Nick B
Half celebration, half admonishment, the tag line for EASY RIDER was: "They went looking for America, and couldn't find it anywhere."
If fact, two "drop outs" smuggle then sell hard drugs to finance a road trip from L.A. to a New Orleans whorehouse.
For characters and audience alike, the film's highlight is the breathtaking, epic scenery they travel through on their spectacular new motorbikes.
But uptight Billy and hip Captain America's only glimpse of true peace, happiness and meaning is with a traditional family right at the very beginning of their journey. Every other stop is confusing and shallow, hedonistic at best, dangerous and lethal at worst. Their campfire philosophy is dope-pipe-dream psychobabble, until they meet an alcoholic lawyer who offers the riders no answers except why they stir resentment from the squares.
"We blew it," Captain Ameica concludes at the apparent accomplishment of their rambling mission in a half-coherent acid dream as he understands riding away from the "American Dream" to look for some unknown, counter-culture alternative has lead to nowhere and nothing meaningful.
This movie's genius is it's elusive, interpretive, yin-yang dissonance of simultaneously promoting and denouncing the naive, hedonistic, nihilistic 60s counter-culture. Maybe that's why half the songs on Easy Rider's legendary soundtrack are classics, and the other half trash.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
05/22/25
Full Review
Mark B
I was only 11 years old when this movie was released. Now I'm 66 and for the first time, I watched Easy Rider the other night. I had been looking forward to it. I had heard so much about it- some sort of incredible masterpiece capturing the changing essence of American culture and the search for escapism, non-conformism and the search for whatever 'IT' was at the time. Instead, I was left feeling empty, almost cheated and a little drained after watching this rambling, shallow, pointless offering about two blokes, who didn't like each other anyway, who had chosen to ride around rural America together on their motorbikes. Reality check. They were drug-taking criminals. They had sold their stock of cocaine 'down Mexico way' to fund their aimless trip. Instantly, I wasn't drawn to them. I had no empathy for them. I didn't like their characters. They were shallow, self-indulgent and self-centered. They stumble around while Billy (Dennis Hopper) bickers and carps about everything and everyone while Wyatt (Peter Fonda) tries to be like Clint Eastwood from one of his iconic spaghetti westerns, trying to be 'Mr Cool.' But there's no weight or timing to Fonda - take away those half-tinted sunglasses he constantly wears (even when sleeping) and he could be a geography teacher out for a Sunday ride on a borrowed Harley. Fonda plays the obvious Alpha to Hopper's slightly hysterical Billy, but that's it. The movie only sparks to life, momentarily and half-way through, when Jack Nicholson appears and rather preposterously gives up his job as an attorney to join the two wasters on their journey to nowhere. Nicholson (George) has a drink problem. With his ridiculous looking motorbike helmet which looks like an old-fashioned hairdryer from an old-fashioned women's hairdressers, Jack Nicholson is brilliant, suddenly stealing the limelight and grabbing the viewer and for a few minutes or so, you think "at last!" ......now this movie is really going somewhere! But Nicholson's wonderfully instant illumination of this stodge, as the eccentric George, is like a cheap firework. It quickly goes out as he is murdered by a group of 'rednecks' who attack George, Billy and Wyatt while they sleep under the stars- which is their want, as no hotel or motel will allow them to stay. The sudden violence is grotesque and totally out of kilter with the film so far. Because of this, it's now ruined, tainted and going nowhere when it could have really had a purpose and a plot if Hopper (who also directed this offering) had kept Nicholson's part alive. Instead, we are suddenly bombarded with a hotch-potch of confusing and intended jump cuts (AKA cult-French film style from the 1960s) seedy shots of prostitutes and drug takers and general squalor which interweave with other so called 'images of America' from that era, to bring Easy Rider, and not soon enough, to a shuddering end. It's now well over 50 years since it was released. And for all the reasons I have highlighted in my review, this is NOT why this movie has worn very badly.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/25
Full Review
Jay W
Easy Rider is not a movie for everyone, and that includes not a movie for me. The movie is very light on story, it is mainly just a hang out and chill type of movie. And those types of movies can work for me, if they have a compelling hook or likable characters and this movie had neither.
When modern audiences complain that there are so many movies where "nothing is happening" this movie is the kind they're talking about. About 20% of the movie is just having the characters ride their motorcycles. Another 20% is them just talking around the campfire. 20% where the characters are doing drugs. And the rest is filled with characters yelling at the leads to get a haircut and a real job.
It is clearly a hippie movie. But it comes across too much with victim mentality for the hippies. Like people would come, completely unprovoked, and just start beating hippies with sticks or running them over with their car. It doesn't make me sympathetic to their plight, it makes me feel like the film is preaching a "woe is me" mindset.
All-time great soundtrack though. And Hopper, Fonda and Nicholson put in memorable performances.
I have been told that this movie would be better if, like the main characters, I was under the influence of some drugs. If a movie needs drugs to be enjoyed, it's not that good of a movie. And if the drugs need a movie to be enjoyed, they must not be very good drugs.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
12/02/24
Full Review
Ma'ark T
Easy Rider isn't a masterpiece but it is a great snapshot of America at an iconic time.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
11/30/24
Full Review
thiago s
filme legalzinho, o roteiro é bacana, gostei da dupla Peter Fonda como o Wyatt e o Dennis Hopper como Billy, achei legal eles correndo pelas estradas como as motos deles e de fundo tocando a musica
"Born to Be Wild do Steppenwolf, gostei da participação do Jack Nicholson
foi muito boa, gostei também do envolvimento de alguns hippies no filme, mas o final foi fraco, do nada dois malucos estavam dentro de uma caminhonete, um deles pegou a escopeta e deu um tiro no billy e depois dera um tiro no wyatt que morreu e o filme acaba. eu recomendo esse filme. só o final foi fraco.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
11/21/24
Full Review
Isa B
1969 in a time capsule. This film was groundbreaking when it was released and is still every bit as great as it was back then. Jack Nicholson was marvelous as was Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. When George is suddenly and shockingly killed, the film just kind of moves on without paying much respect to the magnitude of the moment, in my humble opinion. That is the closest thing I can find to a criticism for this magnificent motion picture. The ending is what really makes the film. Easy Rider is a masterpiece. I highly recommend.
98/100
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
10/05/24
Full Review
Read all reviews
Continue with Google
>
