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Well, there were many things that led me to watch Easy Rider! The main reason was because only a couple of months ago, Dennis Hopper past away and this is supposed to have been his most famous film as a director and maybe even his most famous role as an actor. Also, it was Jack Nicholson's breakthrough film so just couldn't afford to miss this one! However, when I watched it I enjoyed it but I was expecting more so was a very slight disappointment to me. Referred by many as the "original road movie". Yeah, it is perhaps one of the first road films but it is quite far from the best one that I have seen.
Two counter-culture bikers set off from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, meeting a cross-section of American characters en route. Like pretty much all road films: the stories are straight forward and predictable but some are unpredictable and take drastic twists and turns which is what I like best but unfortunately Easy Rider didn't really do that for me completely, I'm afraid. This was the first film I have seen with Peter Fonda in. His performance was good but I cannot see him being better in any film than how awesome his father Henry Fonda was. The late Dennis Hopper was brilliant too. Now, the main man and best actor of the film Jack Nicholson. No, Easy Rider wasn't his first feature film but it was the film that became a breakthrough for him in his career which lead to his first Academy Award nomination and rightly so!
Dennis Hopper's job as director was impressive despite starring in the film as well. Hopper himself had the original cut of the film at an estimated three hours in length. Upon reviewing it with some of the other key members of the production staff the length was cut down to its current length. Some of the film was shot on 16mm film instead of 35mm. This was demo footage shot a year before production began. Production of the film was incredible but the outcome of the film wasn't so amazing.
Overall, Easy Rider is an enjoyable classic that I thought could have been better.
7/10
