Easy Rider (1969)

85% of critics liked it
(40 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(54,959 ratings)

Tossing wristwatches away, two bikers hit the road to find America in Dennis Hopper's anti-establishment classic. After a major cocaine sale to an L.A. connection (Phil Spector), free-wheeling potheads Billy (Hopper) and Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda, who also produced), motor eastward to… More Tossing wristwatches away, two bikers hit the road to find America in Dennis Hopper's anti-establishment classic. After a major cocaine sale to an L.A. connection (Phil Spector), free-wheeling potheads Billy (Hopper) and Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda, who also produced), motor eastward to party at Mardi Gras before "retiring" to Florida with the riches concealed in Wyatt's stars-and-stripes gas tank. As they ride through the Southwest, they take a hitchhiker (Luke Askew) to a struggling hippie commune before they get thrown in a small-town jail for "parading without a permit." Their cellmate, drunken ACLU lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson, replacing Rip Torn), does them a "groovy" favor by getting them out of jail and then decides to join them. Babbling about Venusians, George discovers the joys of smoking grass, but an encounter with Southern rednecks soon proves how right he is about the danger posed by Billy's and Wyatt's unfettered life in a country that has lost its ideals. With the straight world closing in, Wyatt and Billy try to revel in New Orleans with some LSD and hookers (Karen Black and Toni Basil), but the acid trip is shot through with morbidity. Once they reach Florida, Billy raves about attaining the American dream; Wyatt, however, knows the truth: "We blew it." Produced and directed by two Hollywood iconoclasts with under a half-million non-studio dollars, Easy Rider shook up the languishing movie industry when it grossed over 19 million dollars in 1969; it captured the spirit of the times as it woke Hollywood up to the power of young audiences and socially relevant movies, along with such other landmarks of the late '60s as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, and 2001. Shot on location by Laszlo Kovacs, Easy Rider eschewed old-fashioned Hollywood polish for documentary-style immediacy, and it enhanced its casual feel with improvised dialogue and realistically "stoned" acting. With a soundtrack of contemporary rock songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and Steppenwolf to complete the atmosphere, Easy Rider was hailed for capturing the increasingly violent Vietnam-era split between the counterculture and the repressive Establishment. Experiencing the "shock of recognition," youth audiences embraced Easy Rider's vision of both the attractions and the limits of dropping out, proving that audience's box-office power and turning Nicholson into a movie star. The momentarily hip Academy nominated Nicholson for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern for their screenplay. Though none of its imitators would match its impact, Easy Rider remains one of the seminal works of late '60s Hollywood both for its trailblazing legacy and its sharply perceptive portrait of its chaotic times. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 35 min.
Directed By: Dennis Hopper
Written By: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1969 Wide
On DVD: Dec 7, 1999
Studio: Columbia Pictures

Critic Reviews

Gene Moskowitz, Variety
None of the forced violence, lawlessness, rapist, gratuitous speed aspects of the motorbike clan in this perceptive film.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
The film may be a relic now, but it is a fascinating souvenir -- particularly in its narcissism and fatalism -- of how the hippie movement thought of itself.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Hopper, Fonda and their friends went out into America looking for a movie and found instead a small, pious statement (upper case) about our society (upper case), which is sick (upper case). It's pretty but lower case cinema.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It plays today more as a period piece than as living cinema, but it captures so surely the tone and look of that moment in time.
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
unlike earlier films that exploited the sensational nature of their subject matter and did little else, Easy Rider borrowed its attitude and aesthetics from the various European new waves and sought to be about something.
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
... a countercultural shot across the bow of an out-of-touch Hollywood system.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
like all great films, with a finger firm on the pulse of the entire spirit of the age, it predicted in terms brutal and eloquent the end of the whole fucking thing.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Despite it all, it's a valuable document of hepcat actors taking snapshots of America circa 1969
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
The 40th anniversary DVD of the 1969 seminal road movie contains several specials, including illuminating commentary from star-director Dennis Hopper.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
No film evokes the Sixties more than Easy Rider, and no film from that period . . . has been glamorized as much.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
More than anything else, the thing that gives Easy Rider its legendary status is that it's an indie film that became the spokesperson for a decade when Hollywood was preoccupied with other concerns.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
The film stands up as a profound period piece that continues to reverberate with the despondent hostilities of modern American existence.
Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
A film important to and influential in the flower-power late '60s, Easy Rider now seems like a narcissistic hodgepodge of travelogue and passion play.
Sean Axmaker, Seanax.com
The little road movie of hippie bikers was an odyssey for the era of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll...
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The ultimate "road trip" movie.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Slack but powerful, sentimental yet scathing, experimental but predictable.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Dennis Hopper's seminal road film proved that critical movies of mainstream society could achieve both artistic cache and commercial success.
, Time Out
[A] simplistic amalgam of travelogue and the zoom lens.
Luke Y. Thompson, LYTRules.com
I don't think I'll watch EASY RIDER again, but it's a well-made piece for sure.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jeff "

