It took many years of my life, time stuck with such fantasies as Spider Man, Independence Day, Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings, and other such extravaganzas, before I finally got the nerve and the means of catching one of the weirdest but most politically telling motion pictures of the 20th century. That film is the Dennis Hopper classic Easy Rider.
The film is the story of two rebels with a cause - to use the money they made from a coke deal to fashion their motorcycles for a big cross country trip from southern California to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Upon watching this movie, I began to understand why this film had such a major impact in 1969 when it came out and why this film 35 years later is just as important a film to us now as it was then. If you do not wish to be spoiled, my suggestion would be to move on to another diary, but if you already know the movie or do not care about being spoiled, follow on after the skip, and see why the movie's premise and message is just as important now as it was then, despite the differences.
Kicked start by the rock classic Born to Be Wild which would become the standard clichéd song for the image of motorcycle gangs in movies, the duo head out on their trip to Mardi Gras. Along the way, they stop at a rancher's plantation, showing the rancher putting the shoe on his horse while we see simultaneously Hopper putting on a new wheel on the motorbike. Later they come across a hippie commune in the desert, of which after eating a meal and offered to take two of the folks to a nearby waterhole, the two characters show their true characters. Hopper's character, Billy, is shown to be arrogant and self-serving who wants things his way, the characterization of the ugly American, by his desire to leave now for Mardi Gras. Peter Fonda's character, Wyatt aka Captain America, tells Hopper straight up "We're eating their food." Wyatt is calm and philosophical, the one who probably represents the true hippie, who acknowledges when things are given to him and things - not necessarily the same - need to be given back in return for the hospitality. Before they leave, the man who hitched a ride with them back to the commune, give Wyatt four hits of acid, telling him to use it with the right people in the right place and time.
They then come across Jack Nicholson's character George Hanson, who delivers quite possibly the most important little speech of the film after their "unpleasant" experience at a local diner where the folks looked at them scarily and uneasily. The speech that began with "This used to be such a hell of a good country" is as symbolic today as it was then (courtesy of SuperSeventies.com):
After rednecks taunt them at a greasy-spoon restaurant, Hanson explains why Billy and Wyatt have triggered such hostile feelings. "What you represent to them is freedom... It's real hard to be free when you're bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody they're not free 'cause they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are..."
George then delivers another good one when he says, "They are not scared of you, they are scared of what you represent - that makes them dangerous." And sure enough, the trio gets beat up by the locals, hurting Wyatt but killing George. Tell me - does not that not sound a lot like what is going on today? Orcinus would completely agree that this type of attitude is not only existent, but increasingly widespread. This film was done in 1968-69, and 35 years later, here we are. The big difference is that this sort of monstrosity is no longer in the local towns, but at the national level with the Religious Right. Back then, it was the hippie west-coast culture that shocked a lot of the folks in the south (which ironically is where all these bad events happen) - today, it's gay marriage and A-Rabs.
George's comment is so fitting for today's times in that so many people are hurting, starving, held captive by a system that has them by the balls. They are "bought and sold in the marketplace." So when they see folks that are freer than they are, that seem to have more rights than they do and to have more abilities to do whatever they want, they take offense to that, cry that they lack "moral values" and get behind the ones who "champion" it. The great blogger Digby once theorized that people voted out of spite of their country, and he may have more of a point than he knows, for there's the old saying, "if I can't have it, no one can." That pretty much sums up the character of America today.
I should also note that the tone of the music in this film changed the more they trotted out east. In the west, you had the positive anthems of The Dead, Steppenwolf, and other such artists. But once the duo entered the South, the tone changed to the dark rock of Jimi Hendrix, and political rock of Bob Dylan. Similarities to today, anyone?
Billy and Wyatt continue on to Mardi Gras and hit up a whorehouse. With two of the girls from the house in tow, they go to celebration, and upon hitting a cemetery they use the acid they got earlier for a trip. Two guys with two whores, in a cemetery, at the raunchiest, most spirit-degrading celebration in all the land - it doesn't sound like the right people at the right place and time. Sure enough, their trip turns out to be a bad one.
I will admit - I have tried acid once, but I did it with the right folks. It was after a show I did with my old band XINGU on a small farm. While what I experienced and witnessed around the campfire that night jolted me greatly, I was in the company of people that were caring and knew I was experiencing my first trip. It helped make the whole evening and day a fun and exciting experience about myself and what was around me. I'm not saying everyone should do it, but if you do try it, it is important to do it in the right environment with the right people. Bad trips are always hard to come to grips with as I have heard from folks that have experienced such things.
