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JFXGILLIS
Correctly Political: Essays and Commentary
Articles Posted: 83; Links Seeded: 529
Member Since: 3/2007Last Seen: 11/03/2009
Member Since: 3/2007Last Seen: 11/03/2009
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PrintThey Blew It: The Secret of "Easy Rider"
News Type: Event — Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:06 AM EST
Louisiana "Tombs" remniscent of the graveyard scene in Easy Rider
All photos by: Eileen Fontenot, used with permission.
Along the Bayou in the vicinity of the story's abrupt denouement.
It's unlikely the Electric Prunes' "Mass" has been played in this country parish church.
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Although I rarely say this in public, I must admit Republicans do some things very well. I can't think of any right off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's something. But one thing they do particularly badly, is social and cultural criticism.
One thing partisan Republicans do spectacularly badly, is understand cinema. Their film criticism is generally so incredibly shallow and superficial that it borders on error for that reason alone, not counting the times when their interpretation is grossly mistaken from the start, favoring a default position of finding insult and injury to themselves and their imagined folk (or sometimes praise for those they delude themselves into believing they champion, rather than providing insight and understanding of the work at hand.
The Establishment liberals, like the editors of Newsweek aren't much better (see: The Boomer Files and 1968: The Year That Changed Everything), but at least their criticism is insipid and superficial, obvious and cautious without being idiotically juvenile. They look at the surface and respond to it. (I suppose we all have to sit through another wave of Baby Boomer "analysis" thanks to that perfect representative of state-the-obvious Establishmentarianism, Tom Brokaw.)
And while establishment liberals tend to re-state the obvious and pride themselves for that, quite a bit of paleo-conservative cultural criticism is interesting, indeed, profound, if also occasionally misguided. George McCartney, a paleo-conservative, is a fine and honest film critic. I Love My Mother; his review of Sicko, is worth reading even if you don't agree with it.
But partisan Republicans pretty much don't get it. They are unsatisfied with the obvious but unable to discern deeper truths. They scratch the surface, then imagine they find the same thing underneath every time, mostly imagining it anyway. So then all you end up with is scratched surface.
This seems to be not just a failing of one or two Republicans but a widespread tendency. The conservative National Review ballyhooed a cover story on "The 100 Best Conservative Movies" in 1994 followed shortly afterwards by the conservative Heritage Foundation's Policy Review listing their 80 favorite conservative movies. Then National Review came up with a second list of another 100 conservative movies generated by readers' suggestions.
One amazing fact is that out of this list of well over 200 films (with some overlap), not one person thought to include one of the best and most interesting of all conservative movies, despite the fact that all three articles include a category of "anti-Communist" movies: the Italian-made adaptation of Ayn Rand's We The Living (Noi Vivi), which I saw a couple of times on late-night Canadian television, and which, scratchy subtitles and fuzzy print and all, is surprisingly faithful to the original. The conservatives, if they weren't ignorant of the film's very existence, might have been slightly embarrassed by the fact that most film scholars believe the film to have been at least partially financed by Mussolini's Fascist regime, but if that inconvenient fact doesn't bother a liberal like me, why should it bother them?
William Bennett (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities!) urged former Republican presidential nominee Senator Robert Dole to see Independence Day, claiming it was a movie about "marriage" and "American ingenuity" and "American leadership."
Huh? There is a throwaway marriage scene in which two longtime cohabitants finally receive the benefit of clergy, and where a spectacularly mismatched divorced couple reconcile, thereby compounding the mistake they made the first time they got married, but No--this movie is not about marriage, it's about kicking alien ass.
Of course, Bennett only wanted to make sure that Senator Dole's updated critique of Hollywood films wouldn't be subject to the same very minor criticism his original denunciation suffered, namely, that he hadn't seen the films he presumed to comment on. And that little oversight led to the Senator making the rather embarrassing mistake of praising Forrest Gump for being about family values and attacking Quentin Tarentino's True Romance for being about loveless sex. But: Forrest Gump is the movie about loveless sex, and True Romance is the one about family values.
When a narrative consists mainly of a string of random events, unlikely coincidences or acts of Providence, the theme is defined, or at least most clearly evident, in the exercise of Free Will which almost invariably begins this style of narrative. This is because--except for a few existentialist works--a narrative consisting of a random series of events implies a random universe, life without meaning (that could be true by the way, but it doesn't sell books or movie tickets). Any sophomore literature student reading works from Homer's Odyssey to Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy knows this. So what, I ask, is the act of Free Will that propels the young Forrest Gump on his remarkable career? When Mrs. Gump prostitutes herself to Principal Hamilton to ensure Forrest's admission to the regular school. Loveless sex. By the same token, True Romance has to be about family values, because if Clarence and Alabama don't love each other, don't marry, don't create a family, then the film is completely incoherent, random and meaningless, in other words, it would not speak to a mass audience, which it certainly did.
But the best evidence of Republican misunderstanding is in the introduction to the original list of 100 in the National Review, written by Spencer Warren, in which he identifies the film Easy Rider as one of the seminal influences on "Hollywood's nihilistic themes and chaotic styles." But Warren is entirely mistaken. As is Michael Medved, famously right-wing famous movie critic.
