Easy Rider
Screening on Film
Directed by Dennis Hopper.
With Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson.
US, 1969, 35mm, color, 94 min.
With Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson.
US, 1969, 35mm, color, 94 min.
This now-classic road movie turned the B-movie youthquake into an international art cinema. Easy Rider tells the story of Captain America and Billy the Kid as they go looking for America and, as Columbia’s original poster put it, “can’t find it anywhere.” From its legendary compilation score to its echt-60’s lens flares and culminating LSD trip, Easy Rider feels disconcertingly familiar, a model of what Tom Frank calls “the conquest of cool.” As they motor along to their inevitably tragic end, our heroes do drugs, have their rights violated, meet some interestingly allegorical groups of folks, and find themselves framed by László Kovács’s gorgeous cinematography.