Everybody "knows" that "Easy Rider" is tremendously popular with high school and college-age kids. But these kids apparently sprang into existence full-blown, and did not grow up or go to any other movie before they found this one. That's the way Hollywood sees it. Hollywood believes in magic. In fact, the same kids who did "Easy Rider" were on dates in the drive-ins a few years ago when "The Wild Angels" and " Hell's Angels on Wheels " and all the other motorcycle pictures came along.
When the Hollywood establishment was dismissing motorcycle movies as an unpleasant low-budget fad, the kids already knew that something was happening here. Because the Hell's Angel, like the gangster, was a bad guy produced by the society he victimized and was tied to it by a love-hate relationship that created some really neat sex and violence scenes.
And someday 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. In all the exploitation-type motorcycle movies, the central characters were outlaws from conventional society. They rejected the establishment values but took them seriously enough to attach importance to putting them down.
They used drugs and beat up each other, and cops hated them on sight. There was usually an ounce of worth in the hero, however. But, unlike Brando in "The Wild One," they usually repented when they saw the suffering they'd caused. They didn't repent all over the place, but they did repent, and if you looked close you could catch them at it in the last scene. It takes the aimless rebellion of the bike gangs and channels it into specific rejection of the establishment by which is meant everything from rednecks to the Pentagon to hippies on communes.
Fonda and Hopper specifically break with the establishment by smuggling cocaine across the Mexican border; that's a no-no. But during most of the picture they have cash money hidden in their gas tanks, not dope.
Corman says they had a clause to the contract stating that because Hopper had never directed before, American International Pictures could replace him if he fell more than one day behind schedule. Bert Schneider replaced me as executive producer. Independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom Eating , Festival in Cannes , who was a young actor then under contract at Screen Gems, was good friends with Nicholson when he was cast as George. The late Rip Torn was set to play George until there was an incident between him and Hopper involving knives.
Torn sued Hopper for defamation and won after Hopper went on The Tonight Show and said Torn pulled a six-inch knife on him and threatened his life. To play this part you really have to be a country guy. We got into arguments about how long the hair could be. Hair was really important to us in those days.
And Jack was complaining and terribly unhappy about it. I think there are now six rides on the film, maybe seven. There were 20 rides in the [Hopper cut].
Nicholson had told Jaglom about shooting the scene at the campfire when George gets high and talks about aliens. It was Dennis talking endlessly. It was the magic of the film as far as I am concerned.
Easy Rider had strong buzz surrounding its U. It was also Fonda who says he came up with the concept of the movie in while in Toronto promoting The Trip. Hopper sued Fonda in over script credit; it was settled out of court.
Search What are you looking for? Arts Arts and Life. Amichai Abraham November 25, 4 mins read. Facebook Twitter. Maybe you are interested. Show all responses. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. The dailies were abysmal. The camerawork was manic, out-of-focus, and littered with light-leaks, lens flares. Certainly not in the lens flare option for Adobe After Effects in post-production, where the grit of an edgy film can be highly produced and digitized to the last frame.
What matters is the spirit, the idea of using the medium of film to truly create something revolutionary. We had that feeling.
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