Easy Rider is the seminal road film and is a legendary film in the cinematic medium. Directed by the late Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider tells the story of two bikers who head down to Mardi Gras. Along the way they meet many colorful people. Easy Rider is an important milestone in cinema… More
Easy Rider is the seminal road film and is a legendary film in the cinematic medium. Directed by the late Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider tells the story of two bikers who head down to Mardi Gras. Along the way they meet many colorful people. Easy Rider is an important milestone in cinema because it changed the way cinema was made as it showed a more realistic way in telling a story because of the fact that Easy Rider had a more realistic, documentary feel to its story. Easy Rider is a period piece that captures the feel of the 60's perfectly. The film shows the chaos of late 60's of the Vietnam War, its toll on the country and really the end of an era of so called peace and love. Easy Rider is a raw, gritty portrait that showcases all that with incredible realism. This is a brilliant film that gives us a taste of the 60's. The film is an important milestone in cinema, and is in my opinion, the most important road film ever made. The performances here are great. Hopper, Fonda and Nicholson deliver performances that are memorable. This is a raw picture that if you're looking for the realism, the feel of the 60's, then look no further than Easy Rider. This is a film that can't be dismissed. Easy Rider is a film that forever shaped and changed cinema and remains one of the most important Cult films ever made.
Graham J

Capturing a moment in time perfectly, this film is a time capsule to 1969. Though it now seems very dated to me, it does feature a truly great performance from Jack Nicholson.
Derek D

Trippy late-60's account of two biker friends who take the money from a cocaine deal and travel to New Orleans to partake in Mardi Gras. Along the way they pick up a drifting hippy and a well-connected alcoholic (played by Jack Nicholson) and meet several classes of southerners… More
Trippy late-60's account of two biker friends who take the money from a cocaine deal and travel to New Orleans to partake in Mardi Gras. Along the way they pick up a drifting hippy and a well-connected alcoholic (played by Jack Nicholson) and meet several classes of southerners who don't like their long hair. The excessive drug use in this almost got me baked halfway through the film, but then again it was the 60's and Dennis Hopper so you had to expect it from the times. Excellent visualizations with a deeper meaning about finding freedom.
Reid V

Easy Rider is a cool movie. By cool I don't mean good. I mean that it features cool music, cool bikes, and a couple of dudes having a good time. While I can appreciate the film as piece of counter-culture cinema that spoke to a growing population of dissenters of the cold war… More
Easy Rider is a cool movie. By cool I don't mean good. I mean that it features cool music, cool bikes, and a couple of dudes having a good time. While I can appreciate the film as piece of counter-culture cinema that spoke to a growing population of dissenters of the cold war consensus, it isn't a film that stands on its own. Hopper isn't a particularly good director and unless I didn't "get" his performance, his character was rather obnoxious and bland. Even Nicholson, who is at his hammiest in this role, blows Hopper out of the water whenever they share the screen. Yet, don't get me wrong, there are some good parts to the film. Scenes such as the one in the diner which showcases the oppression that those of the counter-culture faced, actually present some rather great moments. Yet, they sadly cannot sustain an entire film in which the whole idea seems to be "Hey look at us, we are the counter-culture!" In the end, I guess I just wanted to care about the characters and aside from their brief fireside conversations, the viewer gets very little in the way of what drives these men. I know this is an iconic piece of film. In fact, I can still hear the collective erection from adolescent males from the combination of motorcycles and Steppenwolf. Yet, the movie as a whole, doesn't really hold up as a stand alone piece of cinema.
Lucas M

Easy Rider, one of the best films of 69, the birth of a new generation, that showing two bikers with the wish to escape of a conservative society, and find a America of freedon, which don't exist. The confrontation between Billy with Captain America against prejudice. A… More
Easy Rider, one of the best films of 69, the birth of a new generation, that showing two bikers with the wish to escape of a conservative society, and find a America of freedon, which don't exist. The confrontation between Billy with Captain America against prejudice. A surrealist portrait from a ride. But the film presents another vision, a evil side from the protagonist Billy. Screenplay, written by Fonda, Hopper and Southern, direction by Hopper and great performing made by Nicholson, Peter and Dennis, with the soundtrack, are terrific. Easy Rider, for some people probably will go looks like a propaganda hippie film, that in some way it's. Fresh.
Jennifer X

