Easy Rider (1969)

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

Director:

Dennis Hopper

Writers:

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper,

Stars:

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Fonda	...	Wyatt
Dennis Hopper	...	Billy
Antonio Mendoza	...	Jesus
Phil Spector	...	Connection
Mac Mashourian	...	Bodyguard
Warren Finnerty	...	Rancher
Tita Colorado	...	Rancher's Wife
Luke Askew	...	Stranger on Highway
Luana Anders	...	Lisa
Sabrina Scharf	...	Sarah
Sandy Brown Wyeth	...	Joanne (as Sandy Wyeth)
Robert Walker Jr.	...	Jack (as Robert Walker)
Robert Ball	...	Mime #1
Carmen Phillips	...	Mime #2
Ellie Wood Walker	...	Mime #3 (as Ellie Walker)

Storyline

Wyatt and Billy are two motorcycle riders (bikers) on their way to Mardis Gras, and encounter hitchhikers, a drunken lawyer, a jail cell, a whorehouse and the death of a friend.

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Plot Keywords:

biker | mardi gras | jail cell | motorcycle | hitchhiker | 

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Taglines:

This Year It's Easy Rider

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

26 June 1969 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Loners

Filming Locations:

157 Bridge Street, Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Pando Company Inc., Raybert Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was one of the first films to make extensive use of previously released musical tracks rather than a specially written film score. This is common with films now but was quite unusual at the time (the exception being The Beatles films and some other special cases).

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Goofs

Wyatt and Billy are going to the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. This indicates that they are traveling in either late January or early February, given that Mardi Gras usually takes place in mid February. Despite this, and despite the number of states they drive through, the men never drive through an area of cold weather. Many of the characters they meet are wearing summer style clothes, and the weather is most obvious in New Mexico, where the winters can be extremely hard with lots of snow.

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Quotes

Billy: [while smoking a Joint] Oh wow! What? Who's that man? What the hell was that, man?
Captain America: Huh?
Billy: [nervous] No, man, like hey, man. Wow. I was watching this object man, li-like the satellite that we saw the other night, right? And, like, it was going right across the sky, man, and then... I mean it just suddenly, uh, it just changed direction and went whizzin right off, man. It flashed...
Captain America: [interupting him] You're stoned out of your mind, man.

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Connections

Referenced in Quantum Leap: The Color of Truth - August 8, 1955 (1989)

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Soundtracks

"It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"
Performed by Roger McGuinn
Composed by Bob Dylan

User Reviews

My favorite movie of all time...

Too often this film is relegated to retro documentaries and cheap nostalgia for an era too often reduced to its superficial artifacts (flower power, popular music).

I was born in 1972, three years after this film was made, but the themes in it are still relevant and important to me. Maybe I'm the last of a certain kind of American; someone wondering about what's still possible in the USA, and searching for the realized potential of the American Dream. Perhaps what has changed since this film was released is that freedom - that is, real freedom, just doesn't matter as much to people as it once did. Self-enslavement is a popular past-time for today's numb middle class; a group of people who, I am convinced, do not dream when they sleep.

This movie defined the road film genre, even though it was not the first of its kind. I owe a debt of gratitude to Fonda, Nicholson, and Hopper for pointing out a very real truth about America and its often twisted approach to "freedom." By any standard, this is a film which should not be missed. It is a film I wish I had written myself.