In Right Turns: From Liberal Activist to Conservative Champion in 35 Unconventional Lessons , his recent autobiography, Medved tells us that:
On a Saturday night in the Fall of 1969, during my first semester in law school, I went out with a half-dozen fellow students to see the new movie sensation Easy Rider. I hated almost everything about the movie, and we argued about it over burgers and fries. I specifically remember that my classmate Hillary Rodham felt especially enthusiastic about what she understood to be the message of the film: when the violent rednecks in their pick-up truck with its prominent gun rack, senselessly murder the two hippie bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper), she thought the movie made a powerful statement about intolerance and conformity and the repressed rage among the exploited yahoos of the American underclass. I insisted that the cruelty and viciousness depicted in the film bore no connection to the heartland or southern communities I knew, and suggested that the local townsfolk would be more likely to feed and welcome long-haired visitors than to shoot them. The argument continued into the night with most of my friends defending the movie and attacking our "sick society" but I stubbornly held my ground. [emphasis added]
Here we see at once both the banal obviousness of the of establishment liberal interpretation and the patronizing offense-taking of neoconservative complainers at an imagined insult to "American" culture supposedly lurking just beneath the surface of a cultural artifact.
The most famous line of dialogue in the film is probably "We blew it," spoken by Wyatt (Peter Fonda) to Billy (Dennis Hopper) by the campfire just before the final scene. The late Terry Southern, who wrote the original treatment and shares screenwriting credit with both Fonda and Hopper, literally went to his grave refusing to explicate this cryptic line. In 1995, with an enigmatic smile, Peter Fonda also refused to even speculate on the meaning of the line despite persistent questioning by Charles Grodin on his old CNBC show.
But I think I may have misspoken: Fonda's smile wasn't enigmatic, it was a condescending and patronizing smirk. And Terry Southern surely died with that same grin on his face because the answer to that question is right there for all to see. Southern--witness Doctor Strangelove--was a great satirist and all great satirists are moralists at heart, as is evident from the Ancient Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal, through the Enlightenment's Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope to HBO's Bill Maher and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. Fonda and Southern are laughing because they played a great joke on us, and for almost 30 years, nobody's gotten it.
The joke is this: Easy Rider is a CONSERVATIVE movie. It is not "nihilistic" and "chaotic." Not only does this movie celebrate family values, it celebrates traditional family values. But even more than that, Easy Rider argues for the enduring strength and power of faith in God as it explicitly rejects hedonism, atheism, and nihilism. This theme is evident throughout the film from the moment the travelers leave Los Angeles to the final climatic scene.
The first episode in Wyatt and Billy's journey to Mardi Gras occurs at a desert ranch where the travelers are briefly stranded by a flat tire. The rancher provides the necessary tools, then invites the men to supper with his large family. After prayer around a large outdoor table--before which the ignorant and impious Billy had to be reminded to remove his hat--Wyatt insistently and sincerely compliments the rancher on his "spread" and the life he has built there, repeated for emphasis.
Then picking up a hitchhiker, the wanderers stop for gas at Sacred Mountain, with the word "Sacred" from the gas station's sign splashed in big red letters across the screen as they pull in. Camping on the mountain, the cryptic hitchhiker admonishes Billy for disrespecting the site; once again Billy's irreverence and impiety are exposed to criticism. Reaching the hitchhiker's destination, the travelers find a commune hard at work planting crops. The laughter of children animates the episode until Wyatt and Billy join a second Circle of Prayer, movingly and famously depicted by a 360-degree pan of the inhabitants as they pray for the wherewithal to be as generous to others as others had been to them. The commune is a family as traditional as the rancher's family: underneath the beads and tie-dyed fabric is the agrarian extended family functioning in a classic pastoral.
But, although invited to stay, the travelers move on. They meet George the drunken liberal lawyer (Jack Nicholson) before continuing on towards New Orleans, stopping to camp, where George is killed by locals. Using a free pass inherited from George, they decide to visit a brothel--to the tune of "Kyrie Eleison," ("Lord have mercy"), drawn from the Electric Prunes psychedelic but authentic and respectful version of the Latin Catholic Mass in F Minor--where they encounter two prostitutes under cathedral ceilings and within walls covered by religious icons. Visiting a church graveyard, they drop acid and commence an unpleasant trip of weeping, shuddering and anxiety--amid frame after frame of sacred imagery and a comforting voice-over of a young girl saying a Rosary as a funeral unfolds before them.
On Mardi Gras night they camp, and Wyatt speaks those famous words, "We blew it" in response to Billy's shallow, juvenile excitement at the fact that "We're rich, man!" "We're free," Billy goes on, claiming to be "set for life" and ready to retire to Florida, but Wyatt quietly repeats his judgment: "We blew it." The next day, Ash Wednesday--the Christian Holy Day of atonement and repentance, the day when Catholics memento mori, that is, "contemplate death"--the story ends suddenly and shockingly on a country road in Southwest Louisiana.
If this narrative had been Medieval, could there be any doubt at all of the theme or the moral teaching intended? Sinners wander the countryside on a secular quest, encountering God's message but failing to acknowledge Him. They seek worldly pleasure at the expense of spiritual fulfillment, finding treasure and discussing it under a tree, only to finally to die a horrid death by the wayside.
As a matter of fact, such a tale was written in the Middle Ages, by Geoffrey Chaucer within the Canterbury Tales (the first "road movie"?), in "The Pardoner's Tale." Chaucer, unquestionably a moralist, was also a great satirist, as we see in the vicious lampoon of the venal and grossly hypocritical Pardoner, who preaches all his sermons on the theme of "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10) while selling indulgences and false relics to his ignorant congregations.
Admittedly, many of the parallels may be mere coincidence. The Pardoner claims (lines 344-45):
similarly to the way Southern flavors the brothel scene with Latin. Although in both cases the tale itself concerns "a compaignye / of yonge folk" (443-44), more specifically, "riotoures thre" (661), it may be mere coincidence that both sets of wanderers enjoy the charms of "tombesteres" (477), that is, dancing girls, and that both companies chance to encounter a funeral or that both encounter an old man who causes their death. And the presence of an oak tree at a critical juncture in both stories may likewise be coincidence.
