Easy Rider

Year 2, Day 264 - 9/21/10 - Movie #630

BEFORE: Another of the "classics" that I have to admit never watching before - I think I need a term for a film that I'm embarrassed to admit not having seen, a "mea culpa" of sorts. Perhaps a "cinema culpa"? Or a "Cine-mission" (cinematic omission)? The best thing about my Nicholson chain is that I'm going to cross off about 5 or 6 of these - "Chinatown", "Easy Rider", and more to come...

After the 2 weeks of Jack, the biggest cine-missions on my list are probably: "Gone With the Wind", "Rebel Without a Cause", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Cool Hand Luke", "Bridge On the River Kwai", "The Philadelphia Story", "The Third Man", "Twelve Angry Men", "The Manchurian Candidate", and "Midnight Cowboy". There are probably many more, but those are the most egregious classics missing from my "seen" list. I can probably only get to two more of these this year, if I stick to my plan - the rest will have to wait for 2011.

THE PLOT: Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America.

AFTER: Well, this worked out OK - after spending the last two (and a half) nights in cinematic Los Angeles, tonight's film was about leaving L.A. and heading out across the desert, on the way to Mardi Gras.

The problem here is that this film is SUCH a product of 1969, SO indicative of the year it was made, that it seemed (to me) just as relevant in 2010 as, say, a film about 1930's gangsters. The hippie culture has come and gone (except for pockets in San Francisco and Oregon), and there wasn't anything here that felt timeless. Oh, I could substitute goth kids or slackers, or even Muslims for hippies, but that feels like a forced analogy somehow.

I feel like I was born too late to get this movie - I was a mere infant in 1969, so I missed out on the counter-culture. I'm too young to be a hippie, and too old to be a slacker... I feel at least a generation removed from the Woodstock folks.

The film's climax involves an LSD (?) trip in a New Orleans cemetery with a couple of hookers - visually it seems like a combination of "A Clockwork Orange", "2001" and "Eyes Wide Shut" - but isn't a drug-trip a complete narrative cop-out? Just move the camera around at random, and throw in some religious imagery - that shouldn't be allowed as a substitute for an actual plot.

The film's got a killer soundtrack, but the ending is a total bummer. What's the message here? Some people in the 1960's didn't like hippies? Don't drive cross-country and sleep outdoors? Why did Wyatt say that they "blew it"? Explain, please...

Starring Peter Fonda (last seen in "Escape From L.A."), Dennis Hopper (last seen back in "Waterworld"), Karen Black (last seen in "Capricorn One") and future 80's music one-hit wonder Toni Basil. Oh, and a quick cameo from Phil Spector.

RATING: 3 out of 10. (this film would score higher if I were measuring cultural influence, but in terms of entertainment value, I can't ignore the narrative flaws)

JACK-O-METER: 8 out of 10 - this film scores pretty high on Jack-itude, even though he's only in the film for the middle third. He really makes the most of his time on screen, playing a Southern lawyer who decides to join the motorcycle trip, and after just one hit of grass, he's going on and on about UFO's and aliens. His character decides to drop out, get high and get freaky, in rapid succession. Even more priceless? Watching his reaction after a shot of booze.