EASY RIDER [1969 / 2016] [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
A man went looking for America, and could not find it anywhere!
This is the definitive counterculture blockbuster. The down-and-dirty directorial debut of former clean-cut teen star Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider heralded the arrival of a new voice in film, one pitched angrily against the mainstream. After the film’s cross-country journey — with its radical, New Wave – style editing, outsider-rock soundtrack, revelatory performance by a young Jack Nicholson, and explosive ending — the American road trip would never be the same.
The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality. With supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1969 Cannes Film Festival: Win: Best First Work for Dennis Hopper. Nomination: Palme d'Or for Dennis Hopper. 1969 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: KCFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. 1969 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: NYFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. 1998 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry. 1970 Academy Awards®: Nominations: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Jack Nicholson. Nominations: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced for Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. 1970 BAFTA Awards: costs of travel and lodging for the crew, saying, “Everybody was taking my credit cards and would pay for all the hotels, the food, the gas, everything with Diner's Club.” Laszlo Kovacs said that an additional $1 million, “about three times the budget Nominations: BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. 1970 Directors Guild of America: Nomination: DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for Dennis Hopper. 1970 Golden Globes: Nomination: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. 1970 Laurel Awards: Win: Golden Laurel Award for Male Supporting Performance for Jack Nicholson. Nomination: Golden Laurel Award for Drama [5th place]. Nomination: Golden Laurel Award for Cinematographer for László Kovács. Nomination: Golden Laurel Award for Male New Face for Peter Fonda. Nomination: Golden Laurel Award for Male New Face for Dennis Hopper [5th place]. 1970 National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA: Win: NSFC Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. Win: Special Award for Dennis Hopper for his achievements as director, co-writer and co-star. 1970 Writers Guild of America, USA: Nomination: WGA Award (Screen) for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen for Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. 1971 Kinema Junpo Awards: Win: Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Dennis Hopper.
FILM FACT No.2: The filming budget of ‘EASY RIDER’ was $360,000 to $400,000. Peter Fonda said that on top of this, he personally paid for the shooting the rest of the film” was spent licensing music that was added during the editing. The hippie commune was recreated from pictures and shot at a site overlooking Malibu Canyon, since the New Buffalo commune in Arroyo Hondo near Taos, New Mexico, did not permit shooting there. A short clip near the beginning of the film shows Wyatt and Billy on Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona, passing a large figure of a lumberjack. That lumberjack statue — once situated in front of the Lumberjack Café — remains in Flagstaff, but now stands inside the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome on the campus of Northern Arizona University. A second, very similar statue was also moved from the Lumberjack Café to the exterior of the Skydome. Most of the film is shot outside with natural lighting. Hopper said all the outdoor shooting was an intentional choice on his part, because “God is a great gaffer.” The production used two five-ton trucks, one for the equipment and one for the motorcycles, with the cast and crew in a motor home. One of the locations was Monument Valley. The restaurant scenes with Fonda, Hopper, and Nicholson were shot in Morganza, Louisiana. The men and girls in that scene were all Morganza locals. In order to inspire more vitriolic commentary from the local men, Hopper told them the characters of Billy, Wyatt, and George had raped and killed a girl outside of town. The scene in which Billy and Wyatt were shot was filmed on Louisiana Highway 105 North, just outside Krotz Springs, and the two other men in the scenev — Johnny David and D.C. Billodeau — were Krotz Springs locals. While shooting the cemetery scene, Dennis Hopper tried to convince Peter Fonda to talk to the statue of the Madonna as though it were Peter Fonda's mother (who had committed suicide when he was 10 years old) and ask her why she left him. Although Peter Fonda was reluctant, he eventually complied. Later Peter Fonda used the inclusion of this scene, along with the concluding scene, as leverage to persuade Bob Dylan to allow the use of Roger McGuinn's cover of “It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding).”
Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza, Phil Spector, Mac Mashourian, Warren Finnerty, Tita Colorado, Luke Askew, Luana Anders, Sabrina Scharf, Sandy Brown Wyeth, Robert Walker Jr., Robert Ball, Carmen Phillips, Ellie Wood Walker, Michael Pataki, Jack Nicholson, George Fowler Jr., Keith Green, Hayward Robillard, Arnold Hess Jr., Buddy Causey Jr., Duffy Lafont, Blase M. Dawson, Paul Guedry Jr., Suzie Ramagos, Elida Ann Hebert, Rose LeBlanc, Mary Kaye Hebert, Cynthia Grezaffi, Colette Purpera, Toni Basil, Karen Black, Lea Marmer, Cathé Cozzi, Thea Salerno, Anne McClain, Beatriz Monteil, Marcia Bowman, David C. Billodeau, Johnny David, Susan Brewer (uncredited), Garrett Cassell (uncredited), Bridget Fonda (uncredited), Justin Fonda (uncredited), Virgil Frye (uncredited), Dan Haggerty (uncredited), Randee Lynne Jensen (uncredited), Helena Kallianiotes (uncredited) and Carrie Snodgress (uncredited)
Director: Dennis Hopper
Producers: Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson (uncredited), Peter Fonda and William L. Hayward
Screenplay: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern
Special Effects: Steve Karkus
Cinematography: László Kovács, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) and Baird Bryant (uncredited)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 95 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Columbia Pictures / The Criterion Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘EASY RIDER’ [1969] was a seismic jolt to the Hollywood establishment. A freewheeling, plot-less, drug-fuelled, jump-cutting paean to freedom that culminates in a ten-minute psychedelic trip in a New Orleans cemetery. There is no backstory or character development. No inciting incident or conflict to be resolved. The rules of filmmaking do not apply here. This is the “New Hollywood,” where there were no rules.
Following a drug deal, Billy [Dennis Hopper] and Wyatt – “Captain America” [Peter Fonda] set out on the highway, headed for Mardi Gras for the biggest score of their lives, in every sense of the word. Peter Fonda imbues his Wyatt – “Captain America” with a quiet melancholy that suggests he knows something is off, if only he could put his finger on it. His optimistic insistence, for example, that the starving, dysfunctional hippies in a commune they encounter “are gonna make it” rings hollow, despite his temptation to stay with the group and let Billy leave on his own. Meanwhile, Billy seems far more at home amongst the drugs and grubby sex, but for Wyatt – “Captain America” the sense that time is out of joint and can’t be shaken.
Moreover, casting the son of Henry Fonda, past emblem of conventional American wholesomeness and Western individual liberty merely serves to widen the gulf between past idealism and present reality, and it’s that unhinged sense of time that is key to the movie ‘EASY RIDER.’
The frenetic edits between scenes awkwardly shutter together otherwise distinct moments, creating a sense of unease and foreboding in what should be an easy-going adventure about the open road. The question of freedom strikes not merely at the heart of Billy and Wyatt – “Captain America” and his own quest, but fundamentally at the failure of the American project: one in which individual freedom is held conceptually in the highest regard, but where practically it is curtailed at every juncture. Or, as Jack Nicholson’s show-stealing George Hanson puts it, “people will talk to you about individual freedom, but when they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ’em.”
And indeed it does, as Billy and Wyatt – “Captain America” and his mere appearances incite a brutal attack which leaves George Hanson dead, and the audience in no doubt of the health of ‘individual freedom’ in this vision of America. The pair finally makes it to Mardi Gras, but the reflective sheen of its carnivalesque (characteristic of a carnival or festival; lively and exciting), orgiastic promise has worn to a murky, distorted mirror. It is fitting culmination in a type of Kenneth Anger-esque drug-induced nightmare remains among the most disturbing scenes in cinema, not least for Wyatt – “Captain America,” for whom the sequence represents his final admission of the decade’s broken promise. The night before Billy and Wyatt – “Captain America” are gunned down by hateful, ignorant rednecks, Wyatt – “Captain America” tells Billy “we’ve blown it.” With a vision as bleak as this, it’s difficult to disagree.
