![]() ![]() It is the one point at which the pair’s exercise of their own thing specifically involves an illegal and asocial act, one which may ultimately contribute to someone else’s misery. The device does confuse the two and thus, by degree, weakens the case for the riders. But rights and laws are different if interdependent matters. It does not in any sense reduce the ultimate injustice the riders encounter, and we have not in fact been asked to approve or disapprove of the uses the riders make of their freedoms of choice. In dramatic terms, the fact that the journey begins with profit in narcotics traffic seems unfortunate, confusing the central issue, though some purpose with regard to the allegory of atonement may have been intended. Fittingly, their murders take place against the most beautiful and fertile expanse of countryside they pass, a silent conflagration that trips no alarms and arouses no notice. The allegory of atonement is played out and the penitents, Fonda and Hopper, having parodied their last communion, fall victims to the same senseless and abrupt violence by strangers who see in them a threat to their own compromised freedom and would assault that image to prove themselves free. In the film’s most joyous and revealing sequence, he joins them on the trip, articulates the picture’s theme and is martyred by the same repressive injustice he has cited. Nicholson, in pleat front trousers and suspenders, is decently square in manner and speech, marked by certain of the attitudes of his region, yet uncommonly just in his conviction to the principles of individual freedom. Arrested for joining in the spirit of a small town parade, they meet drunken country lawyer Jack Nicholson in jail. Each is “doing his own thing in his own time,” neither good nor bad, not hurting nor threatening anyone.įonda and Hopper also find that motel and cafe doors are closed to them on sight. Casting off their watches at the starting line, proceeding without deadlines or required routing, they encounter a variety of individuals who have, for one reason or another, chosen some alternative to a conventional and competitive mainstream existence. The rest is in the hands of a fine cast and evidently inspiring direction.įonda and Hopper complete a narcotics delivery that brings them the money they need to hit the road toward New Orleans and Mardi Gras. Technicians tempered by years of polishing trash respond with a dedication and challenge that makes Easy Rider one of the few films to see and show America. The behind-the-frame technicians include such dependable veterans of freewheeling production as Paul Lewis, who operates as both production manager and assistant director. Its visual glories owe much to the focal precision and mobility of cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, whose excellent photography is for once retained in the superior processing and printing by Consolidated labs. It gets the scope of its travel on the film in all its variegate grandeur and individual character, the American Southwest literally serving as the backdrop and woof of the story fabric. Thanks to a compact and creative NABET crew, Easy Rider manages what many other film on the road fails. It presents as well their anguished recognition that one group’s freedom to conform to one mode of expression encourages that group to presume to discriminate against, even justify liquidation of those who would freely choose a different style. If Easy Rider succeeds in illustrating a manifest disillusionment with the land of the free, it is because it simultaneously and clearly chronicles the idealism of its youth. Easy Rider is very likely the clearest and most disturbing presentation of the angry estrangement of American youth to be brought to the screen, played against the barren and bountiful beauties of a cross-country pilgrimage that is at once a search for freedom and a tragic encounter with the intolerance that corrupts the ideals of freedom. They have some contact with drugs, yet this is no cheap trip of matinee psychedelics. ![]() Its central characters ride motorcycles, yet this is no chopper film. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:Īfter years of pandering, brutalizing and titillating films exploiting the spirit of vague protest comes Columbia’s Easy Rider, a production of the Pando Co. The film went on to be nominated for two Oscars at the 42nd Academy Awards, for Jack Nicholson’s supporting role and for the screenplay. On July 14, 1969, Columbia brought Peter Fonda’s Easy Rider to the big screen at the Beekman in New York. ![]()
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