But can it be coincidence that Billy in Easy Rider and the "worste of hem" (776) in "The Pardoner's Tale" express the exact same sentiment at the climax of the narrative under that oak? Where Billy gleefully talks about being rich, that they were set for life and "free," upon discovering the treasure the older brother declares (779-80).:
The riotoures of "The Pardoner's Tale" were as convinced as Billy that their futures were of leisure and comfort, and their fate was as suddenly and violently--and immediately--proven otherwise. Thus, by accepting Hillary's premise that Wyatt and Billy had been "senselessly" murdered simply to dispute the verisimilitude of the murder, Medved had already rejected the deeply conservative interpretation in favor of an empty understanding that must indeed leave one feeling the movie is "nihilistic" and "chaotic."
Wyatt and Billy were given choices, opportunities to find meaning in their lives beyond that gas tank filled with money, beyond the pleasure of the brothel or the bottle, beyond the aimless wandering, meaning offered through spiritual commitment. Could there be a more conservative theme? The rancher and his family, the commune: first they were given a model of a meaningful life, then they were given an invitation to build that life. Invited to stay and join a family and find God, they refused. Wyatt learned in no uncertain terms from George's beaten body and the mausoleum funeral service they chanced to witness while on the LSD trip the end that awaited them: For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
He knew it.
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4.9
{"commentId":1262731,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
The Grodin interview was 17 Aug 1995 and it was hell to find. Had to use a subscription db.
{"commentId":1262731,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
- 6 votes
#1 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:08 AM EST{"commentId":1276548,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
I was unaware they did a list of best conservative movies, having focused instead on the lame list of a/sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/04/19/672241-why-the-conservative-songs-were-bad-choices">best conservative songs
Just out of curiousity did they include Red Dawn or did they leave out movies like that,
while crappy, does tend to lead one to get paranoid and be ready to go join the military
as soon as possible to kill anyone who looks or acts different?
Oh and what was that awful Schwartzanegger movie with… well, heck, are any of his movies not "conservative"? But the one I was going to say was True Lies.
{"commentId":1276548,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1276615,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1276665,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
Wolverines!! Red Dawn is one of the great movies of all time and John Milius one of the best filmmakers to boot. Uhh, just kiddin' about the former but Milius is very underappreciated. Check out Farewell to the King sometime. Great little flick. Jack, did I tell you the story of how Milius came up with the inspiration for the Col. Bill Kilgore character in Apocalypse Now?
{"commentId":1276665,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1276763,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
Red Dawn came out while I was in high school and it made me realize that Hollywood seemed to think viewers - or high school students were idiots.
{"commentId":1276763,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1262810,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
Excellent writeup -- well worth the wait.
I'm clipping in to a few other groups as well.
{"commentId":1262810,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 4 votes
#2 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:35 AM EST{"commentId":1262847,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1263056,"authorDomain":"zeketyler"}
{"commentId":1263092,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
I've actually never seen this movie, though I've read enough about it in patches over the years to have some idea how it all goes down. I appreciate your analysis, and if there's one bone I have to pick its with the very idea of "conservative movie" or "liberal movie." I don't think that this way of looking a work of art is necessarily productive - though I certainly see your point.
An interesting topic for further investigation would be an examination of the sort of unspoken mores underlying other "countercultural" films. You do highlight an important point - it's possible for a movie to be "glorifying" a "bad" lifestyle, but the significant difference between the two types of movie in this category is this: does the film (the "implied author", in litcrit talk) share in the judgment that the lifestyle depicted is "bad"? IE, is the film apologetic or unapologetic in its depiction of certain choices?
A good counterexample to this would be something like, I dunno, maybe The Godfather? Bear with me - in that one, we the audience definitely don't want to see Michael dragged down into that lifestyle, and neither does his family - but once it happens, it was meant to happen. It's not "bad," it's just business. The value system of our reality is suspended, overhauled - a new one is put into place.
Perhaps that's a bad example, actually, as much of the brilliance in that film lies in the way he plays with the nuances of just that dynamic. But I dunno, pick your favorite 70s counterculture flick where everyone does lots of drugs, has lots of sex and goes home happy with a rock soundtrack. There we've got a world that rejects the traditional normative model.
Maybe I'm setting up a straw-man, now that I think about it, though. There aren't many movies like that. It's funny how even in stuff that rubs against the grain of social norms there tends to be in most cases an acknowledgment that the behavior depicted is somehow "wrong." I wonder what that says.
Anyway, thanks for the writeup.
{"commentId":1263092,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 4 votes
#4 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:17 PM EST{"commentId":1263162,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
I think a better example of that, if I'm following you, is Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Having just watched it for the first time, I'm a bit conflicted about the message he wanted to send.
War movies are sort of the same way -- you inherently root for one side and war turns into a rah-rah "go team" sport, rather than a depiction of horror. There are very few "anti-war" war movies.
{"commentId":1263162,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263218,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
I thought about including war movies, actually, it's a great example of a very specific value system laid over the activities of the characters.
I don't think Clockwork Orange works as our example - we're supposed to find Alex to be completely repugnant. His behavior is atrocious and Kubrick wants us to see it as such, it's not some kind of celebration of freedom from traditional moral codes.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is, is there such a thing as a movie which depicts behavior that runs counter to social norms but in a way that celebrates freedom and the ability to reject these norms. Not in a "@!$%# you" sense or a "I can be bad if I want to" sense but rather in a "Your concept of 'bad' is outdated and I don't find it very interesting" sense. There must surely be lots of films in this category, and they must surely deal with victimless crimes like sexual promiscuity or drug use as those are the areas where the most people in reality reject societal values and don't somehow feel bad about it.