Borne out of the exploitation cult biker films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The ‘EASY RIDER’ movie gave us a great big sexy swagger and rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack took a sub-culture B-movie and rode headlong into the blockbuster mainstream. As the dream of the 1960’s died – with war raging in Vietnam, JFK and Martin Luther King being assassinated, peace and love being replaced with fear and paranoia – ‘EASY RIDER’ gave a massive two finger salute to the old school studio system.
László Kovács incredible, natural cinematography has never looked better than on this Blu-ray transfer. László Kovács gives us breath-taking images of the American wilderness, matched with the amazing soundtrack, are the very definition of the freedom that Billy and Captain America represent. In perhaps the film’s most famous scene, George tells them both that representing freedom is why the establishment is scared of them. And people, who are scared, are dangerous. Those familiar with the film will know that this point is bluntly hammered home in the final scenes.
The cultural and film industry-wide impact of ‘EASY RIDER’ is undoubtedly more significant than its impact as a lasting cinematic work of art. Yes there are great moments littered throughout, but it is ultimately a film of its time, and as such has not aged particularly well. The LSD trip in the New Orleans cemetery – filmed on grainy 16mm long before principle photography had even begun – is one such sequence that belongs in the 1960’s.
But irrespective of a few dated scenes, that iconic moment when the credits roll – we get to hear the awesome “BORN TO BE WILD” kicks in and we see Peter Fonda on his chopper looking like the coolest cat dude that ever lived – still gives me chills today. But most of all of course is the awesome iconic classic music soundtrack that adds to the magical experience of viewing this equally amazing iconic film directed by the equally iconic American actor/director/writer Dennis Hopper.
EASY RIDER MUSIC TRACK LIST
THE PUSHER (Composed by Hoyt Axton) [Performed by Steppenwolf]
BORN TO BE WILD (Composed by Mars Bonfire) [Performed by Steppenwolf]
I WASN’T BORN TO FOLLOW (Composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King) [Performed by The Byrds]
THE WEIGHT (Composed by Jaime Robbie Robertson) [Performed by The Band]
IF YOU WANT TO BE A BIRD (Composed by Antonia Duren) [Performed by The Holy Modal Rounders]
DON’T BOGART ME (Composed by Elliott Ingber and Larry Wagner) [Performed by Fraternity of Man]
IF SIX WERE NINE (Composed by Jimi Hendrix) [Performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience]
LET’S TURKEY TROT (Composed by Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller) [Performed by Little Eva]
KYRIE ELEISON (Composed by David Axlerod) [Performed by The Electric Prunes]
FLASH, BAM, POW (Composed by Mike Bloomfield) [Performed by The Electric Flag, an American Music Band]
IT’S ALL RIGHT, MA (I'm Only Bleeding) (Composed by Bob Dylan) [Performed by Roger McGuinn]
BALLAD OF EASY RIDER (Composed by Roger McGuinn) [Performed by Roger McGuinn]
WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN (uncredited) (Traditional) [Heard at the Mardi Gras]
SHE’LL BE COMING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (uncredited) (Traditional) [Heard at the commune]
DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW (uncredited) (Traditional) [Heard at the commune]
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Columbia Pictures and The Criterion Collection presents us the film ‘EASY RIDER’ with a new Blu-ray edition, featuring the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and the image was given a brand new 4K restoration a couple of years ago and it looks amazing. The image also has a very clean and polished look and that’s saying something as this movie hasn’t always been easy on the eyes. The harsh lighting, and the abundance of sunlight and bear in mind that this is a “road” movie, has slightly created some harsh shadows. The majority of the film has been cleaned up quite considerably; some dirt and grain are still prevalent but not in a very intrusive way. Chalk another one up for The Criterion Collection as they have taken this modern classic “road movie” and given it a brand new lease on life.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Columbia Pictures and The Criterion Collection brings us the film ‘EASY RIDER’ and of course you have a variety options to for your audio experience, and that choice would be the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix, and it is in my opinion, it’s the best the movie has ever sounded. Vocals seem to have just the right audio mix of ambiance and depth to really impress. Also included as an added bonus is the 2.0 DTS HD Master Audio track which sounds nearly as good and the film’s original 1.0 mono audio track on a previous earlier release. Either way you go, it’s going to satisfy and it’s nice to have such a variety of choices here.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography László Kovács, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Alternate 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
