Easy Rider (1969) - Hopper

Stars: Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda

Plot: Two drug dealers score big and journey from SF to New Orleans on motorcycles.

Pros: Cinematography, Soundtrack, Nicholson

Cons: Pretty Much everything else.

A fairly short movie (95 minutes) that's pretty good when Fonda & Hopper -our "heroes"- are racing down the open highway, the soundtrack booming, and beautiful pictures of America flashing by. The "Born to be Wild" sequence has become famous. Its also interesting when Jack Nicholson shows up. Sadly, this represents only half the movie. The other half consists of our dull leads doing acid and pot, visiting a hippie commune, being hassled by rednecks, seeing Mardi Gras and having far too many "Like wow man" druggie conversations. Neither of the two leads is given much character or personality. To call their characters "underdeveloped" is an understatement.

The acting, outside of Nicholson, ranges from adequate to amateurish. Fonda is wooden while Hopper does his usual paranoid ranter shtick. Many of the supporting characters - including the Southern locals that insult Fonda/Nicholson/Hopper at a cafe - were real people hired on location and vary in quality.

Morally the film is reprehensible. It promotes drug use and the absurd idea that if only the Rednecks in 'Amerika' would let us smoke pot, wear long hair, practice free love, and ride around on motorcycles everything would be groovy. Its all about Freedom, man. BTW, another name for "Freedom" is "Selfishness".

Looking back, the hippies/Easy rider types were nothing more than social parasites made possible by the hard work & patriotism of previous Generations. They were riding the crest of the post WWII economic boom (including cheap oil) - a boom that would soon come to an end.

Summary: Good in spots, but nowhere near the masterpiece some make it out to be. Rating **1/2