The cinematic cadenza was royally explosive.
First L

Is it a biker flick, a road picture, a cowboy movie, or a symbollic look at the battle between 60s counterculture and mainstream America (more specifically, southern America)? The film that was a cultural touchstone for the flower power generation manages to be all these things while… More
Is it a biker flick, a road picture, a cowboy movie, or a symbollic look at the battle between 60s counterculture and mainstream America (more specifically, southern America)? The film that was a cultural touchstone for the flower power generation manages to be all these things while also being a simple, quality indie-style film. And simple it is: the plot involves two hippy bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) taking a trip from California to New Orleans for mardi gras and meeting the entire cross-section of the American population. Some greet them with open arms (the lost souls of a hippy commune) and some, like the southern cops, not so much. Maybe at times it does club you over the head with symbolism (a character called Captain America has an american flag on his leather jacket and rides a bike painted in the flag colors and has an american flag helmet- alright, we get it, hippies can be patriotic too... conservatives don't have exclusive rights to patriotism), but much like the rock music of the era, you can't help but appreciate the earnestness. Jack Nicolson has a scene-stealing supporting role as a drunken southern lawyer who decides to turn on, tune in and drop out with the two bikers. I read somewhere the actors were smoking real weed when sitting around the campfire, and Jack delivers some great UFO-inspired dialogue in that scene. Like most westerns, there's a saloon scene (well, actually it's a restaurant) where the heroes are bullied by the local ruffians, and a great scene towards the end where Hopper's character raises a literal middle finger towards death. At the advent of the seventies, it's a bittersweet ending to the flower-power generation's tale, as the rebels without causes get slowly lost to the winds.
Michael G

While its a great and important movie, Easy Rider didn't hold up on a second (or was it my third...?) viewing for me. Sure, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper did well in their roles and it probably paints an appropriately perfect and frightening portrayal of America in the late 60s.… More
While its a great and important movie, Easy Rider didn't hold up on a second (or was it my third...?) viewing for me. Sure, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper did well in their roles and it probably paints an appropriately perfect and frightening portrayal of America in the late 60s. However there are points in Easy Rider where it merely comes off as a collection of beautifully photographed series of landscape music videos for the movie's brilliant soundtrack. Easy Rider gets more uncomfortable and subsequently more frightening as its short but sweet running time goes on with a climax that makes me think twice about saying I was born too late. Jack Nicholson is great and his campfire scenes with Fonda and Hopper are brilliant. Terry Southern's dialogue is magnificent and the Mardi Gras acid trip was cool, all while knowing when to let the viewer off the hook. A great movie but by no means a masterpiece.
Tim S

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… More
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.
AJ V

Although this film is normally considered a classic biker movie and the best of the genre, I didn't think it was all that fantastic. I liked it, but I've seen better biker movies. The cast is good, but I kind of wanted to see Nicholson's character in more of the… More
Although this film is normally considered a classic biker movie and the best of the genre, I didn't think it was all that fantastic. I liked it, but I've seen better biker movies. The cast is good, but I kind of wanted to see Nicholson's character in more of the movie. There are some really psychedelic scenes interspersed in this movie with the more normal biker type scenes, which felt weird. The story is interesting, but like the bikers it kind of wanders around, which is cool but kind of annoying at the same time. Overall, it's good, but it's not the best biker movie around.
Jim H

I like the bookends of this film. it begins with Captain America feeding a money-filled tube into the gas tank of his chopper, which is painted to look like the American flag. The metaphor is obvious after a bit of thought: fucking the flag with money, a clever, hippie criticism of… More
I like the bookends of this film. it begins with Captain America feeding a money-filled tube into the gas tank of his chopper, which is painted to look like the American flag. The metaphor is obvious after a bit of thought: fucking the flag with money, a clever, hippie criticism of what they saw as the American descent. And starting with Nicholson's "they hate you for your freedom" monologue, the film begins to assume a direction that was lacking during the first hour. In contrast to Beach Blanket Bingo, which came out four years earlier and attempted to reach the youth of the sixties, it is easy to see how this film became the anthem of a generation. But over thirty years later, its themes and plot prove not to be transcendent. I think of Casablanca and Annie Hall, which have stood the test of time and play well today, and Easy Rider doesn't rise to that status. I think this is because it's rooted in anger, in a binary view of hippie culture versus mainstream culture, and for these filmmakers, the mainstream culture is pure, unadulterated, anti-egalitarian evil, in contrast to the embodiment of freedom that is hippies' ability to smoke grass, drop acid, fuck, and just drive, man. Even within the context of filmmaking and story construction, Easy Rider, divorced from the themes of its plot, leaves something to be desired. Much of the middle hour is composed of riding montages, which quickly become sixties music videos and do little to advance the plot. I understand that part of the point is that freedom means freedom from the traditional narrative structure, but I found myself wishing I could fast forward but afraid I'd miss the reason for this film's canonical status. I didn't fast forward; I did watch all of it, and I was disappointed.
Kalel J

