Easy Rider (1969) The Nature of Freedom | Video Essay
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- A video Essay about the meanings behind the counter culture favourite Easy Rider released in 1969.
To many film fans, myself included Easy Rider is much, much more than just a movie. It is a time capsule of a time in the world when there was a change in the way that people, especially the youth culture of the 1960's began to reject the idea that life had rules and a strict structure, because these rules from the man, got in the way of personal freedom.
Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper armed with their motorbikes and credit cards set out to make a movie that would challenge the filmmaking establishment and finally have a work that represented the world that they lived in. What they created was one of the most important and groundbreaking independent movies of the 1960's.
So, please join me as we take a deep-dive and personal journey through the making of Easy Rider.
#movie #easyrider #videoessay
Its why Ive been riding for 52 years.
Most of the touring Ive done alone.
This film literally means everything to me. It shaped my life in so many ways. It remains so underrated in terms of it's impact on Film, Soundtracks, and the Arts in general . Thank you for such a well executed review.
Thanks for watching. Easy Rider affected me in very much the same way, it made me re-think a lot of things in my life and what values I stood for. I saw it at an age when Easy Rider said some things that no one else was telling me about, right when I needed someone to be telling me those things. Not to sound pretentious but I think it is an excellent work of art, as it does what good art should do and makes us feel something or look at life in a different way. Thanks again, it's great to meet others that Easy Rider has had a positive impact on too. 🙂
you need to see the Albert Brooks movie "lost in America"
Watched it in 1970, then again more recently. Their money was ill-gotten from a big drug deal, though the message about freedom does resonate. Could see the Captain America character getting a Harley dealership and joining the Rotary Club. Billy was the real rebel. Thought he would either end up dead or in jail.
The more you watch it the more you get out of it. Watch it high. .....jussayn
Yea it sure did me. Ended up wandering around the country for over ten years.
Great essay about an epic movie. Might be hard for some younger people understand and they may snicker at parts, but this film looks more like a documentary of that time as each year goes by. As far as people complaining about certain stereotypes, those guys in the cafe scene were playing themselves. They had been heckling the film crew out on the street, making cracks about their long hair and doing their "Can you smell 'em? I can smell 'em from here!" routine when Hopper said "I want those guys in my film." The rest of the crew was horrified, but Hopper insisted "I want those guys." America was really like that back then, and not just in the South, so don't blame them for it all.
Excellent analysis. My dad took me to see Easy Rider in the theater in 1969, when I was eight. Suffice it to say that it had a powerful effect on me, one that lasts to this day.
man i wish my dad loved me..
Thanks for watching. Such a great memory to have. Its fantastic how movies can remind us of moments and share memories with us. My Dad would build and repair small bikes like 125's to sell on when I was a kid, so Easy Rider was something we both enjoyed together too. Great memories. Thanks again.
Most movies have happy endings. As a kid, all my movies did and this one still gets me.
It is and always will be a masterpiece.
This is the best easy rider essay I’ve seen yet. Thanks
Thanks for watching. It's such a great movie that means a lot to me, it's one of the films that really got me into movies. Thanks again.
When Wyatt sez to Billy "We blew it!" I think he was saying that they were no better than Yuppies or Capitalists (even though they were counter-culture) in the sense that they made a pile of money in a quick and dirty fashion (with the aim of financing their freedom) and neglected to seek justice for their murdered friend (to avoid scrutiny of law enforcement which in turn proved that they weren't really Free anyway.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts much appreciated. I agree, I've heard Hopper say on it in commentary that "They had totally lost sight of their freedom and were undermining themselves and their country" and I think as you say, that could suggest that in the end in seeking freedom quick and fast, that they have become part of the capitalist system they were trying to escape. Thanks again.
One cannot grasp the impact of this movie in hindsight from now.
The context of time was entirely different then.
I came out of the movie theatre into the night 1970 in Hamburga a different person than I walked in.
The film coined my life
what a beautifully done video essay. thank you for sharing.
Great video on one of the most underrated movies of all time
I like your analysis and will be sharing your video with my Film Studies students this week when I show them _Easy Rider_ . But one quick point: Wyatt Earp was law enforcement, not an outlaw, which I think makes the bringing together of these historical archetypes in this buddy film all the more resonant. _Easy Rider's_ Billy is fun but also emotionally unsophisticated, materialistic, hot-headed, self-centered, blundering and trouble-making. Wyatt is reassuring, calm, stable, morally-grounded ("hey, we're eating their food") but also remote and hard to reach or read. They are the two sides, the yin and yang, of the American landscape.
