Easy Rider (1969)
Starring
Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Director
Dennis Hopper
Awards
Academy Award Nominations
Best Supporting Actor - Jack
Nicholson
Best (Original) Story and
Screenplay - Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern
Plot Synopsis
The ultimate paean to 1960's countercultural life, featuring a
rock score that includes The Byrds, The Band, Steppenwolf and Jimi Hendrix. Two dropouts,
hoping to understand the meaning of freedom and the land that is America, hit the road on
their motorcycles and head to New Orleans. Their freewheeling journey, filled with
psychedelic drugs and encounters with a variety of outcasts, teaches them tragically more
about the United States than they'd ever expected to learn.
Film Notes
"This box-office hit from 1969 is an important pioneer of
the American independent cinema movement, and a generational touchstone to boot. Peter
Fonda and Dennis Hopper play hippie motorcyclists crossing the Southwest and encountering
a crazy quilt of good and bad people. Jack Nicholson turns up in a significant role as an
attorney who joins their quest for awhile and articulates society's problem with freedom
as Fonda's and Hopper's characters embody it. Hopper directed, essentially bringing the
no-frills filmmaking methods of legendary, drive-in movie producer Roger Corman (The
Little Shop of Horrors) to a serious feature for the mainstream. The film can't help
but look a bit dated now (a psychedelic sequence toward the end particularly doesn't hold
up well), but it retains its original power, sense of daring, and epochal impact." (Tom
Keogh, Amazon.com)
Easy Rider was Dennis Hopper's directorial debut. The
film cost $340,000 to make; it grossed $19 million in the US alone.
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