I think my favorite movie that I saw in the last couple of years would have to be Easy Rider. It was released in 1969, right in the middle of the "Woodstock" generation. It started Jack Nicholson's career as a star and also starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. It's a great piece of work and a historic movie for modern culture and the counter-culture, too.
I love that movie. Im against censoring artwork, so i wouldnt watch the end since it was on amc.I watched the first 3/4 of it like 3 times in a row. They talk about it in the jim morrison book im reading.
Whats this about the end being censored? It's funny, Jack Nicholson only had a cameo in this film, yet his name gets top-billing on the dvd.
I thought it was awesome, you could really get a sense of the prejudice against the "hippie" ideal. The acid trip scene was mind bending. I also loved the Hippie commune scene, took me back in time.
The AMC channel censored the whole movie. i didnt watch the whole movie, i just wanted to see if i liked it, and i did but i got tired of them cutting out crap.
Dude, what a useless movie. First off it has no real beginning and no real end. Secondly, they vandalized a grave making it. Thirdly, if they travelled cross country in the winter (Mardi Gras is in Feb) where was the snow? Fourthly - how in GOD'S name would they even leave the same town they were in on Panheads? Those bikes were about as reliable as campaign promises. Never mind the lunacy of doing a cross country trip with a peanut tank half filled with a sealed rubber hose.
Yeah, cause they would have had to go through New Mexico, where there IS snow that time of year. They filmed it in the summer for that reason.
What is the ending to the movie??!! I have thought that Easy Rider has the worst ending,but maybe I haven't seen the real ending.
As depressing as the end of the movie may be... I've always interpreted it to symbolize the death of the American Dream. One reviewer had this to say: "Easy Rider is a fantastic snapshot of the times. It signaled the end of the not-so idyllic Ô60s, where having long hair could deny you a room in a motel because the manager didnÕt like the way you look. The hippie commune that Billy and Wyatt briefly stop at is not all peace and love. Some of them are suspicious of the duo. There is conflict among the members and it becomes obvious that they suffer from many of the same problems that plague the outside world. Time running out is a constant theme throughout Easy Rider. When Billy and Wyatt start their journey, Wyatt throws away his watch. Later on, he finds a discarded pocket watch just before they leave the commune. Also, as they are leaving, the hitchhiker they picked up warns Wyatt that time is running out. It eerily foreshadows the filmÕs disturbing finale and gives a feeling of impending doom that hangs over the entire film." Sorry for such a downer post...
A couple years ago there was talk of a sequel to the movie where the two of them survived the shootings. I'm glad that didn't happen, I prefer to be left assuming they were both killed but not completely sure.
So,were the killings the end of the movie? It's just...I felt like the movie ended so abruptly,it was kind of a shock. Hard to explain,maybe that actually makes it a very good ending,it definitely stirred emotion,but me being me,I would have rather watched them ride off into the sunset safely
The ending is simple. Two rednecks you've never seen before and never will see again pull up alongside the pair in a pick-up. Guy tells Dennis Hopper to get a haircut, he flips the bird. Redneck pulls trigger on shotgun, Hopper goes down. Fonda hangs a U-ie, goes back, Hopper is clearly dying of a chest wound. Fonda says to hang on and starts off on his bike. Rednecks realise Fonda is a witness, and they pull the trigger again. We don't see Fonda hit, just his panhead jumping into the air and exploding. Over the credits, the camera pans skyward, like souls watching themselves depart from their bodies. In other words "we couldn't figger out how to end this thing. Let's have rednecks shoot em."
AMC didn't edit the end of the movie. Not that I noticed atleast. In the unedited version, you don't see them getting shot either.
That's a great review; that scene in the commune is really unsettling - I think it's an anti-hippy film as much as it is a hippy film. It shows how flawed and unrealistic is any notion of people living together in peace and harmony. It's a deeply misanthropic existentialist film.
I think you're right...in all seriousness,I didn't like the end of the movie. It was too...out of nowhere,abrupt. That is the ending I saw and it made sense to me that it could have been edited. I guess not then...
What a great review I agree very much. I loved the overall atmosphere of the movie and especially its soundtrack even when it's pointing out extremely disturbing things about the end of the 60s in particular and what has happened to America. I remember once when I was in Missouri. I had never been there before, was just visiting relatives. I had my long hair and was wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt and blue jeans. While sitting outside the house watching the sun set, a cop pulled over and demanded to know what I was doing because he said I was "dressed radically". (Give me a break.) Then he immediately pulled into my relative's house to demand to know if I was telling the truth. I had never experienced anything like it, but then before then I had never been outside of my home state of California. So "Easy Rider" struck a real chord with me.
