Easy Rider Blu-ray review
http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/381461/easy_rider_bluray_review.html
Michael takes a cinematic classic for a high definition spin, as he
reviews Easy Rider on Blu-ray...
Dec 15, 2009
Michael Leader
A friend of mine once called Easy Rider 'the most random film ever';
that is not a very good assessment. It is one of those early
landmarks in what is called the New Hollywood movement in American
cinema from the late 1960s onwards which have been superseded by more
accomplished, accessible and - importantly - popular films from the
1970s. Nevertheless, it retains an integral place in the history of
the art form, and its ambitions, intentions and perspective still
ring true to the present day.
Case in point: with Easy Rider, the lunatics were in control of the
asylum. Essentially a low-budget, independent style project,
erstwhile actors Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, acting as director
and producer respectively, developed the film with the funding of
Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, the young industry boffins that had
made big bucks by smuggling the counterculture into the mainstream
with The Monkees. The two were given creative freedom to work on
their idea: a motorcycle road movie with two enigmatic modern-day
cowboys surveying post-Kennedy America.
They took inspiration from the exploitation movies of Roger Corman,
who, at that point, was using sex, drugs and motorcycles to make
quick, cheap, but ultimately successful movies like The Wild Angels
and The Trip, but their ambitions were more personal. Hopper and
Fonda wanted to use Easy Rider to show America as they - and their
hip buddies - saw things, with a killer soundtrack of songs pulled
from their favourite records (Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Steppenwolf).
They experienced things differently from the squares of the moral
majority, and were vilified for their drug taking and free loving.
This all seems horrendously arrogant as we look back, but one of Easy
Rider's key strengths is this sense of perspective. It was a
counterculture film distributed by Columbia Pictures, a sensitive,
yet conflicted view of an American youth culture that mainstream
Hollywood had yet to fully comprehend. And it did enormously well,
making $19 million in its first year domestically, and $60 million by
1972 worldwide.
It is easy to get sucked into talking about history when assessing
old films such as Easy Rider (and it is old - as much time has passed
between then and now, as between then and the Wall Street Crash), but
the film itself is prickly, jagged and still fresh.
When the two bikers, Wyatt and Billy (or Captain America and Bucky;
Fonda and Hopper respectively), make a big sale smuggling narcotics
across the Mexican border at the start of the film, they are already
doomed. As they travel across the Southern states, coming across
noble ranchers, LSD-peddling (and ultimately exploitative) hippy
communes and bigoted rednecks, and look for solace in drinking, women
and drugs, they are inevitably disappointed, only met with
alienation, violence and decaying values.
It is all very rich in its symbolism, but has all the subtlety of a
psychedelic protest song, seen in its overt manhandling of American
iconography (Wyatt wears a leather jacket emblazoned with the stars
and stripes, a motif repeated on his bike's teardrop tank) and often
broad supporting straw-men. Although, this is not to the film's
detriment, as it has a roughshod quality that often brings up
startling, effective sequences.
Filmed mostly in a gonzo, on-the-road style, using outdoor locations
and natural lighting, Easy Rider nonetheless features some moments of
resourceful beauty. Laszlo Kovacs' camerawork is framed by the
American landscape, with Monument Valley and other parts of what
Fonda calls 'John Ford's America' popping up from time to time.
Likewise, other scenes feature either non-professional actors, or
professional actors under off-kilter circumstances - such as Warren
Finnerty being asked to remove his false teeth to play the Rancher,
or an electrifying sequence in a small town diner, where a select few
locals were invited to unleash catcalls, insults and abuse on the bikers.
In comparison, Fonda and Hopper seem like ill-defined avatars, one
distant and cool, and the other amphetamine-crazy. The film's heart,
and ace-in-the-hole, comes from Jack Nicholson, an actor who, like
the two leads, had long worked with Corman, and was considering
giving up on his acting career, before his role in Easy Rider brought
him to mainstream prominence (earning him his first Academy Award
nomination). His performance as ACLU-affiliated lawyer - and
full-time drunk - George Hanson is finely nuanced and relatable in
comparison to the oddly caricatured characters that come up elsewhere
in the film. He is educated and open-minded, yet still understandably
shaky when Captain America shoves a finely shaped spliff under his nose.
The film's ending, with spontaneous eruptions of aggression, and
abrupt deaths, is more awkward than enlightening. A closing scene, in
which Billy enthuses over how they have the 'big money', and can now
'retire in Florida', only to be met by an enigmatic 'we blew it' from
Wyatt, reaches for an elusive sense of poetry - to match the Nouvelle
Vague-inspired editing, or the relatively avant-garde psychedelia of
its cemetery-bound LSD trip sequence - that is ever so slightly
outside of its grasp. Nevertheless, while its artistic qualities may
be obscured by even its contemporaries, with M.A.S.H., Bonnie And
Clyde and The Graduate all having more grace and subtlety, Easy Rider
has a visceral impact that is hard to deny.
The Disc
This 40th anniversary Blu-ray package is actually a little
underwhelming. The extras are ported over from the 35th anniversary
DVD, which isn't too much of a problem, as both Dennis Hopper's audio
commentary and the 1999 documentary Shaking The Cage (itself made for
the film's 30th anniversary) are informative and engaging. The
latter, in particular, is engrossing, entertaining stuff.
While it is a little ramshackle, and features an awkward score from
aging-Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, the documentary gets great
mileage out of simple talking heads from Hopper, Fonda, and other
production notables (such as Kovacs, associate producer Bill Hayward,
and production manager Paul Lewis). All involved have the benefit of
hindsight and reflection, speaking of the roaring fights,
groundbreaking perspectives and indulgent ambitions of the film with
insight and humour. This is a film whose production process is just
as interesting as its narrative content, after all, and the collected
anecdotes about the inspiration, financing, filming, soundtrack,
reception and legacy of Easy Rider are fascinating.
The Blu-ray image is much sharper, and looks better than the DVD
version, which looked quite washed out. This isn't an illuminating
restoration, however. Indeed, it is certainly the best looking
edition of Easy Rider on the market, but, as the charms and artistry
of the original film - especially Kovacs' cinematography - rely more
on resourcefulness than technology, only fidelity-freaks will be
truly impressed.
That, with the added Blu-ray bells and whistles (such as a new menu,
with horrible Southern Fried chugging blues riffs looping over and
over), is all that is new with this set. Bearing in mind that the DVD
is available in a variety of online and high street shops for a
budget price, the Blu-ray edition of Easy Rider might be only for
those with money to burn.
.
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