Easy Rider

We both really liked this one. It was produced by Henry Fonda and directed by Dennis Hopper, who also played the leading roles, in 1969. Easy Rider met with a lot of critical acclaim, Dennis Hopper won a prize at Cannes and was nominated for multiple academy awards including Best Supporting Actor for newcomer Jack Nicholson.

We wanted to watch this one first, even though it is kind of a close to the 60's, because it shows what we want to build up to through the 60's. The hostility with which the "freedom," as Nicholson's character says, that Wyatt and Billy represent was met and the great divide between the counterculture and "mainstream" rural life in America show the uncertainty and violence that was present at the dawn of 1970. We want to track the progression of culture to what this film represents.

Kamala: This was great. The cinematography was almost self-consciously arty especially during the acid trip sequence. If anyone has seen My Own Private Idaho, it is pretty obvious that Gus VanSant was pretty heavily influenced by this one with its tracking shots of nature and freeze frames in the acid sequence. For scene changes Hopper used these flickering cuts that would switch back and forth between the new scene and the old three times or so before settling on the new location. He also used a lot of Godard-like angles and chaotic scenes where the focus of the shot changes rapidly from, for example a baton twirler's shoulder to someone's shoe to a tuba player's hat in a scene at a parade.

Emily: The wide angle shots of the American west were unbelievably gorgeous. Also thank god they defined the word "dude" for me, I was so confused. Also, Kamala did not do the LSD sequence justice. It was a visually arresting mishmash of over-exposed shots of the sky above an old New Orleans graveyard, Peter Fonda speaking to a statue of the virgin Mary, Fonda, Hopper and two lady-friends squeezed into this tiny space between two mausoleums talking to the dead, and clips of a woman reciting the Nycene Creed all edited together so quickly as to be almost nauseating. The soundtrack was good too.

Kamala: She already bought it on iTunes. There was this one shot that equated a cowboy shoeing his horse to Wyatt changing a flat on his motorcycle. I thought that was cool.

Emily: Basically what we are trying to get across was that Easy Rider, as opposed to the less mainstream movies we watched from the 50's, was arty. It paid attention to camera angles and actually had a philosophical point.

Kamala: Emily and I disagree on what that point is exactly. I think it was about the anger and resentment that the anti-war and counterculture movements garnered from the rest of America, and the resultant loss of some kind of overarching American identity.

Emily: I thought it was more about a search for personal freedom. More general and less about just America.

Whatever it was supposed to mean, we both recommend Easy Rider to anyone who wants to see a good film.