Special Feature: Audio Commentary featuring Dennis Hopper [2009] [1080p] [1.85:1] [94:14] With this featurette, we get to hear the first audio commentary that was recorded in 2009, and features the late actor/director/writer Dennis Hopper. To listen to this audio commentary while viewing the movie ‘EASY RIDER,’ press the AUDIO button on your remote control and select the 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio experience. As the film begins, Dennis Hopper introduces himself and informs us that he plays the second biker to Peter Fonda in this movie ‘EAST RIDER,’ and also says that the original idea for the movie ‘EAST RIDER,’ came from Peter Fonda, and when he was in Canada with two other friends who were involved with the film industry at AIP [American International Pictures] and was promoting a movie that Peter Fonda appeared in entitled ‘TRIP,’ that Jack Nicholson was the screenwriter and Peter Fonda told them a story about two motorbike riders who were smokers of drugs and also sold strong drugs and with the big cash bonus bought two big beautiful Harley-Davison motorbikes and drove across America to their final destination of the Mardi Gras and had a wonderful time at that wonderful festival and the following day they would go into Florida and both got shot and killed by a couple of duck hunters. Peter Fonda ask Dennis Hopper if they can do the screenplay together, but most of all wanted Dennis Hopper to direct the movie as well as also being the producer, and Peter Fonda asked Dennis Hopper what he thought of the offer, but also asked did they definitely want to give you the money for the film and said, “Yes” and Dennis Hopper says, “Sounds like a great idea to me.” So from that point on, Peter Fonda and I started to make an outline, and walked about Peter Fonda’s tennis court talking load of ideas and this went on for ten days, and on the 10th day they finally had a complete outline, and so they both went off to shoot some 16mm footage at the New Orleans Mardi Gras sequence you see in the film, but Dennis Hopper and with some other budding movie making friends got together with some more 16mm cameras to also film the Mardi Gras extra footage. The Dennis Hopper left to go to New York and to meet up with Terry Southern to type out the screenplay and Paul Lewis became the production manager for the movie ‘EASY RIDER.’ So Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda set off across America looking for locations and eventually got to new Orleans and telephoned the people who were also doing the screenplay, but had not done any work on it, so Dennis Hopper urgently got on an aeroplane and flew to New York and he shut himself in a hotel room for ten days with a secretary dictating his outline to her for the film. Eventually Dennis Hopper got back with Peter Fonda to do principal photography and the scene we are watching with aeroplanes landing and with horrendous noise at Los Angeles airport and we see them doing a drug deal with Phil Spector, who is actually a close friend of Dennis Hopper, and he thought Phil Spector was really good in the scene in the film, but is also in real life a natural born paranoid schizoid personality and Phil Spector kept thinking the aeroplanes were going to land on his head. Dennis Hopper ways that the music in the movie was very important to him personally, because as he was editing ahead of when the music would be incorporated into film for over 12 months later, and was very pleased with the results with the actual songs used in the film, and again while editing the film, and also would play the songs that eventually ended up as the soundtrack to film. Now Dennis Hopper talks about the wonderful and totally brilliant cinematography László Kovács who had original left Hungary when the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 happened in his home country, and feels László Kovács is the best professional telephoto operator that Dennis Hopper has never ever experienced before in the film industry. This is the most evocative piece by Dennis Hopper and can be very emotional, tender, melancholy, and largely divorced from concerns of tending his own legend. Hopper often lets the film do the talking for him, offering poetic observations that complement the images in free-associative fashion. Over an early shot of money being hidden in a motorcycle’s gas tank, for instance, Dennis Hopper says that he was interested in the symbolism of the United States as a “chrome