A look at some of the themes from the film 'Easy Rider'

This is an analysis of the film 'Easy Rider'

Intro: summary

Easy Rider is a 1969 road film and an ode to the 60s directed by Dennis Hopper and co-written by the director, Peter Fonda (the film’s producer), and Terry Southern. Billy (Dennis Hopper) and “Captain America” Wyatt (Peter Fonda) are hippie bikers doing America from Los Angeles to Mardi Gras following a successful drug deal on the Mexican border. Hotels won't rent to them because they look like hippies and they are forced to sleep outside. When Wyatt’s chopper gets a flat tire, he receives help from a poor family living in a shack without any modern conveniences. They invite Billy and Wyatt to supper. Wyatt compliments the rancher on his setup but Billy looks uncomfortable. Further up the road, they pick up a hitchhiker and end up at a self-sufficient commune in the middle of nowhere, sowing seeds, praying for rain, and making it. They have very little but happily share food, weed, and love with Wyatt and Billy. One of the women asks them for a short ride. Billy’s suspicious and ungrateful but Wyatt’s optimistic and reminds him that the commune shared their food. Life, love, and weed are free on the road but this all changes in New Orleans, Mardi Gras, and a whorehouse where they buy love, LSD, lose their independence and sell their souls. 

Themes

Freedom

The film compares 2 forms of freedom: capitalism (money) and independence—Billy’s idea of freedom is capitalism and Wyatt’s idea of freedom is independence. 

The film begins with Billy and Wyatt scoring a big payout from a drug deal and starting their journey from Los Angeles to Mardi Gras in Louisiana where they believe they will attain freedom and independence. They have long hair and despite the pressure they get to cut it and conform, they keep their hair long resulting in being denied hotel lodging, food, etc. But despite living outside in the elements they manage to get everything they need from heat (fire), to food, weed, and even love.  Also, along the way, they meet others who are making it despite being cut off from mainstream society and capitalism.

They meet a rancher, his wife and their eight children surviving and making it in the middle of nowhere without any modern conveniences. Then, they spend time with a completely self-sufficient commune living off the land.

At about 57:00 into the movie, a civil rights lawyer named Hanson (Jack Nicholson) talks about an extra-terrestrial race called the Venusians who are independent and free. They have no wars, no monetary system, no leaders. They feed, clothe, house, and transport themselves equally with no effort. 

Billy is skeptical: why won’t the aliens reveal themselves? Hanson tells Billy that the government doesn’t want the general public to know about the aliens “because of the shock it would inflict on society’s antiquated systems.” Therefore, the Venusians have contacted people all over the world and from all walks of life in an advisory capacity to teach man how to exercise God-like capacities over his own destiny.

The Venusians are the individuals who are free. The commune and the rancher are free. Billy and Wyatt are free on the road but, like the Wizard of Oz, they believe they will find freedom at Mardi Gras. Wyatt is starting to become aware of this freedom but Billy has bought into freedom as being something that can be bought which is why he seems uncomfortable with the rancher and the commune. He, Wyatt, the farmer, and the commune are the Venusians living off the land, coming and going as they please, answering to no one. 

Selling out the dream

Some rednecks ambush Billy, Wyatt, and Hanson beating Hanson to death. Billy and Wyatt survive and take the money out of Hanson’s wallet. They spend this money on food, fine wine and prostitutes in a New Orleans brothel. Up to this point, they’ve eaten free, smoked free, and loved for free. Now, food, drugs, and love come at a price. Wyatt, Billy and their whores do Mardi Gras and end up at a cemetery where they take the LSD the hitchhiker gave Wyatt at the commune. The hitchhiker told Wyatt that wherever he took the drug was where he belonged. The LSD bonds their souls with the time and the place where it is used, in this case, the cemetery. Therefore, Billy and Wyatt lose their souls, freedom, and the American Dream. The optimism and innocence of the 60s die when they use the dead lawyer’s money to pay for the love and the “high” they got free on the road. When they leave New Orleans, Wyatt leaves behind the optimism he had earlier.

On the road, a couple of rednecks in an old truck taunt Billy with a shotgun and when Billy flips the middle finger, the redneck fires the weapon, knocking Billy off the bike and the road. Wyatt leaves Billy to get help but the pickup doubles back and the redneck shoots and kills Wyatt. The chopper explodes.

This scene is the literal death of freedom and individualism. When Wyatt tells Billy that they blew it, he is the youth of the early 60s and how those youths grew up and replaced their parents in the Establishment they once tried to change.