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Post-Classical Hollywood, Male Bonding and LSD in Easy Rider

I was reading an article on Easy Rider (1969) sometime back and I read a line in it that said that the film was ‘essentially a western with bikes replacing horses’ and I couldn’t agree more. For me Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) in this film are very much Butch and Sundance from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The comparison turns sour when we look at the fact that both films were released in the same year but I would rather look at it in terms of the cultural significance that Butch and Sundance left behind as compared to Easy Rider.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper financed the film entirely out of their own pockets and also took on the roles of Producer and Director respectively. The result is a very fluid film with a great spirit of non-confirming to the established rules, whether it is social acceptance or filmmaking. This film has been showered with nametags that called it the first real independent film from America but a lot of them missed out on John Cassavetes who had produced his independent masterpiece Shadows as early as 1959. Although it may not be the forerunner of the movement, but the themes of anti-socialism and disillusionment that the film addressed went to influence the American cinema of the 1970s.

Dennis Hopper wanted the film to be a worthy competitor at the Cannes Film Festival and fashioned the film around the style of the popular French New Wave which was slowly declining at the time in 1969. His use of Jump cuts, Juxtaposed editing and unusual camera placement was heavily borrowed from the works of Godard and Tuffaut. Hopper’s use of these various impressive ‘gimmicks’ brings out the freshness of Easy Rider and makes the film what it is- a rude gesture at the establishment (Hollywood). This attitude is especially prominent when Captain America stuffs a plastic tube with dollar bills and inserts the whole length of it in his motorcycle’s fuel-tank which is painted in the likeness of the American flag. In Fonda’s own words, Captain America was metaphorically “fucking the nation with money”.

The Friendship

The relationship shared between Captain America and Billy is a prime example of the depiction of Male-bonding in world cinema. There is a certain kind of charm that surfaces when there are two tough guys riding shoulder-to-shoulder and have each other’s back secured. This kind of friendship is explored time and time again by filmmakers all around the world, especially when it comes to road movies (just ask Wim Wenders). I guess when you’re driving vehicles for days at a stretch what you really need is a person who can just shut up and ride with you and this kind of comfortable silence only comes with a true friend.

Is that the reason why we rarely see a woman companion in road movies? Fellini tried that in La Strada (1954) and it is plain to see the things that Anthony Quinn’s Zampano had to put up with Giulietta Masina’s Gelsomina. Perhaps men should take a hint from the master.

This special friendship between the two main characters features an empty guest spot in the form of Captain America’s backseat. This sort of a ‘guest’ position is filled in by two people as the film goes on and each time ends with both the leads reaching a certain place with a certain kind of people.

First, it is a hippy stranger on highway (Luke Askew) who hitches a couple of days’ worth of ride along with Captain America and Billy. He occupies the first few minutes of the film which give us an insight into the lifestyle of the two leads and also the zeitgeist of the period the film is set in. Each time they have a third person with them, both Captain America and Billy are much more conversational. With the Stranger, they have a seemingly meaningless discussion but everyone is cool with it because they’re all high on marijuana anyway.

The segment with the stranger ends with the two leads reaching a private hippy settlement and discovering their lifestyle. While leaving, the stranger gives Captain America LSD to take it ‘at the right time with the right people’.

The second ‘guest’ in the film is George Hanson, played by a young Jack Nicholson. As usual, Nicholson ends up pretty much playing himself in the film but definitely adds to the second act of the story. Once again, both the leads immediately become friends with Hanson and they have long conversations about a lot of topics.

This part of the film also brings in the southern conservative attitude of America in the late sixties. It might seem unbelievable to some when they hear that hippy kids used to get killed because they had long hair but it is very much a fact. The quintessential scene in the film where the three characters walk into a restaurant and fall victim to verbal abuse from the locals is a very real depiction of the time and space that the film is set in. In fact, Dennis Hipper had cast real locals in these roles to bring out the natural hatred they had towards the ‘free’ people.

The level at which this attitude escalates to is seen at the end of the film where both the leads get shot en route by shotgun wielding local conservatives.

LSD

The film is notorious for its blatant depiction of drug intake. Both Hopper and Fonda have openly admitted to have used real marijuana in the film. The scene where Jack Nicholson’s character George Hanson is repeatedly explaining Hopper’s Billy about UFOs was completely improvised while Nicholson was high on the marijuana joint that he smokes on-screen.

Perhaps one of the films most experimental segments comes in the form of the scenes set in the graveyard when both the leads are high on LSD with two prostitutes. This segment is entirely shot in 16mm and takes on a surreal tone involving the experiences of the four characters under the influence of the drug. Multiple voice-overs from all the characters mix and flow into one another’s experience and creates a sort of beautiful chaos. The segment which lasts a good 10 plus minutes includes a painful monologue by Captain America, quick editing, stripping of clothes and several haunting sound effects that create a fantastic psychedelic experience to the viewer.

The unconventional editing of the entire film up until this point really sets up the field for this heavily experimental segment of the film. This is the part of the film that truly takes it away from any one genre of cinema and helps it stand on its own as a piece of original avant-garde work.

A Modern Classic

This term is now such a cliché that is applied to almost every film that came out before the year 1990 but the true meaning of it can be felt only in Easy Rider. Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson went onto their respective careers and several other collaborations but none of them could ever match the magic they created with the one film they decided to make for themselves by themselves.

In closing here’s a memorable dialogue from the film:

George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.
Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened. Hey, we can’t even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or somethin’. They’re scared, man.
George Hanson: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.
Billy: Well, it don’t make ‘em runnin’ scared.
George Hanson: No, it makes ‘em dangerous. Buh, neh! Neh! Neh! Neh! Swamp!