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Easy Rider

Easy Rider

List Price: $14.94
Your Price: $11.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: "Man, I'm trippin' out; somebody shoot me!"
Review: From the bizarre editing to the lame dialogue, from the horrible sound track (before my time!) to the glorification of drug use--of which I definitely do not approve--I can easily say that "Easy Rider" is among the five WORST films I have ever seen in my life! The American Film Institute includes this bomb in its list of 100 greatest American films, so I thought I'd check it out. This film is so bad that I can't even think of four other films to insult by including them in the same list. Sad to say, but by the end of the film, I was actually rooting for the rednecks--and wasn't disappointed!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant Picture Which Encaptulates an age!
Review: 'Easy Rider' is a film which encaptures the 60s brilliantly. It is a film about people and about achieving the ultimate goal complete satisfaction and freedom- which as we find out during our journey with Hopper and Fonda cannot be achieved. The film is a journey across America where the viewer learns about people from all different walks of life through the eye's of the main character. The film is shot magnificently and makes the world seem unreal at times. Which paradoxically makes them feel they are experiencing something more real than they could ever have imagined. Watch this film it is brilliant!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like it or Hate it You've Got To See It
Review: The greatest film in history? No; probably not, but damn good. It'll get you that hippy vibe (the flower powery dope and love one, not the beat freight hopping whisky drinkin Kerouac one!). It's a film you have to see to grasp modern American culture. It shows you some of what the hippies thought they were doing, and some of what the rest of the world thought. It may even encourage you to throw away your watch and swim naked in a mountain pool. But it will surely give you a good evening in front of the TV and a good feeling. Except that last scene - that's a bummer, man.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A TRUE CLASSIC ABOUT FREEDOM!
Review: Watching this movie, and reading a book called "RIch Dad, Poor Dad", you learn that that people would rather sit and talk about freedom without actually doing it! I saw this movie in 1985 at the age of 7, but could not get it. I watched this again last summer and the point I understood was "People are jealous of free people, but they are too scared to steer away from the crowd to pursue their goals in life". Like Nicholson said, "Talking about being free and actually doing it are two different things. You tell some people they ain't free...they're gonna kill you". So, if you have not seen this you should. Also go buy two books called, "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki. Put the movie and the books together and you'll understand the combination of freedom, money and psychology all in one!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Bad Acid Trip
Review: Easy Rider is a legendary movie. This ofcourse is due to its cultural and box office impact rather then the quality of the film itself. Today the film is merely a curio-item, but as a film, it just doesn't work. Witness for example the ludicrous dialogue, when a farmer invites Fonda and Hopper to eat with his family, there is a close-up of Fonda's face as he says "Its great thing for a man to live off the land, you should be proud." Please, this sounds like a public service commercial for some farmers union. Hopper as a director has this highly annoying gimmick of falshing frames of the next scene twice before actually moving onto it, and he does'nt do it once but throughout the film. Now I'm aware that this gimmickry might have been revolutionary back in the sixties, but now it only breaks the flow of a film that is already hard to sit through. The movie consists of endless shots of Fonda and Hopper on their bike, and not much else, but it does however recieve a major jolt with Jack Nicholson's arrival, he briefly awakens this movie out of its slumber. Unfortunatly he's not on for long, and we're back to Fonda and Hopper on bikes. The movie then ends in an extended acid trip which despite being completely pointless is far more entertaining then the rest of this tepid film. Watch this if you're a serious film buff and want to know what the hoopla is about, but once you've gotten through it once, I doubt you'll have it in you to sit through it again.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Classic '60's consideration of the American Dream
Review: This is a classic '60's film and while it may not quite rank as 'great' it's a fascinating film to watch and a pretty impressive achievement for a first film (kudos to Dennis Hopper!)

The movie is an allegory and is heavily weighted with symbolism. The plot is quite simple (and rather conservative!) American youth has overlooked the value of community, hard work and simple living, instead chasing after the seductive glitter of easy money and fast-paced entertainment.

Briefly: two rootless wanderers fly a couple of 'keys' into Los Angeles ("...don't touch my bags if you please, Mr. Customs man..."), sell the dope, and decide to motorcycle down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, planning "...to look for America" along the way. The bikers are the wild and paranoid 'Billy' (the kid?): Dennis Hopper, and the cooly thoughtful 'Wyatt' (Earp?): Peter Fonda. Riding through the American West they stop over at the home of a hard-working farm family, then are introduced to a simple commune of flower children. The latter looks like a hard life, though, so the pair decide not to join and share, continuing south. The American South had been demonized in the '60's by the much-publicized resistance to the civil rights movement, and that stereotype is used here as symbolic of a descent into the darkness of intolerance and cruelty.

I wouldn't call this picture very 'real'; it's really an exploitation pic, playing to the preconceptions of its target audience while repackaging the standard cliché of early simplicity and purity followed by later decadence and destruction. However it handles its tropes pretty well and the characters are engaging. The true irony of the picture, of course, is that it made so much money, on such a small investment, that the Hollywood dream machine promptly cranked out a string of cheap imitations to capitalize on its popularity! At least it made Jack Nicholson a star...

I have to add it came as a big surprise to me to see Terry Southern as one of the scriptwriters! The movie lacks his gross-out humour and he isn't exactly famous for celebrating simplicity and hard work!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: depends on how you look at it
Review: OK. To me, it is a classic, but that is in my world as it is in many others.

This film satisfied a void in the cinema of its time that was very underserved. If you are very thirsty, the worst beer will be very welcome. In that way, Easy Rider offered some groovy music (the subset which was made available for the soundtrack), drug themes, trite counterculture, ... And they didn't use sexual themes really at all to sell it.

The characters, notably Hopper's, are thoroughly unlikable and I find it funny how many people align with the film but would have to force any real identification with the lead characters.

Fonda's "we blew it" summation near the end hits on a variety of levels: their filmmaking, the disillusioned culture that closed the 60s, as well as the obvious plot direction. The editing is abyssmal. But there is a certain charm in it all. Waywardly adrift bastards of the generation (or any generation) are portrayed as unsympathetic and directionless in a very genuine and probably artistically accidental way in concert with the same production qualities of the film.

I do still like to watch this one periodically. It brings back memories. Unlike what some may assert, this film doesn't reveal the 60s or 60s culture in any breadth. As a longhair of the times, I can say that it does remind that being a longhair at the time wasn't so hip to most people.

Also, Phil Spector as the connection at the beginning is a bizarre (in a good way) touch.

I think just about anyone should see this movie. Make up your own minds. But take off the rose-coloured glasses first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best 60s Movie of All Time
Review: This movie is essential to the collection of anyone who is interested in the 60s revolution. On their epic journey from coke deal to Mardi Gras, the unraveling social fabric of 60s America is unfolded layer by layer. Hippie ideals and a peaceful lifestyle are contrasted with the hate-filled resistance of the powers-that-be. This film is cinematically stunning, backed by a superb soundtrack and top-notch cast (Jack Nicholson's first major role). Hopper ices the cake with a masterfully edited psychedelic scene that remains unsurpassed in realism and intensity, and then hits us with a chilling ending . . .

The 60s has never been portrayed with such relevance or eloquence.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent
Review: Great for people who are nostalgic for the 60's; even if you wern't alive back then (I wasn't). Great music adds just the right touch to this excellent film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: easy - but not to forget!
Review: Easy Rider is one of those movies that lurks somewhere in your past like the slap of an abusive parent! Where living for the moment become an obsession, your life's work! Of course you know the end is just around that corner! When the "Vacancy" sign will be turned off in your face for the last time!


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