Saturday, April 12, 2014

1969 - EASY RIDER, better than I thought

I was actually kind of expecting the worst for this film.  A dated piece of counterculture crap with the characters calling it other "man" about a thousand times.  I was pleasantly surprised that this film was as good as it was.  



Not much need to rehash the plot here.  Wyatt and Captain America sell their cocaine stash and with the money they receive they decide to head down to New Orleans to party during Mardi Gras.  Easy Rider is essentially a series of encounters and incidents they have on the trip. 


For a fairly modesty budgeted production, the film has very good photography and certainly has a good feeling for the southwestern part of the United States.  Hopper and Fonda were never the greatest actors in the world but they are certainly iconic on their wheels wearing their riding outfits particularly Fonda in his Captain America outfit.  Jack Nicholson shows up for a while and I actually remembered that he was a good actor before he became Jack Nicholson.  

The film certainly captures the tension the rural red neck class had dealing with anyone different from them in attitude or belief.  That aspect of the film hasn't dated much.

95 minutes, written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern.

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