Easy Rider: An Epic journey into the unknown
For the American dream
Easy Rider is the late 1960s "road film" tale of a search for freedom (or the illusion of freedom) and an identity in America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. The story, of filmmakers' Fonda/Hopper creation, centers around the self-styled, counter-cultured, neo-frontiersmen of the painfully fashionable late 60s. As for the meaning of Easy rider, Peter Fonda (Wyatt) said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, ¡§it is a southern term for a whore¡¦s old man, not a pimp, but a dude who lives with a chick. Because he¡¦s got the easy ride. Well, that¡¦s what¡¦s happened to America, man. Liberty¡¦s become a whore, and we¡¦re all taking an easy ride¡¨ . However, their journey is far from an easy ride; it is a unsettling, frightening and revealing experience rounded up in self-destruction.
Introduction to Easy Rider (1969)
Easy Rider is a counter-cultural, experimental, independent film for the alternative youth/cult market, with sex, drugs, casual violence, reflecting the collapse of the idealistic 60s.
The film does not have a clear plot, and its artistic merit is also doubtful, as a film critic Peter Biskind said, ¡§It had little background or historical development of characters, a lack of typical heroes, uneven pacing, jump cuts and flash-forward transitions between scenes, an improvisational style and mood of acting and dialogue, background rock 'n' roll music to complement the narrative, and the equation of motorbikes with freedom on the road rather than with delinquent behaviors.¡¨
However, it presents an image of the popular and historical culture of the time and a story of a contemporary but destructive journey by two self-righteous, drug-fueled, anti-hero bikers eastward through the American Southwest.
Their trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans takes them through limitless, untouched landscapes including Monument Valley, various towns, a hippie commune, and a graveyard. However, they inevitably encountered local residents who are narrow-minded and hateful of their long-haired freedom and use of drugs.
Extremely successful and low-budget, this film has won the 1969 Cannes Film Festival¡¦s award for the Best Film by a new director. The film also received two Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson in ...
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...ay¡¨, but instead of peace and enlightenment, they experienced confusion and disillusion. At the end of the movie, the two protagonists experience hallucinatory emotions, where we can see intense colors, kaleidoscopic swirls, and distorted shapes and forms. They search for enlightenment, while inveighing agsint civilization¡¦s hypocrisy and brutality. Their rootless, drifting pursuit of the American dream and the promise of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll has been questionably successful, dissatisfying, transitory and elusive. Wyatt believes there may have been another less destructive, less diversionary, more spiritually fulfilling way to search for their freedom rather than selling hard drugs, taking to the road and being sidetracked, and wasting their lives. ƒÞ
For all its counter cultural reflections, the movie does not portray the youthful movement uncritically, rather it provides an ambiguous ending, implying that excesses, even counter cultural ones, can be harmful and destructive. David Hopper also defines this film as anti-counter cultural. The romance and dream of the American highway is turned menacing and deadly¡XThey looked for America but couldn¡¦t find it anywhere.
of the American Dream. They travel west hoping to escape less than perfect lives and pursue success in
This movie portrays the happier side of the 70s when bell bottoms and marijuana were the fashion and drinking and driving had yet to become unthinkable,. Dazed and Confused follows the lives of various groups of teenagers, during the last day of school in 1976, in their hometown. The movie is all about their philosophies on life, work, love and especially their futures, that we never hear about. Among the characters, there is Randall Floyd a young football player, pressured into choosing between being drug-free or authority-free. Then there is Mitch, an upcoming high school freshman trying to fit in, who spends the day running away from the senior hazing team, while attempting to hang out with the older crowd. It’s a time when everyone wastes their lives away in the carefree high school years. The message of the movie is to stand up for what you believe and resist all
In reading “All the pretty horses” by Cormac McCarthy, we are introduced to the protagonist John Grady Cole. At the beginning of the story, John Grady is attending his grandfathers funeral in the ranch that he now shares with his mother. John Grady Cole, grew up in world where being a cowboy meant freedom and a ever growing relationship with the one thing he cared about more than anything… horses. The story seems to unravel in the early 1950s when the old west began to evolve to the new ways of the west and the definition of what made a man a cowboy increasingly blurred. As the story evolves, it becomes evident that the selling of his grandfather’s ranch leaves Grady feeling adrift and incomplete. Henceforth, he deicides to set foot on his own and find a new place to call his home. We see that the loss of his grandfathers ranch and the passing of the old west he knew, serves as a reflection of how John Grady’s character attempts to maintain this cowboy lifestyle that he witnessed growing up . John Grady Cole’s character tough young, serves as a hero in his journey of becoming a man. Combined with his passion and idealistic mentality, his love for horses and the open plains of Texas/Mexico sets him off into new adventures. Realizing that each scenario encountered paves the way towards a journey of harsh reality, this story serves as one of growth and the passionate search of the old cowboy life. Grady sets out on a journey to Mexico with his comrade Rawlins riding off into the sun with hopes of finding a new home; they rode in hopes of regaining their sense of beloning.
