Movie #217: Easy Rider

Movie #: 217
Movie Title: Easy Rider
Year Released: 1969

Director: Dennis Hopper
Notable Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson

Short Description: Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists

AFI.com: #84
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 5/23/2013

What I Liked: The scenes with Jack Nicholson, specifically in the jail and by the campfire at night, were the most interesting because he was in those scenes.

What I Disliked: All other scenes that didn’t have Jack Nicholson in it. At least Nicholson’s character brought life to the screen. Whoever decided that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s characters should do little talking had no clue what they were doing. I was bored for the majority of the movie because I never got a sense of them being rebels exploring the country other than they rode motorcycles and hung out with hippies, which Fonda’s character didn’t even look like he was enjoying.

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)
Adjusted Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
Rationale: Organizations, like the American Film Institute (AFI), tend to look better upon older movies likely because their membership core is of an older generation and "things were better back then." Easy Rider is a perfect example of a movie that may have been considered to be good at one point, but did not survive the test of time.