Easy Rider (1969) The Nature of Freedom | Video Essay

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  • Опубліковано 18 гру 2022
  • A video Essay about the meanings behind the counter culture favourite Easy Rider released in 1969.
  • Фільми й анімація

КОМЕНТАРІ • 59

  • @paulwojnar2291
    @paulwojnar2291 5 місяців тому +16

    Its why Ive been riding for 52 years.
    Most of the touring Ive done alone.

  • @johnmule9656
    @johnmule9656 Рік тому +37

    This film literally means everything to me. It shaped my life in so many ways. It remains so underrated in terms of it's impact on Film, Soundtracks, and the Arts in general . Thank you for such a well executed review.

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому +8

      Thanks for watching. Easy Rider affected me in very much the same way, it made me re-think a lot of things in my life and what values I stood for. I saw it at an age when Easy Rider said some things that no one else was telling me about, right when I needed someone to be telling me those things. Not to sound pretentious but I think it is an excellent work of art, as it does what good art should do and makes us feel something or look at life in a different way. Thanks again, it's great to meet others that Easy Rider has had a positive impact on too. 🙂

    •  7 місяців тому +1

      you need to see the Albert Brooks movie "lost in America"

    • @glennfontaine726
      @glennfontaine726 6 місяців тому +2

      Watched it in 1970, then again more recently. Their money was ill-gotten from a big drug deal, though the message about freedom does resonate. Could see the Captain America character getting a Harley dealership and joining the Rotary Club. Billy was the real rebel. Thought he would either end up dead or in jail.

    • @timothywelch4949
      @timothywelch4949 Місяць тому

      The more you watch it the more you get out of it. Watch it high. .....jussayn

  • @fearsomename4517
    @fearsomename4517 11 місяців тому +9

    It is and always will be a masterpiece.

  • @ScottMcCulloughBmax419
    @ScottMcCulloughBmax419 Рік тому +17

    Excellent analysis. My dad took me to see Easy Rider in the theater in 1969, when I was eight. Suffice it to say that it had a powerful effect on me, one that lasts to this day.

    • @AbrasiousProductions
      @AbrasiousProductions Рік тому

      man i wish my dad loved me..

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for watching. Such a great memory to have. Its fantastic how movies can remind us of moments and share memories with us. My Dad would build and repair small bikes like 125's to sell on when I was a kid, so Easy Rider was something we both enjoyed together too. Great memories. Thanks again.

    • @teakey
      @teakey 2 місяці тому

      Most movies have happy endings. As a kid, all my movies did and this one still gets me.

  • @markos3396
    @markos3396 17 днів тому +1

    I live in greece, and even here, when a bunch of old-school motorcycles pass by we call them easy riders. Even though most of my generation hasn't even seen the film, we know what it represents.

  • @weemps.
    @weemps. Рік тому +13

    This is the best easy rider essay I’ve seen yet. Thanks

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому +2

      Thanks for watching. It's such a great movie that means a lot to me, it's one of the films that really got me into movies. Thanks again.

  • @MrSnappy-zb1fv
    @MrSnappy-zb1fv Місяць тому +1

    Nice video, I consider this to be the last 60's movie. I recommend Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) as the first 70's movie to deal with the ennui and disillusion of the counter-culture movement's end.

  • @user-xs6ux4dk9y
    @user-xs6ux4dk9y 5 місяців тому +5

    When Wyatt sez to Billy "We blew it!" I think he was saying that they were no better than Yuppies or Capitalists (even though they were counter-culture) in the sense that they made a pile of money in a quick and dirty fashion (with the aim of financing their freedom) and neglected to seek justice for their murdered friend (to avoid scrutiny of law enforcement which in turn proved that they weren't really Free anyway.

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  5 місяців тому +1

      Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts much appreciated. I agree, I've heard Hopper say on it in commentary that "They had totally lost sight of their freedom and were undermining themselves and their country" and I think as you say, that could suggest that in the end in seeking freedom quick and fast, that they have become part of the capitalist system they were trying to escape. Thanks again.

  • @wilburross9709
    @wilburross9709 4 місяці тому +3

    Great essay about an epic movie. Might be hard for some younger people understand and they may snicker at parts, but this film looks more like a documentary of that time as each year goes by. As far as people complaining about certain stereotypes, those guys in the cafe scene were playing themselves. They had been heckling the film crew out on the street, making cracks about their long hair and doing their "Can you smell 'em? I can smell 'em from here!" routine when Hopper said "I want those guys in my film." The rest of the crew was horrified, but Hopper insisted "I want those guys." America was really like that back then, and not just in the South, so don't blame them for it all.

