Maverick filmmakers Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper crashed the gates of Hollywood with their reimagining of the western hero in Easy Rider, a seminal film that paved the road for 1970s independent cinema. Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt/Captain America (Peter Fonda) are bikers who traffic some cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles in order to fund their motorcycle journey south in time for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Their plans are interrupted after they are arrested for “parading without a permit” where they meet-up with ACLU lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who gets them out of jail and joins them on their trek. The hassles they encounter run contrary to the American flag painted on Wyatt’s gas tank and helmet, as the wide-open America that legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs (Paper Moon) captures is ending for Wyatt and Billy – with an all-time road-trip movie ending that mourns the end of the 1960s. The Byrds, Roger McGuinn, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Band, and Steppenwolf drive the film’s iconic soundtrack.
“Fonda and Hopper, it should by this time go without saying, give immense performances.” – Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
“It was inevitable that a great film would come along, utilizing the motorcycle genre, the same way the great Westerns suddenly made everyone realize they were a legitimate American art form, Easy Rider is the picture.” – Roger Ebert
On the New Beverly blog, Garret Mathany interviews Illeana Douglas about her connections to Dennis Hopper and Easy Rider.
Kim Morgan discusses Easy Rider on the New Beverly blog.
