the things I really hated about the 60s. It’s not as irritating as other preachy movies that came out around that time; the Billy Jack movies, “Joe,” and “Deliverance” come to mind. Hopper and Fonda could have done a bit better with the pacing, though.
The ending was jarring, and cinematic, but dumb. Cycle-riding hippies weren’t being blown away by drunken rednecks (nor were they beaten up in the woods). The theme there seems to be, “they hate us because of our freedom.” Where have I heard that one?
It bothered me at the time, and bothers me now, that these guys were just too old for what they were doing. Fonda was 29, Hopper 33, and Nicholson 32. Sure, there were hippies around that were that age. But a tale of alienated, disaffected youth trying to find a better way loses a bit of it’s punch when, most probably, the principals would have, by that age, outgrown this sort of thing and become roofers or investment bankers or movie makers, depending on their “bag.”
[QUOTE=denquixote]
Thanks-how long did this group last? "Electric prunes’-catchy name!
B&C came out 2 years before ER, which was released in 1969, the same year as The Wild Bunch. However, the Penn & Peckinpah dealt with violent criminals. Anti-heroes? Yes, but also figures not overtly worked up about those caught up in the crossfire of their illegal activities. Though Billy & Cap are technically felons, they’re never seen hurting anyone, and while there’s more than a little naivite about their pursuits, there’s also a good taste of disillusionment along their trip that runs counter to any claim that the hippie lifestyle is romanticized. Yet, their deaths are brutal, prejudicial, and fairly believable.
Not necessarily a film that holds up too well today, but it’s priceless as an artifact of the time and the temperment during its release.
Not really, in the context of its time. In a counter-culture film about counter-culture individuals, a drug deal was just an alternative means of acquiring necessary cash. Not morally ambiguous – just not following the conventional morality. The equivalent would be Albert Brooks in Lost in America cashing in his 401(k).
This was years before “just say no”.
Yes. One of my favorite final shots.
First of all, the fact that you watch films on AMC is quite damning. 
AMC is crap. They chop films up and intersperse the remains with the same, boring, 10-minute self-promo pieces that highlight upcoming films on their roster. “Hey, I got an idea. How about you, like, show the film that is, you know, actually playing at the moment. Just an idea.” Every time you watch AMC, God kills a kitten.
But anyway, Easy Rider is a hugely iconic, powerful film and contributed greatly to the revolution in film that saw the decay of the old studio system and the emergence of the system we see today. It’s certainly not an old turd.
Does the AMC version contain any hint of drug use? Do people who only know the AMC version even know its a drug movie? 
The AMC version definitely had drug use. It showed Phil Spector snorting the blow and Jack Nicholson’s monologue about aliens and UFO’s while he’s stoned out of his mind. I agree with the lousy self-promotions, though. I saw it in '05 when it had that dating connection thing going on. It sort of hurt the solemnity of the movie.
AMC is running an original series now called Mad Men. It’s set in 1960 in a NYC ad agency. It’s a bit of a soap opera but with good dialogue and an edge. For those of us who remember 1960, it’s also a reminder that the good old days weren’t so hot.
I refuse to watch hacked films on AMC, but did notice a while back that they had a “Mad Men July 19” ad on the bottom of their screen, while a movie was playing, and not for a few seconds, but continuous.
Maybe in the bay area, if you were there then, but it wasn’t seen that way where I was (OH, PA). True, people dealing marijuana were seen as innocuous, but hard drugs were another matter. IIRC, they were selling a white powder, which would presumably be heroin, as it was too early to be coke. Heroin was seen as bad news.
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
I guess Kelly5078 knows but I would have said about an hour and a half.
It was not too early to be coke.
That’s right–no alcohol before noon, but it’s never too early for coke.
If you believe Hopper’s commentary on the DVD, they were was no oregano smoked during the filming of the movie.
I’m 25 and only saw this film 2 years ago. I really liked it. It is dated I suppose in some ways but not in anyway that impedes enjoyment of it imho.
I was under the impression that they were urban professionals or creative types, taking a break from their daily existence to do something “wild”. Their age then would be roughly accurate. I’ve only seen the film once so I’m willing to accept I may have misinterpreted this part.
I agree with you on the concluding scene. Although I thought it worked cinematically I found it a bit pernicious. It seemed to me to represent a certain contempt with which the makers of the film held the normal populace of America.
Huh? It’s a bitch when timeouts kill the edit window! :smack:
In his commentary, Hopper remarked that they used real weed in the movie. The question is – what was *I *smoking?
Not only that, but I thought they also bowdlerize content to avoid offending anyone. Does anyone remember if the girl having the bad trip is seen in the altogether in the original movie, and does AMC show it that way if so?