I live in greece, and even here, when a bunch of old-school motorcycles pass by we call them easy riders. Even though most of my generation hasn't even seen the film, we know what it represents.
Great analysis on a timeless classic, some meaningfull content, good job!
They will never make a movie like this one it was ahead of its time. Great movie.
Kerouac's On the Road and Hopper's Easy Rider, each one in one end of the countercutural spectrum, helped alot to shape my cosmovision. I can say that both works caused part of the easthetic experiences that made me the man I am.
It's is a little bit funny that at first glance those works can be taken as "to much" American on their respective subjects (which are, in essence, the same), on the situations they describe (or show), on their characters, on the subjective and material landscapes they explore and on their respective narratives. But as much as they are true American takes on various levels of meanings and expression, as true works of art aswell, they are timeless (despite capturing the zeitgeist of their respective moments of conception) and universal.
Besides that, the questions they raise belongs to philosophy, in special those related to the deep Freedom that is a value in itself but have no price. That's why, I guess, those excellent works are so influential worldwide and also had so much impact on me, despite being Brazilian and born several years after the release date of the book and the film.
All the best from the southern tropic. ✌
Wonderful job on this. Thanks.
this is impeccable, in-depth writing, seamless execution, you sir have earned the honorable moniker of "underrated" speaking of which, i think you should review Figures In A Landscape (1970) it's a criminally obscure and under loved masterpiece that's rarely seen, in fact I was the first person on TH-cam to review it :)
Thanks for watching I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am a huge Joseph Losey fan, The Trout and The Romantic Englishwoman are servilely underrated too. I love his work Accident in-particular. He did a strange one for Hammer films to called the Dammed which is pretty interesting. Great to meet another Losey fan! Thanks again.
I'm not exactly a staunch fan yet but I've seen two of his films so far and I absolutely loved them!
Excellent!!
Nice video, I consider this to be the last 60's movie. I recommend Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) as the first 70's movie to deal with the ennui and disillusion of the counter-culture movement's end.
What a strange wonderful and terrifying thing, perspective is.
I always felt like the message of the movie was that America is hostile towards genuine freedom.
But what is freedom? That's what it's asking. "America" was founded on stolen land and stolen resources, USA is an imported thing on the land that it occupies. That's what it's asking - so what is freedom then? not bound or governed by made up laws or is it about just living on the land as is, as it was, not trapped by the new "nation" built by invaders on land that doesn't actually belong those who invaded
Not Americans, just the ones who are art the top of the power structure.
Yes, America is. It's a fake freedom
Yup, 100%, Americans don't know what true freedom is, is what the film was trying to say
Because the older you get all you realize after hooking yourself off drugs is that freedom for most people is simply a drug induced road trip. Freedom for some can be seen by the likes of Richard proenneke where actually involving yourself in nature can benefit. I’d love to be free in nature but my nature has been corrupted by the very thing and people and culture and country that we’ve seen before.
This movie is a classic representing our culture, they way we were back in those days. Like with anything, there were ups and there were downs.Even though I'm old now, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. At one time I wanted to get a Harley and join the Hell's Angels, but after I smoked pot and experimented with LSD, I chose to be a flower child instead. What a strange trip it's been.
Thanks for watching. It is a classic, it changed my life too when I saw it as a teenager, the music, the direction and the social commentary made me realise that maybe I could do something in the arts and do something different with my life. It's such an inspiring movie. Thanks for sharing your comments much appreciated.
@@johnrenneysboneyardcinema Peter's father and actor Henry Fonda, thought Peter was wasting his money and it would be a flop because no one would understand it. Boy was he wrong !!! Old people, old visions vs young people, new visions.
Very good video! "Easy Rider" is a film that I'm not exactly ga-ga over, but I totally acknowledge and respect its cultural influence. Same with "Sweet Sweetback" and "Fritz the Cat."
Fuckin A, man! 👌Good synopsis. Thanks. -J.
