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.

Easy Rider: Plot Summary

This is a plot summary of Dennis Hopper's 1969 road movie 'Easy Rider'.

The film begins at a Mexican junkyard where Billy and “Captain America” Wyatt buy cocaine that they later sell to a connection at the border. The connection leaves them a rusty pickup truck that they drive to pick up their new motorcycles.  Wyatt sticks their money in the gas tank of his bike which is painted in stars and stripes. Then they hit the road and head to Mardi Gras. 

They stop at a hotel with a big “Vacancy” sign on the front but the owner refuses to let them in. Billy calls him an asshole and they ride off. Having no place to stay, they pull off the road, start a fire, and camp out for the night. Billy has on a buckskin jacket and a bushman hat. He thinks that something’s wrong with Wyatt but Wyatt, who’s smoking a joint, says he’s getting it together. 

They ride off in the morning and Billy gets a flat tire. He walks his bike to a rundown farmstead where a farmer is shoeing his horse. Wyatt asks the farmer if he can fix his bike and the farmer tells him to fix it in his barn. Wyatt fixes the tire as the rancher shoes his horse. Rancher invites them to stay for supper. He and his Mexican wife have 8 children. The farmer says grace and they eat. He asks them where they are from and Wyatt says Los Angeles. The farmer once tried going to Los Angeles but never made it. The farmstead is very modest, no electricity, no TV; they  live off the land. But Wyatt likes the farmer’s “spread” and that he can do his own thing in his own time. 

They hit the road again and pick up a hitchhiker. They stop at the Sacred Mountain gas station. The hitchhiker is grateful for the ride and pumps Wyatt’s gas. This upsets Billy because he is afraid of the hitchhiker seeing the money in the bike’s gas tank. Wyatt tells Billy to be cool. 

Later, they pull off the road to camp for the night. Mardi Gras is a week away and they might make it. They smoke a joint around a fire. Billy asks the hitchhiker where he’s from but the hitchhiker doesn’t tell Billy anything. This makes Billy suspicious and he asks him again. The hitchhiker tells Billy that he’s from a city with a long name. Then he tells them that they’re on an Indian burial ground.

The next day, they take hitchhiker to a commune to see his girlfriend. Here hippies are walking around barefoot scattering seeds in hope of rain. The ground is very dry and Billy doesn’t believe they will make it; Wyatt does. The commune invite Wyatt and Billy to stay for supper. A young man says grace. Later, mime actors perform a play.

One of the young women likes Wyatt and asks him what sign he is and he tells her that he’s a Pisces. He digs their setup. But Billy is uncomfortable and distrustful and they sense this and bar him from their bible service. The mime actors taunt him. 

Wyatt agrees to ride a young woman to a nearby hot spring for a bath. This upsets Billy but Wyatt reminds him that the commune shared their food. Billy, Wyatt and 2 women from the commune bathe in the hot spring. Afterwards, they ride the girls back to the commune. The hitchhiker takes Wyatt aside and gives him a tiny square foil packet:

Hitchhiker: “When you get to the right place with the right people, quarter this. You know, this could be the right place; your time’s runnin’ out.”

Wyatt looks at the packet in thought. Billy pesters Wyatt to hurry up so they can get back on the road. “Yeah, I’m hip about time,” Wyatt says to the hitchhiker, “but I just gotta go.” They leave the hitchhiker behind and hit the road.

But, somehow, they wind up in the middle of a parade in a nearby town where the police arrest them and lock them up for not having a permit. Billy is besides himself but Wyatt lies down to take a nap. A prisoner in the next cell wakes up making a lot of noise and Billy warns him not to wake up Wyatt. The guard enters the cell and gives the prisoner a cigarette, even lighting it for him, too. Billy sees this special treatment. The prisoner’s name is George Hanson and he’s a lawyer. 

Hanson hips Billy and Wyatt to the fact that the small town is not hippie friendly. The last hippies that stopped through got their hair cut off a la Yule Brynner. Hanson did some work for the ACLU and has pull. He proves this by bailing Billy and Wyatt out of the jail.

They tell the lawyer that they are headed to Mardi Gras and Hanson shows them a card to a brothel there that that state’s governor gave him. He’s never been to Mardi Gras, almost once. Wyatt invites him to join them. Hanson gets his gold football helmet and they hit the road. At sundown, they camp out.

An alcoholic, Hanson sips from his bottle of whiskey. Wyatt offers him a joint. Hanson is leery of weed from things he’s heard about it. Finally, he takes the joint from Wyatt and takes a puff, blowing it out quickly. Wyatt tells him to hold the smoke in longer and when Hanson does, he blows it out, smiles, and becomes talkative. 

Billy jumps up, looking around. He believes he saw a UFO. Wyatt thinks he’s stoned. Hanson believes Billy and tells them about the squadron of 40 UFOs he’d seen in Mexico. They’re people like us. They have no wars or no monetary system, no leaders. They feed, clothe, and house themselves equally with no effort . And the government knows all about them!

Billy thinks Hanson’s a crackpot: “Why don’t they reveal themselves?”

The Venusians, explains Hanson, are mixed into the population teaching man how to have power over his own life. Wyatt asks Hanson to pass the joint but Hanson had let it go out. Wyatt tells him to save it for the morning. 

Song: “Don’t Bogart that joint, my friend.” (1:02:39)

They enter a small town and ride past its cemetery, its mansions, its shopping district, and its poor segregated Black communities. 

They stop in a small cafe to eat. The place is packed with rednecks and a sheriff, all staring at the 3 strange-looking aliens and their motorcycles.  Then rednecks make loud nasty comments about the length of their hair. Some teenage girls in the cafe stare with lust and longing. The rednecks’ insults turn into threats. The waitress refuses to serve them and they finally leave. The girls follow them out of the cafe asking for rides but they leave them behind and get back on the road.

At sundown, they camp and reflect on the cafe they left. Hanson says the hicks were scared of Billy and Wyatt, of the freedom that they represent:

Hanson: “Theres a big difference between talking about freedom and being free. But don’t tell anybody they aren’t free because they’ll kill and maim to prove they are free. They’ll talk to you about individual freedom but when they see someone free, it’s gonna scare ‘em.”

Some rednecks ambush them that night as they are asleep. Hanson dies but Wyatt and Bill survive the beating. They take Hanson’s money and his card to the brothel he told them about. And when they arrive in New Orleans, they go straight to this brothel and wine, dine, and buy prostitutes with the money they had taken off of Hanson’s dead body. They take the prostitutes to Mardi Gras and party all the way to the next day, ending up in a cemetery where they get high off the LSD the hitchhiker gave to Wyatt at the commune. They all trip out and when the high wears off, Billy and Wyatt leave the prostitutes and Louisiana and head to Florida.

They stop and camp out that night. Billy is happy because they are rich but Wyatt is down because they blew it! Billy thinks that Wyatt’s crazy because they can buy anything they want with the drug money in Wyatt’s bike. They hit the road the next morning. 

On the road, a redneck in a pickup truck shoots Bill with a shotgun. Wyatt rides for help but the truck doubles back and the redneck in it shoots Wyatt causing the motorcycle to explode into flames. Wyatt dies. The end.