Does that make sense?
{"commentId":1263218,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1263508,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
His behavior is atrocious and Kubrick wants us to see it as such, it's not some kind of celebration of freedom from traditional moral codes.
I would have thought so too -- if not for the ending of that movie. Out of curiosity, I read Ebert's take, and he was completely appalled by the whole movie. With that said, I don't want to derail this thread...
{"commentId":1263508,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263525,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
At the risk of derailing and because it is relevant to the topic of his essay, let me just say that the end cements it. It's a happy ending for him, but a sad ending to the film. He's not "cured", and his behavior isn't justified - but he is free in the sense that we are all free and capable of making "bad" decisions. It's a celebration of freedom and I get that and agree, but it's not freedom from social norms, at least not in the sense that I'm trying to get at. I'm curious to hear Jack's thoughts on the subject.
{"commentId":1263525,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263674,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1263706,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
It says that when art is commodified, it will never actually subvert or undercut the mass market--it'll never really critique existing social norms. Too much potential profit left on the table.
...oh yeah.
{"commentId":1263706,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1263716,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
Actually, I think it is a perfect counter-point artistically in terms of the ending. That movie actually DOES posit a nihilistic and chaotic vision, as the NR critic claimed for Easy Rider.
I guess but it does so in a sort of lamentable way. It's a Bad Thing, the movie doesn't throw out the concept of "Bad" in the traditional sense - its character just isn't wired to appreciate that concept. I was trying to think of an example of a movie that doesn't posit existential despair but rather a healthy, fulfilling disregard for such norms...but I think at this point the distinction is trivialized.
{"commentId":1263716,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1276649,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
examination of the sort of unspoken mores underlying other "countercultural" films. You do highlight an important point - it's possible for a movie to be "glorifying" a "bad" lifestyle, but the significant difference between the two types of movie in this category is this: does the film (the "implied author", in litcrit talk) share in the judgment that the lifestyle depicted is "bad"? IE, is the film apologetic or unapologetic in its depiction of certain choices?
One movie that I find fascinating along these lines is the Searchers which some thought of as racist but which more recently has been seen by some as a statement against racism. I read a great analysis of it recently which I can try to dig up and seed which suggests that it was an anti-racism movie even though John Wayne probably had no idea it was.
But it gets into that issue of whether a movie about racism can avoid racism itself or, in the case of this movie, can a movie with drug use avoid being blasted by conservatives because of drug use? I can't see Medved, for one, ever championing a movie in which anyone drops acid.
{"commentId":1276649,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1276657,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
I'd love for us to to do an in-depth discussion of a movie like the Searchers
As for as anti-war war movies I love Dr. Strangelove and, speaking of Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket.
{"commentId":1276657,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1263115,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
Good article Jack but I'm not quite sure I'd go as far as you do in saying that Easy Rider is a "conservative" movie (whatever that's supposed to mean). It's obvious Fonda and Hopper don't have much use for the hippie "culture" although they like getting high and all that (Hunter Thompson was the same way). They were pretty contemptuous of the city kids who knew squat about farming thinking they could make a go of their commune. Southern's contributions to Dr. Strangelove have been vastly overstated but as a Texan of some station (like Thompson was a Kentuckian) he certainly could be a bit contemptuous of the lower classes but that hardly qualifies him as a conservative and in no way would I call Easy Rider a conservative movie. With his jaundiced eye Southern was as contemptuous of the crackers and the society they represented as he was of the hippies and the alternative they presented. That's pretty much always been the aristocratic view of life. I think you're reading way, way too much into this.
BTW, my favorite movie critic today is the Post's Stephen Hunter. With James Bowman a close second.
{"commentId":1263115,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 2 votes
#5 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:27 PM EST{"commentId":1264070,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1264199,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
Southern's contributions to Dr. Strangelove were de minimis. Mainly bits and pieces here and there like the emergency kit scene with Slim Pickens. He only worked on the movie for about six weeks. Sellers ad-libbed many of his scenes to hilarious effect.
{"commentId":1264199,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1263163,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
I almost forgot. One of the best "conservative" movies ever made was the great John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy which was rated X when it first came out if I recall correctly.
{"commentId":1263163,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 3 votes
#6 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:44 PM EST{"commentId":1263276,"authorDomain":"Missy2"}
All Hollywood movies are republican in the sense that the main goal is to make money, money and more money. There is never enough money. There is no topic too tacky, violent or schmaltzy if it makes money.
{"commentId":1263276,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"Missy2"}
- 6 votes
#7 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:17 PM EST{"commentId":1263283,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
No doubt that explains why Democrats dominate Hollywood ;>0, Kath.
{"commentId":1263283,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 5 votes
{"commentId":1263714,"authorDomain":"Missy2"}
Touche, Bill.
{"commentId":1263714,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"Missy2"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263292,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Thanks, Gillis. I also haven't seen this movie (another 60's experience I missed), but I do remember that my brother saw it, and from then on whenever he saw a biker wearing a flag decal, he would growl "Another person who saw Easy Rider and didn't get it!" Gotta rent the DVD one of these days.
{"commentId":1263292,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 2 votes
#8 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:20 PM EST{"commentId":1263643,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1263789,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
Jack, we had to sneak into it when it premiered in Harrisonburg in '67. Had me a poster of Fonda on the chopper my frosh year at W&M. You know that Rip Torn was supposed to play George Hanson but he got into a row with Hopper in a bar in NYC thus giving Jack his big break.
{"commentId":1263789,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1263853,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1263879,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
That tripping scene with Karen Black in the cemetery was very freaky. And of course the scene where Nicholson gets high for the first time is one of the classics -- "No thanks. Got my own store-bought here."
