Am I missing something? Did I not watch the same film that everyone else in America did? It is truly beyond me how this movie was able to make its way onto the AFI's Top 100. Easy Rider is a 1969 film about two bikers and their drug-fueled quest from Los Angeles to New Orleans. While this movie paints an eerily accurate portrait of the biker culture of the 1960's, there is, unfortunately, no story or motivation behind any of its aspects. Despite some good performances and a catchy soundtrack, I was unable to follow along with this film in the slightest bit.
Let's begin with the elements of this film that I really enjoyed. Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson provided some fantastic performances as Billy and George, respectively. Hopper was the initial comedic relief of the movie and his pot-fueled scenes made for some great visual humor. He also had the most personality between him and Peter Fonda, who played Wyatt. My main issue with Wyatt is that he did not have any personality. I do not appreciate it when actors rely solely on their looks and reputation to sell a movie, and I feel like that is exactly what Fonda did for this role. Jack Nicholson was the best part of this movie, frankly. I adore him as an actor and the many different kinds of characters that he can play. Nicholson's George brought a lot more life to this film, if only his character would have stayed alive longer than 30 minutes. I also enjoyed the atmosphere that our two leads created through this movie. If there is one thing that is done well, it is the representation of bikers in this time period. I completely respect and appreciate the way they were portrayed, as it is actually accurate for the era. And this is also aided by the timely soundtrack consisting of Steppenwolf and The Byrds.
After a few days of thinking over this movie, I have come to realize the main reason why I did not enjoy it: I was sober. Unlike every member of this cast and crew, apparently. The production quality of this movie blew me away in how excruciatingly bad it was. This is one of those rare films, similar to Tommy Wiseau's The Room, that I could see through the narrative and visualize the crew behind the camera, and it was not a good sight. The directing, editing, and cinematography were all utterly atrocious. This film looked like a collection of home movies that Hopper thought would work well as a collected story. Half of the entire runtime was just shots of Hopper and Fonda riding their motorcycles through different parts of the country, which did nothing to further the story. The camera work was awful, as there would be random points of quick, unnecessary zooming on strange subjects that I do not think was meant to be included in the final cut. And as an aspiring editor, I do not want to get started on what was wrong. The weird flashes between the cuts at points that were meant to be stoic and dramatic? The lingering on certain shots for an uncomfortable amount of time? These choices made zero sense. The only time I was impressed by the editing was during the acid-trip sequence, because taking drugs is truly the only acceptable time to use those techniques.
The writing in Easy Rider was also done by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, which proves that they are much better in front of the camera. There was absolutely no story to follow along to and I was confused during the entire film about what the goals of these characters were. The audience is thrust into Wyatt and Billy's world as they are buying cocaine from a dealer in quite large quantities. The only way that a viewer would be able to establish that they are transporting these drugs is if they were to visit this film's IMDb page. Every major plot point throughout this movie was never built to or developed, they just simply happened. No motivations, no reason, no anything. Nicholson's character was beaten and killed in the middle of the night; by who and for what reason remains a mystery to me. During this movie, the two are traveling and meeting different communities of people to see how they interact with these bikers. Except there were no connections between any of the subplots or supporting characters. And in the final scene when Billy and Wyatt are both killed by the redneck in the pickup truck, I felt absolutely nothing. Whether it was because of the blandness of the event or the unreasonableness of its occurrence, I had no reaction. I suppose the goal of this movie is to explore how different cultures embrace or reject bikers, but to me, without at least a semi-consistent narrative, there is no point.
Coming from an entire family of bikers, I desperately wanted to love this film but I suppose I'm an outcast in saying that Easy Rider is not a good movie. I understand the nostalgia surrounding it and I absolutely respect its cultural place in cinematic history, but just because you CAN make a movie, doesn't mean you should. Unless you really want to see Fonda and Hopper showing off their motorcycles for 95 minutes, I would unfortunately not recommend this film.
My Rating: ★½
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