Aimless yet poignant, Dennis Hopper's directorial debut is a distressingly realised vision of escapism and freedom always holding its costs; a freedom that can never be bought. The film is a myriad of cruising scenery with an eye for its decade's level of easing against… More
Aimless yet poignant, Dennis Hopper's directorial debut is a distressingly realised vision of escapism and freedom always holding its costs; a freedom that can never be bought. The film is a myriad of cruising scenery with an eye for its decade's level of easing against society's foundations. It's themes are as striking as they are surprising in its context, and its characters as unbalanced to reality as their sense of direction. The film is an example of tone and theme coming to front with a clarity that is rarer in films that try harder. Easy Rider truly is a film that delivers without needing to exert itself.
Stella D

a film that changed the course of hollywood, making way for small independent features and experimentation even at the major studios! r.i.p. billy
Conner R

Definitely one of the best counter-culture movies of all time, right up there with Cool Hand Luke. It's really experimental, but I think it captured the essence of America. You saw the beauty along with the ugly. The hostility brought upon two harmless men with long hair is… More
Definitely one of the best counter-culture movies of all time, right up there with Cool Hand Luke. It's really experimental, but I think it captured the essence of America. You saw the beauty along with the ugly. The hostility brought upon two harmless men with long hair is frighteningly surreal. It just goes to show you how naive and one sided people can be. While the ending is extremely tragic, it just gives more power to the message. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda played their parts perfectly and you got to see a crazy supporting role from Jack Nicholson. The transitions are my favorite touch, it just shows the genius of Dennis Hopper as a director. I would really like to see his original three hour cut because you do feel a sense of speed in the film that I don't think was intended.
Dean !

The ultimate road trip film that is regarded a cult classic. For what it is about and at the time it was made I can imagine it made a big impact back then. A time when many things were changing in America. As a film though there are long quiet parts and a lot of random scenes that… More
The ultimate road trip film that is regarded a cult classic. For what it is about and at the time it was made I can imagine it made a big impact back then. A time when many things were changing in America. As a film though there are long quiet parts and a lot of random scenes that don't make a lot of sense. Great soundtrack though!
Eric S

Brilliant film directed by the great Dennis Hopper about two young bikers experiencing "the ultimate freedom" as they are crossing the country for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Jack Nicholson's character portrayal of the alcoholic lawyer George Hanson is somewhat brief… More
Brilliant film directed by the great Dennis Hopper about two young bikers experiencing "the ultimate freedom" as they are crossing the country for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Jack Nicholson's character portrayal of the alcoholic lawyer George Hanson is somewhat brief yet quite memorable. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper turn in first rate performances as well that stick with you well after the film is over. Fonda's line, "We blew it" really makes a statement which is difficult to put a finger on, but effective in the sense that it's done in a powerful, simple way near the end of the film. When the film comes to it's end, it gets you thinking about what that line really means, and what occurs throughout Wyatt's and Billy's journey that makes or brakes the "American dream" for these two characters in that particular time at the height of the "hippie" culture in 1968 America.
Anthony L

The daddy of all independent films. I think I have more admiration for this film than any other although I found the story a little hard to swallow. Did people get killed for growing their hair long back in the late sixties? I know that's not the point of the film, I find the… More
The daddy of all independent films. I think I have more admiration for this film than any other although I found the story a little hard to swallow. Did people get killed for growing their hair long back in the late sixties? I know that's not the point of the film, I find the general wisdom and philosophy of the film to be an honest portrayal of social change in the late 60's, I just think one killing is fine but twice is silly. Other than that the film is perfect and a real inspiration to film makers/lovers.
Jon L

I’m obviously not as impressed with this film as most other people. I just saw it and I think I need to let it settle, as it is quite a wild trip. I think it’s a good movie to watch overall, although I can guarantee it’s not for everyone. It’s different than anything I’ve… More
I’m obviously not as impressed with this film as most other people. I just saw it and I think I need to let it settle, as it is quite a wild trip. I think it’s a good movie to watch overall, although I can guarantee it’s not for everyone. It’s different than anything I’ve seen and as it takes you progressively through the lives of these different types of people and ‘tribes’, you get a really interesting perspective on the way we live. I think it could have been done at a smoother pace, but the rawness of this film adds to its gritty plotline.
Randy T

An American anthem.
Martin S

Overrated movie. I was exaclly as I expected it to be. The ending was good though