{"commentId":1263879,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263351,"authorDomain":"pobox522rlyeh"}
I think your labelling is kind of nuts, but I agree with your interpretation of what "we blew it."
Labelling seems to be something your a bit obsessed with. Frankly, I don't really think that liberals have a deep need to avoid getting married and having kids. Saying that promoting the value of family life makes the movie is conservative... wow.
They also promoted the use of drugs, decried intolerance and violence, and promoted a number of other ideas.
Honestly, I don't really like the approach of analyzing movies in a conservative versus liberal sense. It's part of the modern obsession with polarization, the insistence that we take everything and move it the left of an invisible line, or the right. It's not productive.
The idea that conservatisism is inherently pro-family while liberalism isn't, is crazy, frankly. It isn't a real defining point, it's something that a conservative would like to be true. Liberals want the definition of a family to be more loose, which a conservative would say is anti-family. A liberal would say he wants to allow more people to have a family, which is pro-family... it's like your picking talking-points of one side or another and applying them as absolute truth.
I could as easily say that conservatives are about greed while liberals are the opposite. It wouldn't be true, but I could say it without about the same logical process you used here.
The analysis was nice, but I could do without the politics.
{"commentId":1263351,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"pobox522rlyeh"}
- 5 votes
#9 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:36 PM EST{"commentId":1263803,"authorDomain":"acidreflux"}
The idea that conservatisism is inherently pro-family while liberalism isn't, is crazy, frankly. It isn't a real defining point, it's something that a conservative would like to be true. Liberals want the definition of a family to be more loose, which a conservative would say is anti-family. A liberal would say he wants to allow more people to have a family, which is pro-family... it's like your picking talking-points of one side or another and applying them as absolute truth.
Exactly. And then extolling the commune as an alternative family, when most Conservatives would be appalled to grant it the name appears to be a case of having a conclusion and then twisting the evidence to fit it. I've never thought of the movie as having any political slant at all, to be honest. It does have a moral slant, but to equate "morality" with "conservatism" is also taking things far too far.
{"commentId":1263803,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"acidreflux"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1263915,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1263370,"authorDomain":"chimaytriple"}
It has, and probably always will be my favorite movie. I've put it down as such on every bio that asks "Favorite movies." It really spoke to me. It was different from the typical hollywoody, same story, different names movie.
{"commentId":1263370,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"chimaytriple"}
- 2 votes
#10 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:40 PM EST{"commentId":1263975,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1264358,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
Early on I saw the Fonda and Hopper characters as inspired by Dismas and Gismas, to Jack Nicholson's country lawyer Christ. You'd have to ask Terry Southern if that was his intent. But he appears to be permanently indisposed. So I'll just have to guess that it probably was…and it probably wasn't…
Southern is an exception to the General Rule that "Nothing good ever came out of Texas."
Fonda's later role in The Limey is sort of a "spiritual" sequel to Easy Rider, although, reincarnated down.
when art is commodified, it will never actually subvert or undercut the mass market--it'll never really critique existing social norms. Too much potential profit left on the table. Any good Marxist could tell you
[ See: Jfxgillis @ #4.5 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:53 PM EST. ]
It's called: Cooptation. To have any artistic credibility whatsoever you have to stay on the run. Remain underground. You have to wallow in dissent. That often means drunk dead or psychotic.
It always helps to have a rich patron who doesn't read your stuff…and/or a well-situated spouse who truly loves you--or at least has a need to take care of you like a house plant…
Of course you don't want to get too comfortable. So if you're living on an estate with too much caviar on your baked potato move to the garage…or the gardener's shack…
====
{"commentId":1264358,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 3 votes
#11 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:00 PM EST{"commentId":1264424,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1264624,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
Ezra Pound...Mel Gibson
I hate them. I mean, I love them but I hate them...
====
{"commentId":1264624,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1264635,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
What are your thoughts on Evelyn Waugh, GP?
{"commentId":1264635,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1264636,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1264817,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
Apocalypto was very good.
====
{"commentId":1264817,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1264770,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
Bill Harrison
What are your thoughts on Evelyn Waugh
Elegant.
====
{"commentId":1264770,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 2 votes
#12 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:54 PM EST{"commentId":1264950,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
That's a great word for it. Have you read "Handful of Dust?" What a weird book.
{"commentId":1264950,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1266967,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
No. Actually "Brideshead" and (I'm pretty sure) The Loved One are the only books by Waugh I've read straight through. But I've tasted of some others. ( The TV and film versions of those works sparked my interest.)
====
{"commentId":1266967,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1267206,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
My personal favorite of Waugh's is Vile Bodies which limns the decadent "Brideshead set" of the '20s perfectly. BTW, GP, the dining club of which Sebastian Flyte was a member, Bullingdon, is the same one which counted as a member such current Tory toffs as David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
{"commentId":1267206,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1264860,"authorDomain":"bluecollarbytes"}
I'd like to see more directors and actors show the honesty of Bob Dylan, who rejects the attempts of fans and 'serious' critics to impute endless meaning into what is essentially entertainment.
{"commentId":1264860,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"bluecollarbytes"}
- 1 vote
#13 - Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:25 PM EST{"commentId":1264916,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1264993,"authorDomain":"mrgeniussir"}
Wow. I never would've thought of Easy Rider in those terms, but now that you mention it, it fits. I've always thought politics and art are a bad mix. Politics and religion, too. As a matter of fact (why don't I just come out and say it) SCREW POLITICS!
To me, Easy Rider was kind of dull. The characters seemed stereotypical, and I didn't much care what happened to them. It's a nice historical document , though.
