Rating: 
Summary: Landmark of American Cinema
Review: An uncomplicated film for complicated times; Easy Rider is the road movie to end all road movies. The plot is simple enough, 2 hippies (Fonda and Hopper) make one big score dealing cocaine, buy 2 fat hogs and saddle up to ride down to Mardi Gras. Well, along the way the boys encounter friends and enemies (mostly the latter) until they end up in jail for parading without a permit! Enter Nicholson...Jack plays a drunk ACLU lawyer named George who comes from a priviledged background. But, he can relate to these longhairs and in fact has more than a little in common with their world view. I don't want to give away any more of the plot as you must watch to be shocked, but let's just say it doesn't end pretty. Peter Fonda's Captain America character is a pure optimist and the embodiment of what America used to be. He is accepting, caring and fiercely original. Fonda turns in a strong understated performance. Hopper's character is more of the stereotypical hippie, complete with paranoid rants and goofy behavior. He's definitely not the straight man here and his performance is too over the top. Nicholson steals the show even for the brief amount of time he's actually in the film...a truly great performance. Easy Rider shares a commonality with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in fact the two plots are basically interchangable: 2 friends set out in search of America and couldn't find it anywhere. There are a few problem's like the acid trip scene which is ridiculously overdone and the ending which paints an overly pessimistic America to come. But, in the end there's no denying the simple genius here. The landscapes are breathtaking and so is the soundtrack (The Band, Grateful Dead, Hendrix, etc.). This is one trip you must take. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Gives navel gazing a bad name
Review: Something of a dubious milestone. When it first came out it was hailed as a classic and groundbreaking cinema and it was just as much required viewing as "2001". Over the years it has come to be considered as the spearhead of "form without content" cinema. Having seen it again since it's initial release, it is something of an embarassment and little more than a misguided curio and observation of a social movement as seen from a comfortable disengagued distance (no matter what people say about Corman, he was still in the business of selling tickets and this was just as much exploitation as "Riot On Sunset Strip" was a year or two earlier). Not just for the false notes it hits and stereotypes it depicts, it revels in its own smugness and conceit making, at least for this ageing hippy, a very uncomfortable experience. Sadly, this movie will be judged by many as "the way it was" and it will become something of a reference point for viewers and film makers who were not alive during this period to point to as a touchstone of accuracy. The hippie movement becomes pigeon-holed much the same way people viewed surfing in the 60's from the standpoint of "Beach Blanket Bingo". To use a well worn cliche` "it ain't necessarily so".
Rating: 
Summary: A Fairly Entertaining Relic
Review: EASY RIDER is a fairly entertaining relic from the counterculture of the sixties. The fingerprints of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper are all over it. Fonda is the producer and Hopper is the director. In addition, the screenplay is the result of the collaboration of Terry Southern with both of them.The story is about two free spirits (Fonda and Hopper) on a motorcycle trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Along the way they hook up with a drunk (Jack Nicholson) whose performance provides some of the most memorable scenes in the movie. The main competition for awards in 1969 came from MIDNIGHT COWBOY, TRUE GRIT and THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. In spite of the tough field, EASY RIDER was still able to win nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), Original Story and Screenplay.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic but it doesn't hold up over time..
Review: As good as Easy Rider is, it is not the type of movie that is going to pull in younger crowds.. The message of peacefulness and community with its underlying criticism of those who take this concept to brain-dead stages is one that stands the test of time. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the movie itself simply do not. Nicholson, Hopper and Fonda all give great performances. However, this movie is always going to appeal more to the peace and flower power crowd than the [chemical] genre crowd.. For the latter, this movie simply cannot compete with Trainspotting, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, etc..
Rating:
Summary: painfully hilarious 60's drivel
Review: I watched this the second time in film class in 1970 with a professor who claimed to have watched it 40+ times, teasing out the deeper nuances. That seemed excessive even given the zeitgeist of the times. Watching it once would be excessive now but for the insight it gives into the completely vacuous values of the 60's. Some aspects of the 60's have held up well (Jimi Hendrix still sounds great), but this movie isn't one of them. If you can listen to Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper babble with the other stoners on the commune about doing your own thing in your own time without bursting out laughing, you need more drugs. I would give this one star but for the fact that the music is pretty good, it helped launch Jack Nicholson, and Fonda has gone on to do some very good movies and Hopper some great ones.
Rating:
Summary: Dediticated to a Generation of Dreamers...