machine” destined for disaster. Dennis Hopper also contextualizes the movie ‘EASY RIDER’ as the result of the collision of dozens of legends, including Bob Rafelson, Roger Corman, Henry Jaglom, and others. As we get near to the end of the movie ‘Easy Rider,’ Dennis Hopper says that one of his favourite sequence in the film, is driving past the mansions, and juxtaposing then against the industrial waste. Dennis Hopper talks about the two idiots that do something really nasty to Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper on their motorcycles, but of course those two Hicksville yokels actors portraying racist morons, and Dennis Hopper wanted to use the Bob Dylan song “It’s Alright Ma” for that nasty scene at the end of the film, but when they showed head honchos, they totally rejected them from using that song and the end of the film. But for a while Dennis Hopper just rambles on about nothing of any interest and I also could not understand what the hell he was talking about, and at that point the Dennis Hopper audio commentary ends.
Special Feature: Audio Commentary featuring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Paul Lewis [1995] [1080p] [1.85:1] [94:51] With this featurette, we get to hear this second audio commentary featuring actor/director/writer Dennis Hopper, actor/writer Peter Fonda, and production manager Paul Lewis, and was recorded in 1995. To listen to this audio commentary while viewing the movie ‘EASY RIDER,’ press the AUDIO button on your remote control and select the 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio experience. As the film begins, we are informed by an unknown young lady we about to hear an audio commentary by Peter Fonda and Paul Lewis in California, and Dennis Hopper on the telephone on the East Coast, all talking about the movie ‘EASY RIDER,’ and Peter Fonda and Paul Lewis sound like they are in an echo chamber or in a very large hall, and talk about the first scene in the film and cannot remember the place it was filmed, where they ride up to a shack and park their motorcycles, but eventually they remember the name of the location. Then Dennis Hopper comes in and talks about in general of the scene we are viewing, about the trick riders getting the money for the drugs. Again the scene we are watching, most of the people in the scene lived in that particular place it was filmed, and of course the actual cocaine they sniff up their noses, was actually sugar. They talk about the scene where Phil Spector turns up in his Rolls Royce with his eerie body guard to buy their cocaine, and Dennis Hopper again says Phil Spector was absolutely scared and paranoid, and talks about the aeroplanes landing at the Los Angeles Airport runway, and Phil Spector was absolutely scared when the aeroplanes came into land at the airport and he felt they were going to land on him. As we get more into the film, the three of them just ramble on about nothing of interest or even nothing in general about the film. At chapter 5, where Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are in the open in front of the fire smoking dope, and Dennis Hopper says at this point in the film Peter Fonda and himself were not getting along very well, and Dennis Hopper says he was trying to make Peter Fonda look as good as he can in the film. They talk about certain shots they really like in the movie, and how certain shots with the sun on Peter Fonda’s glasses looks good with the glint of the sun on them. From then on we get far too many silent gaps, but when they do start to talk, it is utterly boring rubbish information and to my mind they definitely would get no awards from me for their audio commentary. With this second audio commentary with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Paul Lewis, is totally detached and definitely less involving and Denis Hopper and Peter Fonda don’t sound as if they’re watching the film from the same vantage point, but it still abounds in choice observations, particularly on the various subtleties of the scenes we are watching. This one is, understandably, a little more chattier, but nonetheless it is chocked full of information about the shoot and the film as a whole. As we get near to the end of the movie ‘EASY RIDER,’ and again they talk about nothing of interest and it is one of the most ghastly audio commentary I have ever had to endure and this particular audio commentary should never ever been allowed on this Blu-ray release and if you are not keen, then you will not of missed anything and should get the Turkey Award for their effort. Please Note: Due to the amount of space I am allowed for my Blu-ray Reviews, and especially as there are two audio commentaries with this particular Blu-ray release, then of course I have had to edit them both very much and I hope it will not spoil your enjoyment in what you read.
