EASY RIDER (1969) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Dennis Hopper
Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson,
Luke Askew, Luana Anders, Sabrina Scharf,
Karen Black, Toni Basil, Robert Walker
Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper play Wyatt and Billy, a couple of 20th-century outlaws who make some money smuggling cocaine out of Mexico and take off across the U.S. on motorcycles, heading for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Hopper's groundbreaking first feature became a cinematic anthem for the 1960s, filled with late-'60s cliches, but played with a conviction that few other movies from or about the period seem to get. Nicholson's star-making performance as a loquacious small-town lawyer should bring a knowing grin to anybody who remembers smoking pot for the first time, and there's some great rock & roll on the soundtrack. Wyatt and Billy might be free-wheeling free spirits, but they're not entirely likeable, and they're a distinctly odd couple when it comes to temperament and style. One's a fashionably decked-out narcissist. The other's a ratty, unkempt sociopath. They don't think much beyond themselves, and their behavior sometimes reflects that. They complain about not being able to get a room in a cheap motel, but when they're turned away from a cheap motel late at night, you suspect it's got less to do with their bikes and long hair than the fact that they're acting like assholes. Some might see them as martyrs, but they're sure as hell not saints, and that gives the movie's dreamy pessimism a subversive, misanthropic edge. Still, nobody looked cooler back then than Peter Fonda on a motorcycle, and nothing distilled counterculture rebellion to a more succinct level of expression than Hopper's defiant, one-fingered salute. The violent, senseless conclusion can still make your blood run cold.
Karen Black
(1939-2013)