Review: This review refers to the Widescreen VHS edition.... "Easy Rider" is more than just a great film. It's an experience! Dennis Hopper who directed and co-wrote(with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern)preserved for us on film this time in history that has had a lasting cultural effect. His unique style of directing lets the viewer not just watch but experience the story from the free wheeling begining, to the drug trips(don't worry, you won't have any flashbacks), to the devastating end. The story takes place in the late 60's, during a time of radical cultural changes. Fonda and Hopper are motorcyclists, "long hairs", who having just scored big in the sale of drugs,are searching to be free from the everyday hang-ups of life. They are headed from Los Angeles to New Orleans, trying to make it to Mardi-Gras.Along the way they are met with the varied attitudes and life styles of those they encounter. Some just accept them for who they are, others openly show their hostility at what is different and unknown.They are also joined by (in his breakthrough performance) the inimitable Jack Nicholson, who made me smile from the first frame he was in, all the way through. Jack plays an alchoholic lawyer who's looking for a little change in his life and joins the boys on their road trip. So "trip" down memory lane, or experience this important film for the first time, to one of the greatest soundtracks put to film. The music includes Steppenwolf, The Birds, The Band, and The Jimmi Hendrix Experience. The film was nominated for Best Screenplay(1969), Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson show us way back then why they were all destined to become the stars they are today. Also look for Karen Black as a New Orleans prostitute. It was brillantly filmed and this widescreen edition brings every inch of scenery to you. It's a film well worth viewing and owning. "They only wanted to be free..." Laurie
Rating: 
Summary: Stinks!
Review: The only way this could possibly get a good review is if you smoked pot while watching!
Rating:
Summary: real
Review: this is the most real movie about hippidom (is that a word?) you will ever see. yea, it has great scenery, great tunes, and an interesting plot, but the reason the movie is so great is that everything is so REAL! every time they smoke up, its real weed. even alot of the actors were pulled off the street. there were no sets, they shot as they travelled. i dont see how people can enjoy movies like "half baked" and yet havent even heard of this one. it was just a few stoner hippie film makers with a limited budget who put this on, not big budget hollywood with their fancy special effects that work against realism in films. and the persecution of these men who just wanted to be free reveals alot about human nature i dont think there was ever a better film or even book made about the 60's counterculture a work of art
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate male fantasy flick -- to just take off...
Review: Easy Rider resonated with film-goers, especially those of us of the male gender, when it was released because it tells the tale of man's secret desire to just chuck it all and take off and BE FREE. Those of us who grew up in the late '60s are aware of Henry David Thoreau's comment that, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Well, Captain America (whose real name in the movie was Wyatt) and Billy didn't. They did it their way. Yeah, they ultimately paid the ultimate price (I assume everyone knows how it ends by NOW...), but man, oh, man did they have fun along the way. Jack Nicholson's role made him a star after he'd struggled through minor roles in movies like "Angels Die Hard" and "Mister Roberts" (or was it "Ensign Pulver"?). The big debate among those of us back in the day was, should they have stayed at the commune or should they have moved on? I always voted for moving on and then returning to the commune. (Yeah, OK, some aspects of this movie are very, very dated...) And the other was, who did WE want to be, the cool Captain America or the antic, frantic Billy (the Kid...). (If you didn't catch it early, get the names: Wyatt (Earp) and Billy (the Kid)... Yeah, it's a cliche, but it was fun anyway.) The DVD is good, but I sure hope someday that a better print makes it to DVD. This one now is about an 8 out of 10, and I'm sure there has to be a crystal clear print SOMEWHERE. But that misgiving aside, the music's fun, especially for younger viewers who've never heard "Don't Bogart Me" and the movie's a classic. I have seen it a hundred times and I'll probably see it another hundred times -- every time I get tired of when I'm tired of being part of the mass of men living lives of quiet desperation.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Road Movie Ever. A True Classic
Review: Greatest Road Movie Ever. A True Classic
Reviewer: A viewer from Minneapolis, Minnesota United States
The scenery alone is enough to send chills down your spine. Add to that the killer soundtrack and Jack Nicholson's star making (and in my opinion, his best) performance and you've got yourself one hell of a film. Easy Rider (Directed by Dennis Hopper) is the story of two hippie bikers who take a trip on their motorcycles down to the Mardi-Gras festival in New Orleans. Along the way they stopped at a hippie commune, end up in a parade, and spend the night in jail before finally making it to Mardi-Gras. Where they proceed to have themselves a good old time ...
The big three things that make this movie special are the scenery (photographed to perfection, by Laslo Kovack) the music. Which just plain rocks and Jack Nicholson's performance. Nothing against Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's performance but Nicholson steals every scene he's in. This movie is also a fasinating look at the 60's counterculture. Lots of ... great music, killer movie. Enjoy.
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