The road movie embodies the human desire for travel and progression. The vehicle of journey is a contemporary metaphor of personal transformation that oftentimes mirrors socio-cultural desires and fears. Thomas Schatz believes that one “cannot consider either the filmmaking process or films themselves in isolation from their economic, technological, and industrial context.” This statement is especially applicable to the independent American films of the late sixties, a time of great political and social debate. Easy Rider (1969) was considered a new voice in film that was pitched against the mainstream. In the 1960s, there was a shift to highlight the outsiders or the anti-heros in film. This counter-cultural radicalism seems to have also influenced the 1991 film, Thelma & Louise. The characters of both films act as figures of anti-heroism by rebelling against the conventional and unintentionally discovering themselves at the same time. Despite their different backgrounds, the protagonists of Eas...
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
As Ethan rides towards his brother’s homestead, he is greeted by awestruck stares. He rides with the brutal desert behind him, sun glaring at his eyes while his brother’s family is framed in shadow of their own home. A hopeful tune plays in the background as he approaches. In this opening scene of The Searchers John Ford establishes Ethan—played by none other than John Wayne—as the rugged individualist, the one who tames the wilderness. This cowboy is integral to the “Myth of the United States,” he is the one who tames the savage wilderness its residents (Durham). However as the film unfolds, Ford explores Ethan’s tortured psyche, his motivations, his neuroticism, even the Indians and their motivations in order to deconstruct deconstructing the myth in order to show that the cowboy is a relic of the Old West.
...ing his life for what he believes in, it will instigate a new wave of Irish Identity that would encourage people to continue fighting for the betterment of Ireland. The film doesn’t seem to intentionally stir political debate or instigate further cross-national dispute, but instead, have audiences realize and understand what happened, accept it as history, and appreciate the powerful story of a man who willingly died for his beliefs.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
This movie is about David and Jennifer, who live in Southern America in the ‘90s which was said to be a liberal state, are sent from reality to a TV show ‘Pleasantville’ in 1950s. From reality looking through this TV show, Pleasantville looks like an ideal place for people to live in, but getting a closer look and being part of this world you actually realize that it is very different from what is shown on TV. After David and Jennifer arriving to Pleasantville, they become colorless, everything there is either black, white or gray. People then expose their conservative lifestyles with suppression of sexuality, discrimination and restrictive of personal liberty and imagination. In Pleasantville, people assume that there is no outside world other
The movie that I picked to watch was the World’s Fastest Indian. Now one would think this is about Native Americans, but for others they know an Indian is a motorcycle. The movie is about a man named Burt Munroe that is in his late sixties but is still a child at Heart. He has been modifying his Indian Motorcycle for over 20 years so he can beat the land speed record in Bonneville, Utah. As he makes his journey he faces many challenges that seem to try their best to slow Burt down, but being the quirky man he is, he finds ways to get around the obstacles that are set before to achieve his dream, which he does achieve in the end. This movie does have an instance where the term sociological imagination would come in to play and that is the motive
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” University of Florida professor of film studies, Robert Ray, defines two types of heroes pervading American films, the outlaw hero and the official hero. Often the two types are merged in a reconciliatory pattern, he argues. In fact, this
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
There are many symbols of freedom and individuality in Dennis Hoppers movie Easy Rider. The movie Easy Rider revolves around two bikers, Wyatt and Billy, making a trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans, to attend Mardi Gras. The first scene in the movie involves the two protagonists selling a large amount of cocaine to a gentleman in a Rolls Royce. After the drug deal two the bikers begin their journey to Mardi Gras, but not before Wyatt removes his watch and throws it on the ground. This action is shows Wyatt’s pursuit of freedom, because time serves only to constrain them. Once on the road you learn that their names are Wyatt and Billy, a reference to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid who are considered American legends, as well as outlaws. Wyatt rides a chopper with the stars and stripes on the gas tank and on his helmet while sporting the now cliché leather jacket. Billy is dressed up like a cowboy; he is wearing all tan leather with a wide brim hat. Also throughout the movie Billy refers to Wyatt as Captain America. All of these things serve to ingrain the belief that they embody the American dream which is to earn enough money to pursue your dream. It just so happens that their dream is freedom, the same belief that led to the creation of the United States.
For a start, the basic plot of this movie is pretty much the same as every other family film to be released this decade; the unlikely hero, believe in yourself, follow your dreams, etc, etc.
American History X is a great film that delivers a very strong message about deviant behavior. The story of Derek Vineyard and Danny inspires a lot in terms of changing the deviant behavior through various social concepts. The film shows good application of these theories and it involves the audience into a gripping tale of the change one hoes through to fight deviance and get through the tough journey of correcting oneself and choosing the right path.