Easy Rider-1969

Now watch Five Easy Pieces.

The commune had some hot, young hippie guys!

Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, huge fans of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, invited their idol to the first screening of their film. Antonioni was sufficiently impressed to cast Nicholson in his next feature film, The Passenger (1975).

The cemetery scene was probably the best depiction of a bad trip on film.

You have to be young to enjoy this film.

When you're older, you realize what idiots the main characters are.

Not to sound like a film snob, but I much prefer the gay porn version.

I saw Easy Rider in 2019 at Radio City Music Hall commemorating the 50th Anniversary. It was accompanied with live concert by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, John Kay of Steppenwolf and others. The film would take several interludes at key points for the musicians to play. It was supposed to have been officiated by Peter Fonda but he had passed away the month before. An enjoyable experience.

I hate Nicholson's character in 5 EASY PIECES

I just saw it for the first time 2 years ago in my forties OP.

It must've been a thrill ride on it's release date but now...

Do you think the south is still as scary?

The rednecks in the Louisiana coffee shop who taunt the boys, and the two in the pickup truck at the end of the movie, were all local residents recruited by the filmmakers. In the case of the coffee shop denizens, the filmmakers were preparing to audition a group of local theater people, when Dennis Hopper saw Buddy Causey, Jr., Duffy Lafont, and several others watching them, and making wisecracks, and decided to use them instead.

Fun fact: Peter Fonda's bike was called a chopper (or a chop) and the handlebars were called ape hangers. Fucked if I can remember where it all originated.

Peter Fonda was an experienced motorcycle rider, and the chopper he rides in the movie is seriously stretched and raked, and has tall "apehanger" style handlebars. Dennis Hopper was not as experienced a rider, therefore his bike is less radically chopped.

There is a scene where the camera pans across the faces of a bunch of young sleep or sitting in a communist out in the middle of nowhere, and you can see the discouragement and anger on their faces. I look at it in the context of young people today, although they are quite different with different concerns. From that aspect for me, the film held up as a product of its time and basically said that every generation will have outsiders among the young people who seem angry but aren't really sure why they are. That being said, the leading characters were too old to be seen as rebels without causes. It's not so much a biker film as it is about discontented youth dealing with their disgust over the world that they have inherited. There's no real plot, but a lot of it to me was fascinating.

^ People, not sleep or.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were so hot and twinky.

DL fave Karen Black & Toni Basil

Dennis Hopper was a cutie. I believe if James Dean lived, he'd be making these drifter movies with Fonda and Hopper.

It was really a terrible film. Hollywoods training wheels for cultural drama. I guess you had to be there to appreciate it.

The Trip was good. It was weird but had more of a purpose since it was about an acid trip. Young Peter Fonda looks like he belongs in The Monkees.

Check out this great small site. It’s a quick piece on things you didn’t know about Easy Rider. There are other cool ones too. Atomic Popcorn.

Check out the one on Scream Queens.

Nicholson is perfection in this, it’s not at all hard to see why this role made him a movie star.

Such a stupid movie.

Nicholson is genius.

[quote]The rednecks in the Louisiana coffee shop who taunt the boys, and the two in the pickup truck at the end of the movie, were all local residents recruited by the filmmakers.

R11, that scene was filmed 2.5 blocks away from my Aunt's (in-law) parents's house in Morganza, Pointe Coupee Parish, LA. It used to be a cute little hamlet (aside from the Klan chapter there). Watching [italic]Easy Rider[/italic] today is like a step back into time for me. Running up, then rolling down the levee behind Hwy 1, feeding the chickens at Miss Lily's and Mister Charles' yard, and traveling through on the way to Grandma E's house 10 miles north of town and seeing the cute Christmas lighted wreaths on every light pole, the old Texaco station...and the diners that did not serve Black people.

Ah, nostalgia!

Even if the movie is low budget and the plot nonsensical. It represented an era of artistic freedom, abstract thinking and minimalism that probably won't come back to American film.