Easy Rider (1969)
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Two bikers travel through the American Southwest and the South after a successful cocaine deal.
The story
Wyatt and Billy are freewheeling motorcyclists who, after smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, sell their haul and receive a large sum of money. With the cash hidden inside the fuel tank of Wyatt's custom motorcycle, they begin a journey eastward toward New Orleans. Along the way, they encounter various people, including a hippie hitchhiker and a lawyer named George Hanson, who joins them on the trip. The film captures the essence of 1960s counterculture as the trio navigates the landscape of the American Southwest and the South, seeking a sense of freedom on the open road.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Wyatt and Billy, two motorcyclists, travel eastward from Los Angeles toward New Orleans after a successful cocaine deal. They hide their earnings in Wyatt's bike. During the journey, they encounter a hippie hitchhiker and eventually join forces with George Hanson, a lawyer they meet in jail. After a series of encounters, including a stay at a commune and a confrontation in a Louisiana diner where George is beaten to death by locals, the remaining pair continues to New Orleans. They find a brothel and join the Mardi Gras celebrations, where they all ingest LSD. The film ends tragically when they are intercepted by a truck; Billy is knocked off his bike and left bleeding, and Wyatt's bike is destroyed in a crash as he is shot at by the truck's occupants.
- First release year
- 1969
- Runtime (minutes)
- 96
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Dennis Hopper
- Writers
- Peter Fonda · writer; Dennis Hopper · writer; Terry Southern · writer
- Cast and characters
- Peter Fonda · Wyatt; Dennis Hopper · Billy; Jack Nicholson · George Hanson; Karen Black · Karen; Toni Basil · Mary
- Genres
- drama; road movie; Western
- Themes
- counterculture; drug culture; freedom; youth culture
- Tone and mood
- psychedelic
- Premise and plot tags
- road movie; bikers; drug use
- Reception
- The film was a landmark counterculture film that received mostly positive reviews from critics, with praise for its performances, direction, and visual style.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 84% · scale: percentage · review count: 56; Metacritic · score: 85 · scale: 100 · review count: 18
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Original Screenplay · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson) · Nomination
- Production trivia
- The film's success helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking.; The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1998.; The production used a 1968 Chevy Impala convertible to carry the camera.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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