Wheels On Film:
Easy Rider
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/wheelsonfilm/4839143/Wheels-On-Film-Easy-Rider.html
This is quite simply one of the greatest road movies ever made.
By Nick Cowen and Hari Patience
26 Feb 2009
Genre: Classic/Iconic/Road movie
The cast: Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star as disaffected bikers
Captain America (aka Wyatt) and Billy respectively. Jack Nicholson is
drunken good ol' boy lawyer George Hanson, Luke Askew is the hippie
hitchhiker and Toni Basil and Karen Black are Mardi Gras hookers Mary
and Toni. Phil Spector has a brief cameo as the cocaine buyer at the
beginning of the movie, His real-life bodyguard, Mac Mashourian, who
plays his bodyguard.
The bikes: Wyatt and Billy both ride Harley Davidson hydraglide
'chopper' motorcycles with teardrop gas tanks. Billy's has a red tank
with yellow flames and Wyatt's bike is decked out in the colours of Old Glory.
The plot: Two hippie bikers Billy and Wyatt decide to take in the
Mardi Gras in New Orleans. They procure a chunk of cocaine from a
Mexican dealer, flog it to a shady music-biz type in California for
some quick cash and head out across the USA. As they progress through
the American Southwest and South, they encounter a variety of people;
some are friendly and some are openly hostile...
In a nutshell: It's hard to know where to begin with Easy Rider. The
history surrounding the movie could fuel a dozen documentaries and
its cinematic legacy is immense. It was the first independent feature
to be distributed by a major studio. It was shot on a budget of
around half-a-million dollars and went on to make roughly ten times
that amount. It charted the rise and fall of the hippie movement,
openly explored the use of drugs and documented the societal tensions
of its era which still feel oddly prescient today. It destroyed Peter
Fonda's friendship with Dennis Hopper. It made Jack Nicholson a star.
It kick started the decade of New Hollywood. It's a damning social
commentary as well as a lengthy counterculture music video and no
other film of its era captured the imagination of its generation so
completely.
Above all else, however, Easy Rider is a great American road movie,
which stars two beautiful Harley Davidson motorcycles. According to
executive producer Bill Hayward, the bikes were custom-built
California choppers, which sacrificed comfort, durability and
sometimes even safety for an overriding sense of style. Fonda drew
pictures of what he wanted the bikes to look like and then four bikes
were built and designed by a motorcycle builder named Ben Hardy.
Fonda described Captain America's star-spangled machine as "basically
riding one big phallus down the road." Four bikes were made in total;
two for the screen and two on standby in case of any mechanical
failures. One of the bikes was destroyed for one of the movie's
pivotal scenes, while the other three were unfortunately stolen from
the set before the final shots were in the can. The wrecked bike was
eventually restored to its former glory by actor Dan Haggerty, who
worked on the film as an extra and a bike handler). He later sold the
it at auction in 2001.
It should be noted that while the bikes may look gorgeous, in reality
they were utterly impractical for long distance riding. They were
based on Harley Davidson police bikes which had rigid frames with
very little rear suspension. Normally, the bike's massive seat would
act as a cushion and provide the rider with support. However, due to
the fact that the motorcycles' stylistic look required the riders to
sit as low as possible, Hardy removed most of the seats, and
therefore most of the support needed to save the actors' backs and
arms. In short, the bikes were ergonomic nightmares. In the excellent
documentary about the making of Easy Rider, Shaking The Cage, Fonda
remembers that he couldn't even bend his arms inwards in order to
raise a glass of beer to his mouth after a day's worth of riding.
Easy Rider also benefits immensely from László Kovacs's gorgeous
cinematography; while there have countless road movies which have
made use of the breathtaking American landscape, it has rarely been
made to look as awe-inspiring as it does in this film. The shots of
the two riders burning along the endless highway that cuts through
valleys, deserts and woodland fill the movie with a genuine sense of
freedom. This is bolstered hugely by the soundtrack of sixties
classic rock, which was patched together by Hopper using records from
his and Fonda's record collections. Crosby, Stills and Nash, who were
hired to write the movie's score, refused to do so after watching the
film with it's existing soundtrack.
The characters of Wyatt and Billy come across more as ciphers than
fully-rounded individuals; Fonda and Hopper don't so much act as
embody the style, attitude and politics of that era's counterculture.
Far better and clearer is Jack Nicholson's scruffy lawyer, George
Hanson. Not only does Nicholson give an electrifying performance, his
character acts as a foil for Wyatt and Billy, articulating verbally
the values they try to convey through their appearance and lifestyle.
Hanson was Nicholson's breakout role; after Easy Rider he became hot
Hollywood property and on the basis of his work here, it's easy to see why.
After winning the Prix de la premiere oeuvre at the 1969 Cannes Film
Festival, Easy Rider was picked up for distribution by Columbia
Pictures. Critical reception and audience reactions were split down
the middle depending on where it was shown; Hopper said west coast
audiences were universally receptive while in New Orleans audiences
cheered when one of the characters got shot. Today, of course, it's
an American institution. It's even in the United States National
Registry for its cultural, historical and aesthetic importance. Easy
Rider wasn't the first road movie ever made, but it's the probably
the most influential, and arguably the best.
Best bit: The opening credits.
Worst bit: Knowing how it all ends.
Random fact: According to Hopper, the term 'easy rider' is slang for
a prostitute's lover.
Should appeal to: Children of the sixties in search of nostalgia,
bike fanatics and anyone with any taste.
Worth watching? Easy Rider is one of the greatest films ever made,
and even its detractors know it deserves its place in the canon of
classic cinema.
.
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