Jumps from New Mexico to Louisiana. Texas wouldn't allow no production company of longhairs filming in their state at that time⭐🙄
They were warned in New Mexico by a group of hippies with fresh buzz-cuts that if they like their long hair, they'd better stay out of Texas. There was at least one county where the Sheriff and his Deputies had declared war on long-haired boys and men and would arrest them for whatever they could make up, take them to jail, inform them that due to a recent outbreak of lice, they would 'have' to give them a haircut for 'health reasons.' After a few hours, they would offer to drop the charges if the person signed papers agreeing to leave and never come back, not sue, etc., which most of the shocked young people were more than happy to do. But you couldn't 'un-do' that haircut!
A movie that asks, what happens when you realize the question was the answer all along???
Right on
For the thumbnail, you took the freedom to mirror it. Harleys have the exhaust on the right side, not the left.
I always assumed the two main characters were intended to invoke Don Quixote and Sancho Panza... was that not actually intended?
Thanks for watching. That's a really cool point, I never saw it that way but I can totally see where you are coming from, I recently just read Quixote again for a sci fi film I reviewed called 'Solaris' on this channel as that movie takes heavily from Don Quixote too lol Cool coincidence as I can see what you mean after reading it again.
I have always assumed that they were meant to represent Wyatt Earp and Billy The Kid just because of their names, Captain America as Earp a once outlaw type cowboy who became a law man and Hopper as the outlaw Billy the Kid.
But I'm always up for new ways and interpretations of looking at movies, thanks for sharing your comments its much appreciated and I'll keep it in mind next time I watch. Cheers
You'd think the guy that wrote Taxi Driver (1976) would actually like Easy Rider (1969)
yeah...the titles rhyme...
Heh they do😂
I saw Dennis Hopper's next film, "The Last Movie." It is incoherent, a disaster in every way.
Thanks for watching. Yeah, from what I’ve seen Hopper was high as a kite while he was making ‘The Last Movie’. There are some horrendous stories about how crazy the editing process was because he was so strung out. I think he was an interesting director when he was on form, and I love ‘Out of the Blue’ and ‘Colours’. He achieved so much in his lifetime and left us with some unforgettable performances especially ‘Easy Rider’. Thanks again for your comments its much appreciated.
Just don't blow it. At times I feel like I have, missed the lessons life was trying to tell me.
Why are people jealous of freedom?
Not jealous of freedom. Some people are afraid of people who have true freedom.
That's why throwing their watches away has so much meaning, not tied to the system.
En español no está?
Antiquated Systems vs revolution.
th-cam.com/video/xXq9dKRHscQ/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for watching. That's a great track definitely has the ER vibe about it. Thanks for sharing it. The soundtrack was revolutionary, the decision to use pop music was inspired. I read that apparently they were in talks with Steve Stills to write the score but when he heard the temp track, which became the soundtrack he just said, why should I write anything its perfect already! Amazing score The Pusher is a favourite of mine, the soundtrack was one of the reasons I picked up a guitar. Thanks again.
@@johnrenneysboneyardcinema -- Thanks for the reply! Hoyt Axton wrote "The Pusher." Axton also wrote "Snowblind Friend" for Steppenwolf. Axton's mother (Mae) wrote "Heartbreak Hotel" for Elvis Presley. Stay free! -- W
Between Easy Rider and Yellowstone which is playing now, It really tells how money, greed and power dictates how we are suppose to act, live, and carry on. I fail to see how we are free now days. We are under surveillance everywhere we go. We're basically told how much money we can make. I pick up on allot of lines from different movies that really make sense. Anything and everything you buy now days is made cheaper and don't last as it did when it was made 30, 40, 50 years ago. What used to be made of metal became plastic, and then soon becoming cardboard. All you see on TV commercials anymore are drug and pharmaceutical ads using scare tactics to get you to a doctor in one way or another. What happen to the good ole' "Maytag Man"??? What happen to freedom of speech???
Patterson and Thompson will pay !!!
Easy rider is the quintessential boomer movie
this movie kind of sucked. it had interesting shots. a cool time capsule into how rural USA was during the 60s. but its much too random. Dennis Hooper mumbles and laughs 99 percent of the time. Just repeating words other people said. i think it was just an experimental movie made by stoners. which stoners were the target audience for the time. so they loved it
You talk too much.
Overhyped Mediocre Film !
how do you retire off of 2 keys of coke? and why pic Florida? humidity yuck