I now feel as though I have an idea of what it means to get “lost in the Sixties”. While I did not know I was supposed to be getting lost, I ended up on quite a trip thanks to the likes of Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson, spit out on the other side not knowing which way was up or why I felt hungover without drinking a drop. Easy Rider finds its spot on the AFI Top 100 at number eighty-four, and that is about the temperature it left me at: lukewarm.

Easy Rider has always been on my radar thanks to the song “The Weight” by The Band and a call out in Starsky & Hutch (2004). Going into watching Easy Rider after some very light synopsis reading, I knew it was a social commentary vehicle, and there was plenty of social commentary but little purpose. This is a classic road trip feature as two friends intend to go from one point to the next, and along the way they meet eclectic characters who help broaden the adventure. These distractions along the way highlight, as I interpreted, the free and alternative lifestyles, social inequity, and dangerous bigotry of the Sixties. Drugs also play an important role. While cocaine and LSD make appearances, marijuana is the real star, characterized as a gateway drug used by the dregs of society. The moments of blatant societal mirroring are impactful, from a hippie commune to an intolerant diner in Louisiana to a drug-fueled bender in a New Orleans cemetery with two hookers, but they are individual moments that accelerate too much at the end. As a viewer today, what you want the movie to be does not arrive until the final thirty minutes. Easy Rider ends with a climax, leaving you wanting the next scene without truly understanding what you watched for the previous ninety-plus minutes. I believe Easy Rider made the AFI Top 100 because of what it portrays, but that does not feel adequate.

So what does Easy Rider get right? For a film from 1969, plenty. The soundtrack is from the era and fitting. As I said earlier, I primarily knew about Easy Rider because of a song. Each long sequence of motorcycle on highway voyeurism is accompanied by Jimmie Hendrix or Bob Dylan. Beautiful countryside flows by as Peter and Dennis maneuver their choppers along open roads to the sounds of “Born to Be Wild”, and you realize music from that period conjures imagery and feeling unlike contemporary noise. My entrance into the world came well after the ‘60s entered history textbooks, but the decade’s music can still paint a beautiful and vivid mural in my mind.

Beyond auditory imagery, Easy Rider provides views into sprawling vistas of American back-country. The world was simply not as connected as it is today. There were still mysteries and sights to discover. If you wanted to truly see and experience something, you had to go there. Open roads are meant to convey freedom for those with an adventurous enough soul to venture forth. It is a shame 4K and HDR image technology did not exist in 1969 to take advantage of the gorgeous wilderness presented on film. The beauty of the landscapes was natural, however, and that will be true regardless of technology. (As a fun side note, Peter’s and Dennis’ motorcycles always appear to be moving so slowly. I have never seen a movie portray motorcycle sequences with such a lack of speed. Perhaps speed limits were truly limiting back then…)

Bringing the imagery and audio interludes together were the actors. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper received the top billing, but Jack Nicholson is a star around which all others orbit. While his role is relatively brief, Nicholson oozes charisma and a consistent, coherent energy that I could latch onto as a viewer to help make sense of everything else going on in the film. I did not want to stop watching Jack on the screen. He is simply a legend even in those early years of his career. Other notable roles that do not necessarily enhance the movie but are interesting tidbits include brief appearances by Phil Spector (yes, that Phil Spector) and Tony Basil of “Mickey” fame.

There is plenty to like about Easy Rider beyond an overall lack of purpose. It is obviously trying to convey a message that will resonate with some and miss with others. I did not live through that decade, so I cannot accurately speak to the message’s intent outside of the clear social commentary around drugs and bigotry. The film does, however, provide a window back in time. The world, the country, was different back then – in some aspects simpler, in others more complicated, and in some no different from the present. Perhaps the fact I dedicated so many words in 2020 to a movie released in 1969 is testament enough to the film’s intended impact. Maybe there does not need to be an arcing plot when simply cutting out and documenting a moment in time tells more of a story.