  • @chairmanm3ow
    @chairmanm3ow 9 місяців тому +12

    I always felt like the message of the movie was that America is hostile towards genuine freedom.

    • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
      @ScrewyDriverTheMan 2 місяці тому

      But what is freedom? That's what it's asking. "America" was founded on stolen land and stolen resources, USA is an imported thing on the land that it occupies. That's what it's asking - so what is freedom then? not bound or governed by made up laws or is it about just living on the land as is, as it was, not trapped by the new "nation" built by invaders on land that doesn't actually belong those who invaded

    • @savage22bolt32
      @savage22bolt32 Місяць тому +1

      Not Americans, just the ones who are art the top of the power structure.

    • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
      @ScrewyDriverTheMan Місяць тому

      Yes, America is. It's a fake freedom

    • @ScrewyDriverTheMan
      @ScrewyDriverTheMan Місяць тому +1

      Yup, 100%, Americans don't know what true freedom is, is what the film was trying to say

  • @hansmeyer403
    @hansmeyer403 Рік тому +6

    One cannot grasp the impact of this movie in hindsight from now.
    The context of time was entirely different then.
    I came out of the movie theatre into the night 1970 in Hamburga a different person than I walked in.
    The film coined my life

  • @dianastalkshow
    @dianastalkshow 4 місяці тому +2

    what a beautifully done video essay. thank you for sharing.

  • @EyeLean5280
    @EyeLean5280 7 місяців тому +3

    I like your analysis and will be sharing your video with my Film Studies students this week when I show them _Easy Rider_ . But one quick point: Wyatt Earp was law enforcement, not an outlaw, which I think makes the bringing together of these historical archetypes in this buddy film all the more resonant. _Easy Rider's_ Billy is fun but also emotionally unsophisticated, materialistic, hot-headed, self-centered, blundering and trouble-making. Wyatt is reassuring, calm, stable, morally-grounded ("hey, we're eating their food") but also remote and hard to reach or read. They are the two sides, the yin and yang, of the American landscape.

  • @kevinurban2139
    @kevinurban2139 Рік тому +3

    Great analysis on a timeless classic, some meaningfull content, good job!

  • @felipedourado5721
    @felipedourado5721 Рік тому +5

    Kerouac's On the Road and Hopper's Easy Rider, each one in one end of the countercutural spectrum, helped alot to shape my cosmovision. I can say that both works caused part of the easthetic experiences that made me the man I am.
    It's is a little bit funny that at first glance those works can be taken as "to much" American on their respective subjects (which are, in essence, the same), on the situations they describe (or show), on their characters, on the subjective and material landscapes they explore and on their respective narratives. But as much as they are true American takes on various levels of meanings and expression, as true works of art aswell, they are timeless (despite capturing the zeitgeist of their respective moments of conception) and universal.
    Besides that, the questions they raise belongs to philosophy, in special those related to the deep Freedom that is a value in itself but have no price. That's why, I guess, those excellent works are so influential worldwide and also had so much impact on me, despite being Brazilian and born several years after the release date of the book and the film.
    All the best from the southern tropic. ✌

  • @AbrasiousProductions
    @AbrasiousProductions Рік тому +5

    this is impeccable, in-depth writing, seamless execution, you sir have earned the honorable moniker of "underrated" speaking of which, i think you should review Figures In A Landscape (1970) it's a criminally obscure and under loved masterpiece that's rarely seen, in fact I was the first person on UA-cam to review it :)

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for watching I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am a huge Joseph Losey fan, The Trout and The Romantic Englishwoman are servilely underrated too. I love his work Accident in-particular. He did a strange one for Hammer films to called the Dammed which is pretty interesting. Great to meet another Losey fan! Thanks again.

    • @AbrasiousProductions
      @AbrasiousProductions Рік тому +1

      I'm not exactly a staunch fan yet but I've seen two of his films so far and I absolutely loved them!

  • @thomasbell7033
    @thomasbell7033 Рік тому +2

    Wonderful job on this. Thanks.

  • @jasongray797
    @jasongray797 Місяць тому

    What a strange wonderful and terrifying thing, perspective is.

