MovieChat Forums > Easy Rider (1969) Discussion > The Most misinterpreted film ever?

The Most misinterpreted film ever?

posted 8 years ago by MidnightThud
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Being born in the early 60's I have seen this film many times over many years and periods and the one thing that has always struck me is how so many people take the wrong slant on the film.

Before this, Hopper, Nicholson and Fonda had all made negative biker/hippie films, with loathsome and lazy characters..... and this is no different!

Even the title of the Film is NOT about cruising the highway.... but about 2 lazy drug dealers looking for a big score to skate trough life.... Easy Rider also being slang for a Pimp back in the late 50's early 60's.

Also the "we blew it" line at the end is not about America but refers to the hippie Generation! They see the commune for example for what it was.... a Harem for the male leaders, which is what many communes back then turned out to be btw.

its always amazed me how people have misread this film for so many decades.

[–] lawman-61446 8 years ago

Since you were 6 or 7 years old when this film came out I can understand why you feel this way
I was 18 and as we old hippies say-ya had to be there. You have to appreciate the context in which this all occurred. The counter-culture was in full flower and rebellion was the name of the game. Why do you think they rode motorcycles instead of a VW bus? FREEDOM! We were the first generation that didn't want to grow up to be our parents.
Drugs were part of the scene. They smoked a lot of pot in the film and almost 50 years later its legal in several states. They chose to put cocaine in the gas tank rather than heroin. I don't condone hard drug use but it happened and still does. Like the poster said-they went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere.

[–] MidnightThud 7 years ago

No I appreciate the ideal of the Hippie movement.

My comment was on the film and its particular message. By the time this film came out there is no doubt the hippie movement was souring. Drugs and sexual disease were taking a foot hold and most importantly the leeches and scumbags like Manson and the Bikers were feeding off the youth - ESPECIALLY young girls.

This is not a positive film at all. Their biker freedom was hypocritical. We sell drugs in a capitalistic manner to do what? Improve what? achieve what? Get high (poorly) bang some hookers and then what? sell more drugs in a capitalistic manner later on?

As to the Poster, I think you will find the original posters did not mention freedom, America etc..... that was added after the film became a surprise hit by the studio. Again remember these are the guys who made films like Wild Angels 1966, The Trip 1967, Hells Angels on Wheels 1967 and the Glory stompers 1967.... none of them being positive counter culture/biker films. They may have gotten high themselves and lived the life but there is also no doubt they were realistic about the nature of that life.

[–] lawman-61446 7 years ago

It's true that there was a certain self-righteous tone to some "hippies" which made them nearly as hypocritical as the older generation they claimed to be rebelling against. There are no heroes in the film only victims of one kind or another. Maybe that is the message here.

[–] MidnightThud 7 years ago

Yeah and that's always been my interpretation of the We Blew it line..... to me he meant the Counter Culture movement that went off the rails really quickly. it was a shame because it was an honest and heart felt ideology... hell Vietnam like the 2nd invasion of Iraq was a shameful scam on the American people.

[–] lawman-61446 7 years ago

I agree
I remember seeing guys coming bsck with no arms or legs or worst of all shattered minds
History repeats itself in these cynical interventions masquerading as patriotism
Todsy look and sounds like Germany in 1932