"Easy Rider's" visual majesty contrasts with the film's time-worn performances.
Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda's counterculture epic creaks with the fatuous dialogue of their screenplay, co-written with Terry Southern. Under Hopper's direction, the film's fast pace does build suspense and narrative momentum. While the script seems dated overall, some of the lines retain their power.
Laszlo Kovacs' gorgeous cinematography eloquently expresses the film's message of corrupted American beauty. The soundtrack also enhances Hopper and Fonda's flamboyant performances as hippies riding from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
Hopper's zany antics as Billy result in a hippie caricature, more cornball than cutting edge after all of these years. Fonda's Wyatt - the equally trite "Captain America" - displays moments of quiet dignity reminiscent of his father Henry. Wyatt and Billy - yes, we get it, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Instant irony, kids.
The two groovy dudes finance their trip with a cocaine deal - deemed heroic at the time, but contemptible now. Phil Spector makes an amusing cameo appearance as an all too easily pleased drug dealer who eagerly buys their cocaine stash, which they had acquired in Mexico.
Jack Nicholson's brief appearance in his breakout role as the dissolute lawyer George Hanson raises the film's temperature. Karen Black, Nicholson's co-star in the more accomplished film "Five Easy Pieces," also injects energy as a New Orleans prostitute forced to act out an unconvincing acid trip in New Orleans' above-ground tombs.
Once again, I resented the film for slandering my native state by depicting Louisianians as violent, prejudicial rednecks. Many are, but I doubt they'd murder white hippies. At the time, plenty of longhairs roamed the state.
Despite their heavy-handed performances, the shots of Fonda and Hopper cruising past American vistas deliver a rare cinematic excitement, thanks to Kovacs.
Comments