Sure enough, that bad trip left an indelible impression on Wyatt. Film Threat offers their views on the final scene:
On the surface, "Easy Rider" seems like nothing more than a travelogue with a few bits of nondescript dialogue thrown in when 60s-era music isn't playing on the soundtrack. But there's a line that Wyatt utters toward the end of the film, before he and Billy meet their fate: "We blew it." It's an enigmatic statement juxtaposed against Billy's excitement over all the money they made, but when you think about it, "We blew it" sums up not only the way the pair squandered an opportunity to make their lives about more than money but also the way the 60s ended: race riots, the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the deaths of several rock icons, and the violence that marred the Altamont rock festival. Certainly not a way to end a decade that promised peace and love, and the commune scene, in which "Jesus" shows himself to be almost more of a tyrant than a true hippie, clearly illustrates the decay.
The next morning they come across two truckers trying to scare them. Billy flips a bird at them (making the complete break from the peace/love mentality of the hippie generation) just seconds before he is gunned down by the truckers. Not content on leaving witnesses, they also shoot Wyatt, whose motorcycle and American flag burst into flames as the camera pans away, ending the movie. DVDTimes offers another insight to the whole final 5 minutes of the flick:
On the road once more, they are shot down by a gung-ho redneck, who made fun of their appearance. The final image rises from Wyatt's burning motorcycle - the American flag essentially going up in flames - the ultimate metaphor. As the poster tag line revealed, Wyatt and Billy "went looking for America", but "couldn't find it anywhere". They've been rejected by their country, and freedom is simply a state of mind, not a reality. When Wyatt told Billy they "blew it", he meant it.
Could Easy Rider be made today? Not likely, even though the closest it has come to being reproduced again is the film Requiem for a Dream, but the film is just as important today as it was then. Why? Because while Billy and Wyatt represented one form of Easy Rider with their culture and desire to search what was there, there is another totally different one that exists today. The Easy Riders of today are an overall culture that cannot be stopped by two simple rednecks on a Florida state road.
Today's massive credit card users, moral value oppressors, wheeling-dealing politicians - they are today's new Easy Riders, those that try to find their own freedom in America without realizing the cost they are bringing upon others. The big difference between the two is cultural. For Billy and Wyatt, it was their appearance and attitude that threatened the "culture of others." For today's Easy Riders, they build up debt and a legacy of oppressing power over others. They are the opposite of Billy and Wyatt and yet they too are Easy Riders, riding that road of freedom that they all think they're on. Just like Wyatt, it will lead to a massive wakeup call for this country, likely brought by other countries who are tired of supporting our reckless behavior.
I have already discussed the George Hanson similarities to today's culture involving gays and "terrorists," so where does the "we blew it" part come in? The catch is that it already came and went and, yes, we blew it, and it was Election Day 2004. We had the chance to say no to the current tide that most of America believes is not correct and not right for all of us. Yet, we couldn't bring ourselves to stop this train that we had a deep sense was on the road to collision. We, in effect, blew it on November 2nd when we chose to reelect the man and the party most responsible for the current climate of fear, hate, debt, and distrust, and we will soon find ourselves just like Billy and Wyatt on that lonely, forgotten road, with our American possessions going up in flames.
Easy Rider was the eulogy of the hippie peace & love movement, which amazingly has been reborn in the spirit of so many other people across the world, most if not all of whom protested our incursion in Iraq. Today's Easy Rider would be the eulogy of the free-riding, uncontrollable, capitalistic era of American excess. All the debts we have incurred upon ourselves, all the smut we allow to appear on TV, all the news we refuse to air because it would be too sensitive to people who are already being desensitized by gory movies, video games and said smut on television - in the end, we have only made ourselves more as slaves to the current system, to the marketplace, from which we have so longed to be free. Billy and Wyatt's murder and destruction of their American vehicles offer great symbolism for today:
The redneck gunners - the Iraq debacle resulting in either civil war by our departure or a military draft to sustain the conflict, Iran or North Korea igniting a whole new conflict, China & the EU no longer willing to support our trade deficit, the whole world shunning us with no more gifts of foreign ideas or scientific breakthroughs leaving us entirely on our own.
The destroyed motorcycles - widespread poverty of debt-ridden Americans, loss of creative, political, and social freedoms, economic turmoil and war-torn communities waging political wars on each other, the realization that the free ride is now officially over and it's time to pay.
Easy Rider is as important today as it was 35 years ago. Everyone should watch this film, and realize that our easy life is about to get really hard.