Easy Rider (DVD) > Reviews > The ride wasn't that easy

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Unmemorable
Soundtrack	Outstanding

Advantages:	A cult classic that's strong today as it was over 35 years ago
Disadvantages:	Sometimes you have the "have I missed something?" feeling with the plot

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This film was made just as the 60's were imploding on itself and was filmed in the same year as the assassinations of Kennedy and Luther King and the build up to the Vietnam war, so the subject was controversial.

Many have called this the ultimate road movie but I feel it is more a reflection of a man trying to escape from something or himself but yet he doesn't know where to start looking, so what better place that the seat of a Harley?

The film opens in a junkyard where to two main characters, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) conducting a drug deal in the wastelands of an operating airport.
Once the deal is done and they have the cash you get the first glimpse of the 'horses' that are going to take the two of them across the land. It is a metaphorical western which is why the bikes are the steeds and why the two main actors are name after famous western outlaws, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid.

Wyatt is seen stuffing rolled up dollar bills into a plastic tube to then seal the ends off to place the tube in the stars and stripes flag gas tank of his Harley chopper. This is, as I found out in the extra's, is symbolic of the rebel American fighting the system by, and I quote (cover your ears kiddies) "F****** the flag with money".

Arriving from round a corner Fonda rolls up to the side of Hopper and they are both now ready to embark down the road apart from one last thing. Wyatt removes his watch and pauses to look at the timepiece in disgust before throwing it into the sand, to finally free him of the shackles of time constraints and a symbol of his new found freedom.

Clicked into 1st gear, the pair set of with another western feel as then riding to the horizon and their v-twin engines are soon replaced with nah, nah-nah, nah-nah-na-nanna-nah, the legendary opening of Steppenwolf's born to be wild.
The film has a great soundtrack all the way through which really reflects the period featuring artists like The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.

Upon their journey they pick up the first of two tagalongs, a hitchhiker who jumps aboard and takes them to a dessert camp. Here they take a rest stop and find that it's inhibited by hippies who seem to spend all day taking drugs and enjoying free love. Billy feels anxious to leave but Wyatt is happy to hang around as he has an attractive young lady for company and he is getting free food. Before they move on the hitchhiker they picked up gives Fonda some LSD telling him that when the time, place and people are right, split this.

Carrying on down the highway you realise they are in no hurry and never seem to speed but the film has interesting cuts between day and night with a scene flashing between the two rather than the fade, dissolve that was the norm for films of this time.

Making fires and sleeping under the stars seems the way to live with the two characters and that's how you feel in the meat of this film sandwich, that you are there along for the ride and you half expect Hopper's arm to come out of the screen to offer you a drag on the joint.

The two end up in prison after gate crashing a parade and this is where they meet the second of the tagalongs in the form of George Hanson played by Jack Nicholson, you can see the age of this film as Jack has a full head of hair.
George turns out to be a local legal man who arranges the release of the three of them and he also has a problem with the bottle, quite a difference when the country is swimming in drugs in the midst of the 60's.

Agreeing to tag along Jack then looks stunned to be asked if he's "gotta helmut?" nicely replied with "oh yeah, I gotta beauty".
Back on the road with Jack now in toe, adorning his old school football helmet, the three carry on travelling and the film is shots of antics on the bike and the scenes they are viewing.

Arriving in the south they pull into a café where the local diners look on in disbelieve at what has just rolled up. In the side booths are two groups, one consisting of a bunch of men and the other of young girls. The men chunter away and make jokes while the girls all try to decide which one they fancy the most. Having an uneasy feeling they leave and find a place down the road to bed down for the night and George has his first try of weed, which by all accounts was the real stuff used on set.
While asleep they are attacked who sticks and bats by the locals we saw earlier and after the beatings Billy finds that George is dead, they move on with hast while nursing their injuries.

They head for New Orleans as George had told them about the finest whore house in the country; here we see a wonderful building with elaborate ceilings while the two wait for the girls to appear.
Hopper is straight to work with the small talk but Fonda knows that he doesn't have to pay for it and suggests that they go outside.

With a festival going on the four make the way to a grave yard, in the extra's Fonda explains why they shot this scene in a New Orleans cemetery as all the stone tombs are above ground. This is because of where the land is if you dig three feet below its just watery mud.

When in the graveyard as instructed Wyatt divides up the LSD as he feels that the time and people are right and the film takes you into a psychedelic trip where the camera work really gives you the impression of the hallucinations.
One of which is played by Peter's father and a strong, moving scene of Fonda crying at a statue which is real emotion as he asks "why did you leave?" in reference to his mother dying when he was young.

The films conclusion is the two friends back on the road and it finishes with……..well I'm not going to give the ending away if you've not seen it but it is a shocker.

The extras include;

Language set up, subtitles and the normal scene selection.

The film with Dennis Hopper commentary as he was the director on this picture and a documentary.
'Shaking the cage' is just over an hour long with interviews from Fonda, Hopper and other cast members telling of all the goings on during the filming but surprisingly Nicholson isn't on this?

Run time 91 mins, Dolby 5.1, widescreen 1.85:1

I've seen this priced at £15 as they seem to get away with higher prices on cult films but shop around as I picked my copy up for a mere £4.
 

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