I saw it in Silver Spring MD around 1970 at a midnight showing. Went around the corner to the Little Tavern (indigenous burger place). One of the patrons was talking about the movie, and said"that's exactly what the south is like. If you got long hair, they'll string your ass up". I was nonplussed by his comment, as I was routinely harrassed and threatened because of my long hair in MD at that time.
{"commentId":1264993,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"mrgeniussir"}
- 4 votes
#14 - Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:31 AM EST{"commentId":1265250,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1265677,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Remember Charlie Daniels' song "Uneasy Rider?" Daniels is from Dixie, so it's okay for him to poke fun at the redneck stereotype.
{"commentId":1265677,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1265261,"authorDomain":"blai"}
This is mystifying horrible essay, I hardly know where to begin. Republicans are masters of iconography and stagecraft, every John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston movie is just such proof. Ronald Reagan was the finest expositor of Republican values, and George Bush the Dumber walks around like Shift the donkey wearing a lion's skin in CS Lewis' Last Battle. Republican iconography is stiff, for all icons are statues or paintings. They dare not move, lest they destroy the illusion of perfection, itself an unattainable asymptote. From DW Griffith's heroic portrayal of the Klan to Karl Rove, Republicans have followed the cardinal rules of drama to the letter, and they have filled men's hearts with fear and promises of redemption since the creation of moving pictures: get the devil's closeup filmed first, whip up the drama, and the saint will appear in the second reel, with nothing to do but provide the denouement and kiss the girl.
Liberals have their own end of the stage lot, but they're never really achieved the iconic gravitas of John Ford in Conservative screen writers and directors. What movies do Liberals cling to... Fahrenheit 911? Gore's obtuse Inconvenient Truth? Tootsie? No, the two ultimate Conservative movies are Sands of Iwo Jima, and The Green Berets, both starring John Wayne.
I am not sure how Deptford Trilogy makes it iinto this essay. I cannot make sense of the paragraph. The Deptford Trilogy commences from a bit of horseplay between two Canadian boys, a pregnant woman accidentally struck in the head by a stone in a snowball. From that random incident propagates a series of intricately interwoven stories. In Manticore, Davies lets fly this little bullet: It is not a fact, except insofar as all coincidences are facts. Tthe stone which strikes Mary Dempster reappears again, in the mouth of its thrower. Mary Dempster is alternately a saint, a bad mother or a brain damaged woman given to sex acts with tramps. It is all a Matter of Opinion and Camera Angle, and a whole book of Deptford is given over to the psychoanalysis of one of the victims. The Odyssey is anything but Free Will, it is the gods pushing men about like chess pieces, with sulking Achilles in his camp, Athena pushes away killer arrows, true, there is little random in the Iliad, but the gods atop Olympus do the casting and have their favorites.
In any event, postmodernism has its conservative actors. All the Clint Eastwood movies are little morality plays. From Mankind, the central morality play, Mercy, (ever the Conservative) and the Nowadays Liberal screech at each other
MERCY. Ladt, helpe! how wrechys delyte in þer synfull weys!
NOWADAYS. Say not ageyn þe new gyse nowadays!
þou xall fynde ws schrewys at all assays.
Be ware! 3e may son lyke a boffett.
translation: Our Lady save us! These wretches delight in their sinfulness.
Nowadays: say nothing against our new fashions. You will find us shrewd from every angle. Beware, you may soon take a buffet (struck with a fist)
Shoot the devil's closeup first. Easy Rider is a morality play, as surely as Mankind, but turned inside out, into an Amorality Play. "We blew it"... what's so hard to understand? The wages of sin is death, but oh what a death. The wages... (gettin' paid off in a big drug deal ) of sin ( a whole lotta fun and games on the road, and picking up a couple of New Orleans whores ) is death, one, two, three. George, Billy and finally Wyatt. In Wyatt's case, literally a blaze of glory at the hands of a bunch of outraged Conservative Types who blow up his gas tank.
And Lord, how easy it is to spot the symbolism. Drifter heroes, landed villains. There's the hitchhiker, on his way to those naive bozos in the commune, him and his LSD, later to detonate in their minds, in the graveyard. There's George, the boozing do-gooder ACLU lawyer. Anyone who looks like he might be a good guy has a drug or alcohol problem. They're all in search of some vision, some enlightenment, and they all end up dead. Gotta remember, back then, Ingmar Bergman was really big, and everything had to sorta mean something, so you larded up your movies with symbols.
Satirists are moralists? Wha-wha-what? Satirists may have much to say about the morals of the day, Swift certainly did, and he was a university trained theologian and preacher. But they do not moralize. They make hay with people's moral failings, there is a profound difference. Easy Rider is not a conservative movie: it was not seen to be at the time, and is not now. The villains are the local do-gooders who persecute a bunch of nihilistic vision seekers. Oh the pathos, oh the bathetic sniffling, playing to the cheap parodies of Squares and Hicks so prevalent at the time. Easy Rider was everything the Cowboy Movie wasn't, from the ride east to the casting of Local Folks as villains, to the antiheroes on riding into the sunrise on their metal horses. Not even the saddlebags get to hold the ill-gotten gains, the gas tank serves that purpose. The Local Yokel as Villain stereotype, so ably set in motion by Easy Rider would reach its apotheosis of the movie Deliverance.
A bit of Bowie I'm listening to, writing this bit of villainy:
This is your shadow on my wall
This is my flesh and blood
This is what I could've been
And the wheels are turning and turning
As the 20th century dies
If I had not ripped the fabric
If time had not stood still
If I had not met Ramona
If I'd only paid my bill
All's well
But I have not been to Oxford Town
All's well
{"commentId":1265261,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"blai"}
- 2 votes
#15 - Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:47 AM EST{"commentId":1267295,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1269992,"authorDomain":"blai"}
Morality is a personal matter, time has taught me so. The satirist depends on moral foibles, and I suppose a funny jape is as good or better than a sermon, but the two are not equivalent. Telling you you're bad is not telling you how to be good.
