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Putting into practice Kerouac’s parable – like many of their
generation – two young hippies on a two-wheeled vehicle set out on the
road in a disillusioned America of the late ‘60s: Wyatt (Peter
Fonda)known as Captain America, and
Billy (Dennis
Hopper) travel from California to Louisiana, accompanied by an exceptional soundtrack (from the legendary Steppenwolf to the Electric Prunes), and meet a
variety of distinctive figures: from the hospitable farmers, to a commune,
half between a theatre company and a pacifist religious sect, till the odd
George Hanson (Jack Nicholson)
who will stay with them ‘nearly’ as far as New Orleans,
the promised land. |
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However, little by little penetrating in the deep South, the free America
finds itself in conflict with the anger and intolerance of a country that
seems to have just gone through the War of Succession. Two buddies of such
a sort, very similar to the wicked of 'Deliverance', will be the ones who literally put an end to the trip of the main
characters.
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REMARKS
The road journey as the pursuit of oneself (and also escape from one’s
anguish and fears) is without any doubt the underlying theme that sets a
precedent with this movie, if we don’t consider Dino Risi's
'Il sorpasso' (‘The Easy Life’) (to which Hopper and Fonda admit having in part
drawn inspiration from). A biker current, however, existed previously in
the USA, born with 'The
Wild One', and that afterwards took a footing in the ‘60s with the so-called
biker movies from which ‘Easy Rider’ clearly emerged.
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However, ‘Easy Rider’ is truly something different. The ‘sixties’
youth generation has got a
lot to teach to the previous one. It takes from the latter the biker
heritage, but it sets aside all belligerent design. Therefore, the movie
stops being only a physical translation, a sad wondering. It is the access
key to the universe inside the main character, sought at any cost, also
through the other mass generation vehicle: drugs. Exploration started by
Fonda in the movie 'The
Trip' by Roger Corman
by
Roger Corman (by the way, lover and author of biker movies). In both
movies, Fonda’s hallucinations always turn to the mystic, other
underlining theme.
It
appears obvious to me that when Wyatt, maybe when reading word by word on
the whorehouse wall in New Orleans, says “If God didn’t exist, he
would have to be invented”, he is making more than a
reflection/quotation. Maybe, it isn’t by chance that the Electric Prunes'
'Kyrie Eleison' of 'Mass in F minor' plays in the background, music that
we find again in the French movie 'Le
Voleur de crimes'
with Jean-Louis
Trintignant, which, in a certain way, deifying the main character may be complementary
to Hopper’s movie.
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In my opinion, Wyatt decided everything in that sentence. He decided to
cover the aimless existence that plagues him in the scene of the
hallucination in the cemetery. The boy – unconsciously or not – raises
himself to God, the identification with Christ becomes very strong. Bit by
bit the pieces complete the mosaic. He takes upon himself the sins of the
Old America (of which he wears the colours) running towards his
prosecutors, letting himself be nailed
on the metal and rubber cross.
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NOTE!!!
This is an unauthorized site. The copyrights of the images of ' Easy Rider'
belong to Columbia/Tristar pictures. This site is just a movie page for my
personal website. The copyrights of the texts belong to Lorenzo Costa.
Email me at alfadriver@lorenzocosta.com
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