Easy Rider is a film I never managed to see from beginning to end despite its status as a cultural touchstone - so when The Nuart screened a digitally restored 35mm print, I decided it was time to finally sit down and give the film its due.
First of all, this is unquestionably one of the best restorations I’ve ever seen. Why? Because it’s just about impossible to tell that the film was restored. Scratches and dirt have been removed, torn frames have been repaired, the color has been balanced, but it still looks like a low-budget film made in 1969, replete with film grain. Kudos to the people at Sony Pictures for showing admirable restraint.
The film follows the cross-country adventures of two bikers, Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) as they travel from Los Angeles to Mardi Gras on motorcycles with a fortune in drug money hidden in the gas tanks. Along the way they stop at a hippie commune, get tossed in jail, pick up an alcoholic small-town lawyer named George (Jack Nicholson) and, of course, get stoned a lot. They also encounter an increasing amount of prejudice as they move further east.
I’m glad I waited to see Easy Rider on the big screen, because despite its low budget the film is part travelogue, and some of its pleasures might not have been as enjoyable on my decidedly un-HD television set. Also, the film is an unintentional time capsule - you can almost touch and smell the era in which it was made, and in a darkened movie theatre the experience was immersive.
In other ways, the film is a consciously deliberate time capsule. With a certain degree of self-pity, the film postulates that society will eventually crush the free-spirited hippies it depicts, using violence if necessary. It’s a film made by young people living in a chaotic time, so it has all the flaws and virtues of young people. It’s full of energy, rebellion, confusion, it breaks the rules… it’s also self-absorbed and melodramatic.
But that’s not a criticism. It’s part of what makes the film endearing. Lord knows I prefer the young, passionate, insane Dennis Hopper I saw in Easy Rider to the indifferent middle-aged actor I saw slumming as villains in Speed and Waterworld for fat paychecks. In an odd way, the trajectory of Hopper’s career invalidates the message of Easy Rider. The hippies weren’t crushed by society, they were paid off and absorbed.
It reminds me of a line Glenn Close says in The Big Chill, which deals with that very issue - “Was it all just fashion?”
My expectation would be that a fair percentage of the people who broke our economy were also ex-hippies. The world is an onion made up of layer upon layer of hypocrisy and greed.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Clinton and Bush were baby boomers, and under their warped guidance our country swiftly fell apart. Even that vile, serpentine woman-thing Nancy Pelosi is technically a baby boomer.
Let me get this straight: You don’t care for Nancy Pelosi?
What gave me away?