The 1969 Film Easy Rider Directed By Dennis Hopper

The 1969 film, Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper is what many people consider to be a modern Western of the 1960’s. This film is a follow up film to the 1966 film, The Wild Angels, starring Peter Fonda. The film begins with two longhaired hippie motorcycle riders buying cocaine to smuggle from Mexico to sell to a notorious drug dealer in California. The two men are referred to as Captain America and Billy the Kid. Captain America drives a low-riding Harley Davidson bike with a red, white, and blue America flag on the tear-drop gas tank. He also wears a black leather jacket with an American flag covering the back. Also a hippie, Billy the Kid has long and shaggy hair along with a mustache. He wears a buckskin jacket with an animal tooth necklace. After stashing the money they had received from the drug dealer in their gas tanks, the two bikers decide to ride their bikes on the open road to Marti Gras. Throughout the ride of the two bikers, Easy Rider brings up many of the social issues affecting America during the 1960’s. The uses of drugs and alcohol, freedom, prostitution, religion and social prejudice are all very common themes that really drive
The movie started shooting on February 22nd, 1968 and was released in the summer of 1969. In a little over a year, Hopper shot a film that ended up premiering at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and won the festival's award for the Best Film by a new director. The film also received two Academy Award nominations including Best Original Screenplay from the co-author, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern as well as the Best Supporting Actor from Jack Nicholson. (Film Site) The post World War II European film influenced many of the technique used within the