Easy Rider

LIKE THE WIND
EASY NOW
DUDE WHERE’S MY RIDE?
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
CAPTAIN AMERICA
CAMEO
TORN
GREENER PEACE
IT’S A CHOPPER, BABY
SHE SAID, SHE SAID
INDIE FILM
NO EASY RIDE
ALL-AMERICAN
FIRE SIDE CHAT
GIANT
BLUE VELVET COLLAR HERO
PARTING SHOT
ALL-AMERICAN
FIRE SIDE CHAT
GIANT
BLUE VELVET COLLAR HERO
PARTING SHOT

LIKE THE WIND

A man went looking for America and couldn’t find it anywhere. So reads the film’s tagline and true to the end the film gives a breakdown of Americana not easily paralleled. Easy Rider was a tiny film that paved a big road. Made for next to no money, the movie was a box office and critical sensation, culminating into the ultimate counterculture icon film.

EASY NOW

The film stars three icons of their times - Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Hopper and Fonda wrote it, with Hopper opting to direct. Things didn’t bode so well, as these days, Fonda and Hopper are not so friendly towards one another. Just encase you were wondering, the three of them really were smoking pot during that famous scene.

DUDE WHERE’S MY RIDE?

George Hanson” What’s ‘dude’? Is that like ‘dude ranch’?” Captain America: “Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of
person.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The original title for the film was, “The Loners”.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Peter Fonda’s Captain America jacket was designed by him and sewn by “two little old ladies” in Los Angeles. The jacket was eventually sold at a charity auction.


CAMEO

Peter Fonda’s daughter, Bridgette Fonda has a brief appearance in a crowd scene and rock mogul, Phil Spector, portrays a cocaine dealer. Actor Dan Haggarty has a brief scene in the common scene and also helped build the custom motorcycles for the film.

TORN

Rip Torn was originally cast in the role of George Hanson, which was played by Jack Nicholson. I’m guessing that things weren’t so keen between Dennis Hopper and Rip Torn, as many years later, Rip Torn won a $475,000 defamation suit against Hopper, following a lawsuit brought against him after his remarks about Torn aired on the Tonight Show in May of 1994.

GREENER PEACE

Peter Fonda was once arrested at the Denver airport for defacing a sign that read, “Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales”.

IT’S A CHOPPER, BABY

Fonda’s bike in the film is seriously stretched and raked with very tall ‘apehanger’ style handlebars. He broke in the bike by riding it around for a week in LA, consequently being stopped several times by the LAPD. Hopper’s bike wasn’t as radically chopped in the film as he wasn’t as an experienced rider.

SHE SAID, SHE SAID

John Lennon and Peter Fonda once shared an acid trip where Fonda repeatedly remarked, "I know what it's like to be dead, man." It later inspired Lennon to pen the tune, “She Said, She Said”.

INDIE FILM

Most of the film was shot on 35mm, but some of it was 16mm. This 16mm footage was demo footage shot a year earlier but found its way in to the finished film.

NO EASY RIDE

Dennis Hopper garnered a bad rep during the filming. He was directing the film while in a state of drug-induced paranoia that wreaked havoc on everyone involved. It was such a problem that the crew secretly recorded his rants and sent them to the production execs, to illustrate why so many people had quit the show.

ALL-AMERICAN

Both Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper find their roots in America’s heartland. Fonda went to the University of Omaha and Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas. Hopper later grew up in Kansas City and took classes from legendary painter Thomas Hart Be “One day you’ll learn to get tight and paint loose.”

FIRE SIDE CHAT

The final campfire scene was not in the original shooting script and was shot after the initial principle photography. Unfortunately by this time, one of the three motorcycles caught fire and the other two were stolen.

GIANT

In the mid-50’s Dennis Hopper was a young man and had a couple minor roles with another up and coming actor, James Dean. Hopper played alongside Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”. Forming a bond with the star, Hopper considered Dean to be a mentor.

BLUE VELVET COLLAR HERO

"In the 50s, when me and Natalie Wood and James Dean and Nick Adams and Tony Perkins suddenly arrived... God, it was a whole group of us that sort of felt like that earlier group - the John Barrymores, Errol Flynns, Sinatras, Clifts - were a little farther out than we were... So we tried to emulate that lifestyle. For instance, once Natalie and I decided we'd have an orgy. And Natalie says 'O.K., but we have to have a champagne bath.' So we filled the bathtub full of champagne. Natalie takes off her clothes, sits down in the champagne, starts screaming. We take her to the emergency hospital. That was *our* orgy, you understand?" – Dennis Hopper

PARTING SHOT

"Like all artists I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation." – Dennis Hopper