Easy Rider
Easy Rider
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Easy Rider

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the South, carrying money made from a cocaine deal. Other actors in the film include Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Toni Basil. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking during the early 1970s.

A landmark counterculture film, and a "touchstone for a generation" which "captured the national imagination" and "mood of the drug culture" at the time. Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions towards adolescents in the United States during the 1960s including the rise of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. Real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.

An independent production, the film was released by Columbia Pictures on July 14, 1969, and earned $60 million worldwide compared to a modest filming budget of $400,000. Critics have praised the performances, directing, writing, soundtrack, and visuals. It received two Academy Awards nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson). In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Wyatt and Billy are freewheeling motorcyclists. After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, they sell their haul receiving a large sum of money. With the cash stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes–painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper (motorcycle), they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans in time for the Mardi Gras festival.

During their trip, Wyatt and Billy stop to repair a flat tire on Wyatt's bike at a farmstead in Arizona and have a meal with the farmer and his family. Later, Wyatt picks up a hippie hitch-hiker, and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two of the women, Lisa and Sarah, seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people, at the right time".

Later while riding along with a parade in New Mexico, the pair are arrested for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There they befriend lawyer George Hanson, who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. After mentioning having done work for the ACLU along with other conversation, George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try it due to his fear of becoming "hooked" and it leading to worse drugs, but quickly relents.

Stopping to eat at a small-town Louisiana diner, the trio attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they are exciting, but the local men and a police officer make denigrating comments and taunts. Wyatt, Billy, and George decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. In the middle of the night, a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife, and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George has been bludgeoned to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his family.

They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about earlier. Taking prostitutes Karen and Mary with them, Wyatt and Billy wander the parade-filled streets of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a French Quarter cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt. Later at their campsite, while Billy enthusiastically recounts their travels, Wyatt melancholically muses that they "blew it" in their quest.

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