It's a Wonderful Life is the most tiresomely over-rated movie. Significance is a matter of opinion, and Clarence the Angel doesn't seem to exhibit a political opinion. Conservatism is a moving target, what's Liberal today, (and survives the forge to become accepted as sound reasoning) becomes loved by the Conservative and fiercely defended. I'm always amused to think of the Second Amendment being defended by Conservatives, it's the most Liberal and Radical idea ever set up in law.
Star Wars and Cleopatra are ecch... maybe-Liberal. Star Wars is a cowboy movie set up in the future, but owes more to Yojimbo and Seven Samurai than to John Ford.
I've read Deptford, many times. I have everything Robertson Davies wrote, including the Judith Skelton Grant biography. Davies had his own take on Jungian psychology, which doesn't much square with Jung. I'll grant you this, arguendo, the Stone may be an act of Free Will, a mean-spirited act which set in motion everything which followed. But it might also be seen as fate. Magnus Eisengrim, Dunny, Boy Staunton, and especially David Staunton emerge, elaborately detailed characters, among the strongest in literature.
{"commentId":1269992,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"blai"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1270888,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1270988,"authorDomain":"lisaed"}
Anyway, while Clarence may be politically indifferent, the film itself seems informed by a decided anti-Capitalism.
Jack - well once again beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I don't see "It's A Wonderful Life" through an anti-capitalism lense at all - George Bailey of "You, old Building & Loan" fame is simply a capitalist with a heart (think compassionate conservative) vs. Mr. Potter's no heart style of capitalism in dear Bedford Falls.....and I would hope all angels are politically indifferent for those of us who still believe in angels that is!
{"commentId":1270988,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"lisaed"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1271127,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1266776,"authorDomain":"lisaed"}
Jack - wow! This is your usual well thought out and thorough anaysis - I've only seen bits & pieces of Easy Rider - and I confess my impression of this film was that it was really not the charming conservative's kind of movie - but your suggestion that it is indeed a "conservative" film means I'm going to put this on my netflix list and get back to you on that. I love Jack Nicholson so I've no good excuse not to sit through the whole thing at least once. I agree that it is entirely superficial for anyone to suggest that all hippies/counter culture types are by definition "not conservative" ----I'm no hippy but I was a flower child growing up complete with peace signs decorating my bedroom walls.....long hippy hair with head bands---tie dye clothes....and big Joplin fan.....but as you know my heart was always "conservative" despite my exterior surface.....from your analysis the same can be said of "Easy Rider."
{"commentId":1266776,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"lisaed"}
- 2 votes
#16 - Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:51 PM EST{"commentId":1266866,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1266982,"authorDomain":"lisaed"}
Jack - I agree - it's off my to do list - I put Easy Rider at the top of my netflix list - though I can't tell you win I'll have time to actually watch it - I'll report back after the new year! These days when I take a moment to watch any television I'm all about the Christmas specials - last night I watched The Little Drummer Boy (featuring Greer Garson) and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (featuring Fred Astaire & Mickey Rooney).....I'm still just a big kid at heart.
{"commentId":1266982,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"lisaed"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1274375,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
Trivia question:
What does the film Easy Rider have in common with the Sopranos Finale?
{"commentId":1274375,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
- 1 vote
#17 - Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:28 PM EST{"commentId":1274621,"authorDomain":"mrgeniussir"}
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the finale yet. Waiting for the price to drop so I can get it cheap. Till then my hands are over my ears"La La La La La la"
{"commentId":1274621,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"mrgeniussir"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1274683,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
Well, a lot of people seem to like the movie Easy Rider so I'm going to guess that the answer isn't "they both sucked?"
{"commentId":1274683,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1274695,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
...you've written an in-depth analysis of each?
{"commentId":1274695,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1274755,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1274760,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1274774,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1276541,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
What does the film Easy Rider have in common with the Sopranos Finale?
They both ended without resolving a statement or action (ie. the meaning of the "we blew it" line versus what was going to happen next in the show?)
{"commentId":1276541,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1282002,"authorDomain":"lisaed"}
jack - 17. 6- hopefully that means there will be more movie reviews from you coming our way!
{"commentId":1282002,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"lisaed"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1282060,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1275453,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Professor, professor, I've done my homework! Can I hand in my comments late, please? I've had a cold and had to go to my husband's nephew's funeral and had a lot of papers to grade. (Actually, all of that is true).
Anyway, I have to agree that the meaning of "we blew it" isn't subtle in the least, especially following the LSD sequence in which Captain American relives his pious childhood, hearing his own piping boy-soprano voice recite the Nicene Creed and the Lord's Prayer. And we know he was raised a good Catholic, because he says "trespasses." (Well, either Catholic or High Church Episcopalian, which is the same thing for all practical purposes except Papal infallibility). But I think probably Catholic, because of the weeping over the statue of the B.V.M. Of course, it's also C.A. who recognizes the goodness in the rancher's life and also in the commune, while Billy is making fun of them, so he's the one who has a shot at redemption from crass materialism, and blows it -- although perhaps the fact that he's trying to get help for his dying friend at the end gives him a little bit of grace.
Is that good enough for a 2.0, or do I need to send you the Universal Grade Change form?
