Easy Rider - the ultimate hippie wet dream

Easy Rider certainly was a revolutionary movie when it came out. Directed by “hippie” director Dennis Hopper (later in life a Republican) and starring Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson in his breakout role, the picture was considered a searing portrait of all that was uncool and intolerant of the America of that era. The story is about two bikers who set off from Los Angeles to New Orleans to catch Mardi Gras, and this road story is a panorama of Americana circa 1969 – the good and the bad. Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) have always been considered among the ultimate pop and counter-culture heroes. But really? These guys were major drug dealers. After doing a deal with Mexican cocaine lords they pocket the money in a tube in Wyatt’s chopper’s Star and Stripes-painted gas tank. Wyatt of course is Captain America with the US flag painted on his leather jacket. I was never sure about the symbolism and put it down to irony or an ideal America he wasn’t finding. Driving through smalltown America they’re met by cruel sheriffs and town rednecks. They’re locked overnight in a jail where they meet George Hanson (Nicholson) a libertarian lawyer who has nothing better to do and joins them on the road, complete with his shiny golden football helmet. Wyatt and Billy also pick up a hitch hiker who takes them to a free love commune. Billy is cynical and jumpy but Wyatt looks upon the gentle people and says, “Dig it, they’re going to make it.” (Make it in more than one way, but I digress.) More travails beset our nomads. But they finally make it to Mardi Gras, where the film turns into a visual LSD-fueled kaleidoscope of images where the whole kit and caboodle including prostitute Karen (Karen Black) drop acid. This movie – and story – is so old and well-worn I don’t think I’m breaking critic’s honor by divulging the ending. Our (anti) heroes finally get offed by a couple of hick rednecks, origin of the infamous “Easy Rider Rifle Rack” adorning the back of pickup truck cabs everywhere. A lot of the movie’s appeal had to be the soundtrack, from Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild to Dylan’s It’s All Right Ma to The Byrds' Wasn’t Born To Follow. The movie was definitely a reflection of its time and hardly represents today’s changed cultural landscape, where you can now find hip enclaves even in places in Oklahoma and Texas. Hell, hip is the culture that rules these days! And while the hippies are offed in this movie, the film I watched before this, 1973’s Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio), had Robert Blake as motorcycle officer John Wintergreen. In the final scene it isn’t the rednecks killing low lifes, it’s hippies in a VW minibus who take out a rifle and blow the cop away.