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Easy Rider

The 1969 low-budget ($400,000) independent film Easy Rider is the seminal youth culture film, focusing on the social and political split in American society of its time. Film historian/American culture critic Robert Sklar calls Easy Rider, ôthe landmark movie of 1969ö (302).

A film about two heroin dealers who take the

profits from their last sale and motorcycle

across America, looking for meaning to their

lives, to a background sound track of

contemporary rock-music hitsà..the filmà.captured

the imagination of young audiences who identified

the cyclersÆ rootlessness and alienation from

American society with their own (Sklar 302).

The two cyclers represent the drop-out philosophy of many young people of their generation, a philosophy based on rejection of the materialism and paranoia in American society, anti-Vietnam War protests, drug use, the hippie life style of ôfreedomö expressed in long hair and unconventional (sometimes outrageous) clothing. In commenting on the period in which the film is set, film historian Jack C. Ellis states that:

young people in large numbers disassociated themselves from what they regarded as their parentsÆ too exclusive concern with material accumulation; lack of honesty and decency in dealing with each otherà.(young people) signaled their solidarity by letting their hair grow,à. (and) refusal to assume the expected roles of wage earners. (382).

The movie, however, is not about the generation gap, but the counterculture clash, and it resonated with young audiences. When the movie was released, it was obvious that it was not a typical film in any sense of the word. Unlike conventional liberal films of its era, Easy Rider attempted to re-create a real problem on a national level. This analysis of Easy Rider discusses the movieÆs themes, the road and journey motifs, the mise-en-scene and stylistic elements used to create meaning in the...

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Easy Rider. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:06, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700932.html