{"commentId":1275453,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
#18 - Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:09 AM EST{"commentId":1275641,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1275692,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Gillis: Yes, I noticed that "Sacred Mountain" bit too, although it's true that having read your article first I had an unfair advantage in watching for details like that. Another thing that blew me away was the sheer beauty of the scenery in the American West. I can see why all those glorious open-roads sequences seduced people into thinking of the movie as a glorification of the heroes' "freedom," although I suspect that it's "freedom" in the Me & Bobbie McGhee sense. That kind of visual beauty certainly lends power to the scenes of spirituality. Kudos to the cinematographers -- an their job was not necessarily that easy just because the scenery really is beautiful. Ask any tourist who's tried to capture the Painted Desert on film.
Do I get bonus points for reading the inscription on the mantlepiece in the House of Blue Lights, "the paths of glory lead but to the grave?"
{"commentId":1275692,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1275708,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1275789,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
Jack, Easy Rider is in my home library of movies. I'll have to watch it again with your article in mind.
{"commentId":1275789,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1275819,"authorDomain":"darkside"}
That line is from Thomas Grey's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," and that poem was the very first time I realized how powerful words could be. Looking back it's not what you might call a great work of literature, per se, but it opened my mind to a lot when I was 16. I still remember:
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power -
All that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave
Awaits alike the inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but the to the grave..."
{"commentId":1275819,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"darkside"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1275821,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1275833,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1275861,"authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
I believe that poem probably also served as the inspiration for Kubrick's best antiwar movie, Paths of Glory, which captures the total insanity of the Great War quite well.
{"commentId":1275861,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wharrison55"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1275919,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Actually, before you bust off and cite it, double check the scene -- it may have been in the graveyard, rather than the bordello. All those flash-back-flash-forward sequences take a little sorting out.
{"commentId":1275919,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1276893,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
P.S. -- Thanks to the "select scene" feature, I can now tell you that the inscription IS on the mantlepiece in the bordello, and that just after reading it, Captain America has a flash-forward to the vision of the burning motorcycle. Worth 5 more points, don't you think, Jack?
{"commentId":1276893,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1276930,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1278217,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Sure, if you don't mind my grading them about as promptly as I watched "Easy Rider."
{"commentId":1278217,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1278241,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1276533,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
This is an excellent provocative though-provoking essay. I might go rent this again. You've done with this essay what some of the best Listen-In pieces make me do, namely rethink my impressions of a piece of art
This is the kind of stuff I hope MSNBC will be picking up.
Clipped to Newsviners Picks.
{"commentId":1276533,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 2 votes
#19 - Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:55 PM EST{"commentId":1276626,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1276743,"authorDomain":"Wheel"}
Wyatt and Billy were given choices, opportunities to find meaning in their lives beyond that gas tank filled with money, beyond the pleasure of the brothel or the bottle, beyond the aimless wandering, meaning offered through spiritual commitment.
Or...
It could be that Easy Rider is a story about the tension between the nomad and the settled farmer and town dweller. Every since the neolithic revolution began and people decided to quit the nomadic lifestye and settle in one place to farm and raise animals there has been tension between the nomadic wanderers who chose not to stop moving and the settled townsmen. It's real, it's universal, it's historic.
Gypsies, traveling sales men, hobos, grifters, drifters, wanderers, ....strangers!
Good article, I liked it. :)
{"commentId":1276743,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"Wheel"}
- 2 votes
#20 - Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:32 PM EST{"commentId":1276934,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1276982,"authorDomain":"Wheel"}
Where did I say nomads had to be poor?
{"commentId":1276982,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"Wheel"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1289893,"authorDomain":"cajundame"}
Yep, right again as usual, Jack. ;0
Even as a teenager, watching this movie in secret from my mom (cause there was nudity, gasp!), I knew this wasn't a pro-counterculture movie.
Oh and by the way, FABULOUS photos. ;)
{"commentId":1289893,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"cajundame"}
- 1 vote
#21 - Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:40 PM EST{"commentId":1290032,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1290054,"authorDomain":"cajundame"}
Hee! I'm always taking more, not posting so often now as my computer is giving me grief. But my new Canon is so awesome! I'm sure there will be plenty more to come once I figure out how to fix it. :)
{"commentId":1290054,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"cajundame"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1290959,"authorDomain":"smallfork"}
This is one of those movies that has been on the "ought to see but still haven't seen" list -- especially since I love all of the actors. After this, I will have to go rent it once and for all.
Thanks for the piece.
{"commentId":1290959,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"smallfork"}
- 2 votes
#22 - Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:32 PM EST{"commentId":1291058,"authorDomain":"jfxgillis"}
{"commentId":1291501,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
If you haven't seen Easy Rider by now just forget about it. You've already been selected out. Go see George Pal's The Time Machine instead and grok the Morlocks...
====
{"commentId":1291501,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}
- 3 votes
#23 - Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:49 AM EST{"commentId":1292665,"authorDomain":"smallfork"}
You've already been selected out
I've seen the Time Machine, I've read Stranger in a Strange Land, and you simply have to elaborate on this very funny comment...
{"commentId":1292665,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"smallfork"}
- 2 votes
#24 - Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:30 PM EST{"commentId":1293310,"authorDomain":"wood-s"}
Don't listen to him, smallfork, it's never too late to catch up with your generation's cultural icons. Or, for that matter, your parents' generation's.
{"commentId":1293310,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"wood-s"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1373790,"authorDomain":"seward"}
Easy Rider is up there among my favourite movies of all time. Never, have I read an in-depth analysis of it before, though.
For those of you who have never seen it, please, place it high up on your " films to see before you die" list.
{"commentId":1373790,"threadId":"188251","contentId":"1146900","authorDomain":"seward"}
- 2 votes
#25 - Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:01 PM EST{"canLink":false,"threadId":"188251","isPrivate":false}
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