I have always wanted to go on a trip across America. Easy Rider simultaneously made me want to do it more because of the beautiful landscape and cowboy aspect of being on the road alone, but also made me want to do it less, for obvious reasons if you've seen the movie. Someone I was talking to recently said he remembered the movie feeling dated, and I was thinking about that aspect last night. I think it's dated in the sense that the characters go to a hippie commune, and also in some of the language used (there are two moments in the film where this is evident: one character asking what L.A. is, and the other one asking what 'dude' means. He defines 'dude' as 'a regular guy'). Further, I think the film captures what it was like in 1969, the transitional period when Pop art already happened, rock and roll already happened, the summer of love was over, and drug usage was shifting from weed towards harder drugs and was becoming more of a business venture. There are moments in the film where you recognize a general sadness, a desperation, that occurs when people are disillusioned, both with the end of the 60s but also in a way with the cowboy ideal. They are like modern cowboys. Cowboys who do drugs. The bikes act as their companions like horses, the open roads, the enemies, the tense diner scene which parallel the tense saloon scenes in most cowboy movies (except here the cowboys leave instead of fighting), and the solitude of the landscape. Cowboys embody a certain American prototype ideal, but in Easy Rider it's almost as though that ideal has become jaded just like some of the later cowboy movies that were made and just like they became jaded with the sixties. Aside from that, I think the movie is still surprisingly relevant today, especially in terms of the hatred that is expressed, which is something I tend to forget because I live in NYC. That, and just how huge America is.
Also, on the about the movie part of the DVD they said that there is no time in the film where you see someone smoking weed and they are not actually smoking weed.
These were stolen from the internet:
Now I want to see more motorcycle movies!