Special Feature: Born to Be Wild: The Story of ‘EASY RIDER’ [1995] [480i] [1.37:1] [29:50] With this featurette, we get to view a documentary about the film ‘EASY RIDER,’ and was created by Nick Freand Jones [Film Producer] and was first aired in the UK on the BBC2 television channel in December 1995. Contributors include: Dennis Hopper [Director], Karen Black [Actress], Laszlo Kovacs [Cinematographer], Peter Fonda [Producer], Henry Jaglom [Editorial Consultant] and Lee Hill [Biographer of Terry Southern]. As a bonus, we get to view lots of clips from the movie ‘EASY RIDER.’ This featurette is dedicated to Terry Southern [1924 – 1995]
Special Feature: ‘EASY RIDER’ – Shaking the Cage [1999] [1080i] [1.78:1] [64:50] With this featurette, we are informed that in 1969, a low-budget motorcycle movie changed forever the way America looks at itself and the way films redefine culture. It was called ‘EASY RIDER.’ And the journey of the filmmakers was a wild and revealing as the film they were making . . . We get to view this just over an hour-long documentary about the production and cultural impact of ‘EASY RIDER’ that was directed by Charles Kiselyak in 1999. Contributors include: Dennis Hopper [Director/Billy], Peter Fonda [Producer], Bill Hayward [Associate Producer], Seymour Cassel [Actor], Karen Black [Actress/Karen], Paul Lewis [Production Manager], Luke Askew [Actor/Stranger on the Highway] and László Kovács [Cinematographer]. Once again as an added bonus, we get to view lots of clips from the movie ‘EASY RIDER.’
Special Feature: Hopper and Fonda at Cannes [1969] [480i] [1.37:1] [2:08] With this featurette, we get to view a very short black-and-white segment from a French television program entitled “Pour le cinéma” and shows Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda bringing the movie ‘EASY RIDER’ to the Cannes Film Festival. It was directed by Pierre Mignot and originally aired on the 22nd May, 1969. It has at the bottom of the screen white English subtitles for the French speaking parts of the documentary.
Special Feature: STEVE BLAUNER From Screen Gems to BBS [2021] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [18:40] With this featurette, we get to view the following interview with Steve Blauner – the S in BBS – and was conducted exclusively for The Criterion Collection in Los Angeles in 2010. As an added bonus, we again get lots of clips from the movie ‘EASY RIDER.’
Special Feature: Trailers: Here we get to view two Original Theatrical Trailers for the film ‘EASY RIDER’ and they are as follows:
TRAILER 1 [1969] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:50]
TRAILER 2 [1969] [1080i] [1.78:1] [0:57]
BONUS: An essay by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz entitled WILD AT HEART. Matt Zoller Seitz (born on the 26th December, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker.
Finally, Dennis Hopper’s counter-cultural classic, ‘EASY RIDER,’ is not only emblematic of independent American cinema, but, released in 1969, is the definitive statement on the death of the 1960’s. Indeed, as this year’s darkly farcical presidential primaries currently threaten to plunge the America into a political and moral abyss, the timeliness of Criterion’s release of Hopper’s film cannot be overstated. And just as the current political crisis follows a presidency that traded on hope and progress, so does ‘EASY RIDER’ reflect on its own era’s failed ambitions of individual freedom and free love.
‘EASY RIDER’ is one of those “road movies” that was hailed as an instant classic the moment it came out. It’s a snapshot of one of the most important and instrumental times in the history of the United States. Though Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda get the accolades, it did provide a great introduction for the actor Jack Nicholson to make his mark on the world of acting. The Criterion Criterion has done this right in releasing this movie for a modern audiences. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