  • @billharvey5256
    @billharvey5256 6 місяців тому

    They will never make a movie like this one it was ahead of its time. Great movie.

  • @JasentheHun
    @JasentheHun 4 дні тому

    Fuckin A, man! 👌Good synopsis. Thanks. -J.

  • @tmamone83
    @tmamone83 11 місяців тому

    Very good video! "Easy Rider" is a film that I'm not exactly ga-ga over, but I totally acknowledge and respect its cultural influence. Same with "Sweet Sweetback" and "Fritz the Cat."

  • @ultrakool
    @ultrakool Рік тому +3

    Jumps from New Mexico to Louisiana. Texas wouldn't allow no production company of longhairs filming in their state at that time⭐🙄

    • @wilburross9709
      @wilburross9709 4 місяці тому

      They were warned in New Mexico by a group of hippies with fresh buzz-cuts that if they like their long hair, they'd better stay out of Texas. There was at least one county where the Sheriff and his Deputies had declared war on long-haired boys and men and would arrest them for whatever they could make up, take them to jail, inform them that due to a recent outbreak of lice, they would 'have' to give them a haircut for 'health reasons.' After a few hours, they would offer to drop the charges if the person signed papers agreeing to leave and never come back, not sue, etc., which most of the shocked young people were more than happy to do. But you couldn't 'un-do' that haircut!

  • @senior_ranger
    @senior_ranger 7 місяців тому +1

    A movie that asks, what happens when you realize the question was the answer all along???

  • @forestgreenhobbit
    @forestgreenhobbit 10 місяців тому +1

    Right on

  • @mattg432
    @mattg432 2 місяці тому

    For the thumbnail, you took the freedom to mirror it. Harleys have the exhaust on the right side, not the left.

  • @dryvur
    @dryvur Рік тому +5

    Why are people jealous of freedom?

    • @CoolestDude38NC
      @CoolestDude38NC 9 місяців тому +2

      Not jealous of freedom. Some people are afraid of people who have true freedom.

    • @davidwike4522
      @davidwike4522 8 місяців тому +1

      That's why throwing their watches away has so much meaning, not tied to the system.

  • @thomasbell7033
    @thomasbell7033 Рік тому +2

    I saw Dennis Hopper's next film, "The Last Movie." It is incoherent, a disaster in every way.

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому

      Thanks for watching. Yeah, from what I’ve seen Hopper was high as a kite while he was making ‘The Last Movie’. There are some horrendous stories about how crazy the editing process was because he was so strung out. I think he was an interesting director when he was on form, and I love ‘Out of the Blue’ and ‘Colours’. He achieved so much in his lifetime and left us with some unforgettable performances especially ‘Easy Rider’. Thanks again for your comments its much appreciated.

  • @glennhopkins2643
    @glennhopkins2643 Місяць тому +1

    Patterson and Thompson will pay !!!

  • @AbrasiousProductions
    @AbrasiousProductions Рік тому +1

    You'd think the guy that wrote Taxi Driver (1976) would actually like Easy Rider (1969)

  • @helterskelter6519
    @helterskelter6519 Рік тому +1

    Antiquated Systems vs revolution.

  • @walterfechter8080
    @walterfechter8080 Рік тому +2

    ua-cam.com/video/xXq9dKRHscQ/v-deo.html

    • @johnrenneysboneyardcinema
      @johnrenneysboneyardcinema  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for watching. That's a great track definitely has the ER vibe about it. Thanks for sharing it. The soundtrack was revolutionary, the decision to use pop music was inspired. I read that apparently they were in talks with Steve Stills to write the score but when he heard the temp track, which became the soundtrack he just said, why should I write anything its perfect already! Amazing score The Pusher is a favourite of mine, the soundtrack was one of the reasons I picked up a guitar. Thanks again.

    • @walterfechter8080
      @walterfechter8080 Рік тому +2

      @@johnrenneysboneyardcinema -- Thanks for the reply! Hoyt Axton wrote "The Pusher." Axton also wrote "Snowblind Friend" for Steppenwolf. Axton's mother (Mae) wrote "Heartbreak Hotel" for Elvis Presley. Stay free! -- W

  • @la2972es
    @la2972es Рік тому

    En español no está?

  •  7 місяців тому

    how do you retire off of 2 keys of coke? and why pic Florida? humidity yuck

  • @kennyh5083
    @kennyh5083 Рік тому +1

    You talk too much.