The American Dreamer

1971

1 hr. 21 min.

Documentary

List

88%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

42%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

Actor/director Dennis Hopper at his home and studio as he puts together 1971's "The Last Movie."

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Audience Member

Some occasional nice looking footage but Hopper and the hack director are insufferable.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

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delysid d

idiotic forgotten film that was forgotten for a good reason, because it stinks

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/22/19

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Audience Member

Unimaginative documentary about a pretentious, boring, sexist dude. So disappointing. I was expecting real insights into the process of The Last Movie being made, instead we got Hopper rambling his 'philosophy' and talking over women and not much else. Would've got 1 star except some of the music was good and the wardrobe was undoubtedly amazing.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This near legendary documentary about Dennis Hopper struggling - or more like avoiding - to complete the near legendary "The Last Movie" unfortunately falls flat on many levels. The production is amateurish, the music truly awful and the subject comes across as a babbling Manson wannabee - even at one point giving a semi-glowing appraisal of the man himself. Hopper brags that he doesn't like reading - that reading "does nothing for him" and that to experience life is the only real education anyone ever needs. Not sure how much he experienced back here in 1971 through the thick fog of drugs but it does shed light on to why "The Last Movie" turned out such a jumbled (though far superior to this film) pretentious mess. Definitely worth a view for Hopper fanatics but hardly deserving a second screening.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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eric b

An underground documentary about Dennis Hopper at the peak of his hippie-era hedonism sounds exciting but, unfortunately, "The American Dreamer" doesn't live up to its potential. As the film opens, Hopper has just finished shooting "The Last Movie" (a notorious bomb, following the landmark "Easy Rider"), and is amidst editing it and haggling with the studio about its content and release date. But such movie-biz issues comprise only a small portion of the film. Shaggy and thin, he's living in a desert town somewhere with other like-minded free spirits. We see him walking, driving, bathing, eating, flirting and kissing, but mostly he just philosophizes. Mind you, he has interesting things to say and doesn't come off like some rambling, incoherent stoner. He's actually quite introspective, and his articulate language confirms that his vacuous "Easy Rider" character was simply a role. (In fact, he offers a surprisingly cynical view that Billy was really no better than the rednecks who shot him -- they were just criminals of a different flavor.) But Hopper's musings grow tiresome, and there is little sense of capturing any natural reality, because everyone is so conspicuously aware of the camera's presence. Explicit quarrels about the crew's effect on behavior are even left in the film. The print I saw was brownish, faded and fuzzy, and the action contains far too many montages backed with forgotten, dated folk tunes. Everyone who can strum an acoustic guitar gets a shot in this movie. (Who the heck is John Buck Wilkin?) The editing is rough too. "The American Dreamer" is essential viewing for Dennis Hopper fans, but a failure by most general criteria.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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L.M. Kit Carson

Director

Lawrence Schiller

Director

Dennis Hopper

Actor

L.M. Kit Carson

Writer

Dennis Hopper

Writer

Lawrence Schiller

Writer

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

There is a fuzzy underground feel to this film: choppy editing, sudden freeze frames, maundering voiceover. It has archival value as a study of Hopper and a footnote to the American new wave.

Rated: 3/5

Feb 4, 2016

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Ben Nicholson

CineVue

The American Dreamer may fail as a definitive portrait of icon or movement, but works as a Polaroid snapshot of a fascinating man in a very specific place and time.

Rated: 3/5

Apr 8, 2019

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Niall Browne

Movies in Focus

The American Dreamer is a 1971 documentary that follows Dennis Hopper as he puts together The Last Movie.

Rated: 3.5/5

Nov 2, 2018

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Norman Wilner

NOW Toronto

As a piece of cultural history it's kind of interesting. But as a documentary it's pointless.

Rated: 2/5

Jun 8, 2016

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Ethan Vestby

The Film Stage

Situated between critique and wake for Hopper's ideals, perhaps we can optimistically see it as a reminder that the perpetual end-of-times cinema seems to be facing is actually what keeps it going, no matter the dangerous levels of hubris.

Rated: B+

Mar 30, 2016

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Lewis Porteous

The Skinny

What's striking about this documentary is that it proves Hopper was full of shit all along.

Rated: 3/5

Feb 26, 2016

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Synopsis

Actor/director Dennis Hopper at his home and studio as he puts together 1971's "The Last Movie."

Director: L.M. Kit Carson, Lawrence Schiller
Executive Producer: Jason G. Brent
Screenwriter: L.M. Kit Carson, Dennis Hopper, Lawrence Schiller
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 26, 2016

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