But, unlike Brando (in "The Wild One,") they usually repented when they saw the suffering they'd caused. There was usually an ounce of worth in the hero, however.Īctors like Peter Fonda and Adam Roarke played gang leaders in the tradition of Brando. They used drugs and beat up each other, and cops hated them on sight. They rejected the establishment values (but took them seriously enough to attach importance to putting them down). In all the exploitation-type motorcycle movies, the central characters were outlaws from conventional society. Because the Hell's Angel, like the gangster, was a bad guy produced by the society he victimized and was tied to it by a love-hate relationship that created some really neat sex and violence scenes.Īnd someday it was inevitable that a great film would come along, utilizing the motorcycle genre, the same way the great Westerns suddenly made everyone realize they were a legitimate American art form, "Easy Rider" is the picture. When the Hollywood establishment was dismissing motorcycle movies as an unpleasant low-budget fad, the kids already knew that something was happening here. In fact, the same kids who did "Easy Rider" were on dates in the drive-ins a few years ago when "The Wild Angels" and " Hell's Angels on Wheels" and all the other motorcycle pictures came along. But these kids apparently sprang into existence full-blown, and did not grow up or go to any other movie before they found this one. (He also has made a great film, but more of that later.)Įverybody "knows" that "Easy Rider" is tremendously popular with high school and college-age kids. Hopper has applied this technique to the motorcycle movie. Fifty years ago, Hollywood figured out that if you put the good guys in white hats you could eliminate 10 minutes of explanation from every Western. He has told his story in cinematic shorthand, instead of spelling it out in dreary detail. But in fact, director Dennis Hopper has done an old and respectable thing.
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