Easy Rider – dir. Dennis Hopper, running time 94’, 1969.
Easy Rider – one of the seminal American movies of the 1960s and one of the key cinematic readings of the USA. Directed by Dennis Hopper, this stunning film is to this day unanimously regarded as a classic of the road movie genre. Equally, it is a bitter morality tale about the quest for genuine freedom juxtaposed with intolerance.
Two young hippies (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper) travel on motorcycles across the United States of America. During their journey from California to New Orleans, they meet a catalogue of personalities representing a panorama of the inhabitants of the states they are riding through. En route to Louisiana, they often meet flamboyant members of the "flower-power" generation; however, they also encounter a small-town frustrated lawyer (Jack Nicholson) and, most poignantly, they are forced to face hostility, animosity and lack of understanding.
Although Hopper's film has become the cinematic voice of the 1960s generation, one should not forget the soundtrack. Music, among others tunes by Steppenwolf, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix, is a companion of the protagonists' journey: the film's opening sequence with its accompanying iconic "Born to be wild" has become one of the signature scenes in the history of cinema.
Nowadays, it is difficult to even imagine creating a similar film. Not only has the language of cinema evolved significantly but so has the perception of present-day viewers. Still, Hopper's "Easy Rider" remains a time-defying masterpiece, a permanent fixture on the map of cinema that treats of freedom, of self-development, of agency, of tolerance. All these issues are as relevant as they were back in the day. This hypnotic on-screen journey would not be the same without Laszlo Kovacs' touching and mystical cinematography.
Free admission