Review of Easy Rider (1969) by Tim S — 24 Jan 2011

Spoller: I am going to get a lot of shit for this next review. I am putting this is the context as if seeing it within the time. In other words, look at it as if this movie came out today about things going on today.

If I was sitting in a theater in the seventies, I would think this same thing: this movie is overrated. I know, in the context of when it came out and it's rich history, that everyone is supposed to fall in love with it because it paved the way for a beautiful time in film.

For that, I appreciate it, but, as an overall movie, it is no more than a fifty page script with tons and tons of traveling shots. I never connected with Dennis Hopper or Peter Fonda, but loved Jack Nicholson.

And I think the whole rednecks wanting to kill hippies is a little overplayed. Not mention the tripping acid scene is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. To put these guys up as heroes when they are no more than drug dealers is a little much for me.

Maybe it's the fact that I think that I hate hippies, but, at the end of the day, I appreciate what it did for the rest of the filmmakers of the era, but it just doesn't hold up for me.