Journal #3: Easy Rider

What do you get when you mix great rock and roll music, two counter-culture bikers, and the open road? Easy Rider. The film has been a cult classic since its inception and has some clear frustrations with intolerance that ran rampant at the time. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda were independent film makers who decided to use their own favorite records to create another dimension for the open road. They were naive to think that all of the popular music would be in their movie and Fonda later said "...if the [film business] is tough, the music business really gets sticky".

The film featured artists such as Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Byrds, The Band, and many more artists that were making influential, counterculture induced music. All of the songs work so well into the scene, with the surroundings of untouched Americana and the two men who seem to be living the American dream. That is until they reenter almost any type of civilization where they are mistreated by scared individuals. There is no great music playing when this is happening. The famous movie critic Roger Ebert says that

"The budget was so limited, there was no money for an original score, so Hopper, the director, slapped on a scratch track of rock 'n' roll standards for the first studio screening. The executives loved the sound and insisted the songs be left in, and "Easy Rider" begat countless later movies that were scored with oldies."

I find that interesting that Hopper and Fonda might have stumbled onto this, I really can't imagine the movie without these "rock 'n' roll" standards bellowing through to the admiring audience.

The two main Easy Riders are Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt (Peter Fonda) along with a great but short lived friendship with George Hanson (Jack Nicholson). Together, Billy and Wyatt dream of getting to New Orleans for Marti Gras but things unfold like they want them to. The music really ads to the ideal feeling of the open road. Without it, there is a good argument that the movie doesn't have the same power. The obvious effect of the music was to add a spark to the long rides through the country.

The response to Easy Rider was astounding. The movie production costs were around $600,000 which was nothing compared to the millions it raked in.