Easy Rider

1969

Dennis Hopper

I watched Easy Rider and had my mind blown. The great thing about being saturated in crap new movies with their high saturation everything and epileptic editing and cinematography is that we can look at things like Easy Rider, 8 1/2, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly and have our minds genuinely blown by the different uses of camera. Who knew it was possible to actually manipulate your instruments for a variety of settings and situations? Not most blockbuster makers. JJ Abrams, much as I love him for his strong female characters and zany stories that actually catch me taking them seriously, is the perfect example of a director who can use "shaky fast cam" or "tight face tension cam" and nothing else.

Other things that blow my mind: Dennis Hopper. I am ashamed to say that I knew him first from a cameo in Entourage. The show made a big deal about how cool he was, and I just went along with it. Then I saw Blue Velvet. Clearly the man is a great actor. Then Gunfight at the OK Coral. And my heart almost skipped a beat he was so good looking. It was like watching Grapes of Wrath and seeing Henry Fonda's face for the first time. Or Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood. I mean, damn. Good looking.

Then this. I recognized him immediately, then that the other guy was Henry Fonda's kid. And that opening! Steady shot of the Mexican shack. Everything in Spanish. No subtitles. Henry Fonda's kid is speaking Spanish. Then the meeting at the airport with sound mixing taken straight from Fellini or Godart. I was so disoriented I clung to these two laid back men with sweet sunglasses and jackets, knowing they, who were so cool in these crazy scenes, would get me through.

And the movie progresses. It's a picaresque. Each setting more home town american than the last, and becoming more restrictive as they go. It's simple, but what works better at making a point? A text book explaining the poetic devices in the book of Revelations or the book of Revelations? The parable is going to win.

What's better, is that 10 minutes from the end, at minute 121, I still had no idea how it would end. No clue. Could not predict a single thing. Is it because of the simplicity? Is it because of the repetitive nature of it? Is it because of the insanely abrupt and brutal nature of the ending?

After bonding so intensely with two characters we know to be good, and harmless, and completely unrelated to anything they see along the way, it is really shocking. And what's worse than that, is that I have watched half a dozen parodies of this ending (the best being the end of season 1 of The Venture Brothers) and other parts of the film.

It gets even better. Dennis Hopper didn't just star in it as a true incarnation of a free spirit, but directed it. And he and Henry Fonda's kid wrote it. It's beyond my comprehension. So good.

An American made, with a totally American feel and chunkiness found only in Hemingway novels, directed like a French New Wave or high style Fellini film.

Are there other movies like this? I am ready for options!

PS. Did I mention Jack Nicholson? Equally hot. Equally brilliant. As always, a scene stealer. Not even Dennis Hopper is able to withstand that man's presence on film.