Easy Rider (1969) or, The 1960s Ride Again!

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An iconic poster for Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider in a ghastly yellow

Two friends complete a drug deal and start a road trip on motorcycles, which leads them to a hippie collective, a New Orleans jail, a bad trip in a cemetery and more.

Easy Rider, written by Terry Southern (Barbarella (1968)), Peter Fonda (Enemy (1990)) and co-writer-director Dennis Hopper (Chasers (1994)), is one of the most iconic and sensation-stirring American films of the 20th century and the single most responsible film for marshaling in the New Hollywood period of young filmmakers with license to experiment that enriched the cinematic output of the country in the 1970s. - But does that naturally entail that it is a masterpiece or even a great film? I think not.
When Jack Nicholson (The Last Tycoon (1976)) enters Easy Rider, it attains a power and a natural center that it lacks before his arrival. SPOILER But then he dies, and later the two leads (Fonda and Hopper) go the same way.
The good things in Easy Rider, principally, are the scenes of driving and nature, which contains fantastic beauty, along with a few other scenes such as the cemetery trip scene. The music in the film and portrait of its time is also a huge part of its lingering attraction. However, I don't feel any romantic connection to the late-60s era or the hippies the film idolize, and perhaps as a consequence, ultimately, Easy Rider continues to strike me as a somewhat boring and overrated film with a very thin plot.

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Watch the intro from the film here

Cost: Listed as 360k $ - but additional music license cost of 1 mil. $ rises the overall cost to 1.36 mil. $
Box office: 60 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Easy Rider premiered 12 May (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. Fonda and Hopper developed the film as a deeper reflection upon their times and the youth revolt and personal experiences on films such as The Wild Angels (1966) and The Trip (1967). Nicholson's part was initially to have gone to Rip Torn, who became antagonized by Hopper's distaste for Texans and 'rednecks', being a Texan himself. In the 1990s, he successfully sued Hopper for defamation, after he had claimed on Jay Leno's late night talk show that Torn had pulled a knife on him as part of their disagreement. The record of Hopper's wild and self-aggrandizing behavior during the making of Easy Rider is long and elaborate. Shooting took place from March - May 1968 in Louisiana, New Mexico, California and Arizona. The cast and crew reportedly held their wrap party and then found out that they still needed to shoot the final scene. Hopper initially proposed a 220 minute cut of the film, which is not in existence today, just as other lengthy cuts of the film are deemed lost. The film became the 3rd highest-grossing film of 69, making 41.7 mil. $ (69.5 % of the total gross) in North America. It got nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson), lost to Gig Young in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Best Original Screenplay, lost to William Goldman for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA; it won a Best First Work award in Cannes and more. Easy Rider is certified fresh at 89 % with an 8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Easy Rider?

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb/Dr. Strangelove (1964) or, The Wrong Men, the Wrong Suits, the Wrong Invention

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The simultaneously humorous and anxiety-provoking poster for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

QUICK REVIEW:

A crazy US general sends the code to his country's eternally flying B52s to launch a nuclear attack against the USSR.SPOILER Bad communication, courtesy, stupidity and hostility figure prominently in the following, sudden finality of the human race.

Peter Sellers (The Pink Panther (1963)) is outstanding in three roles (!) as vice general, president and ex-Nazi doctor Merkwürdigliebe [Strangelove]. But Sterling Hayden's (The Asphalt Jungle (1950)) bodily fluid-obsessed general is just as absorbing.
The whole scenario is in terms of style and atmosphere realistic, so that the ramifications of the rapidly impending doom onscreen are utterly striking and provoke equally strong inclinations to laugh and cry at the depicted folly of man. Strangelove really confronts each of its audiences with the unpredictable, dangerous idiocy that might rest at the core of the person sitting next to you, and is brilliant at that.
Master New Yorker filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (The Shining (1980)) wrote the script with Terry Southern (Barbarella (1968)) and Peter George (Hong Kong Kill (1958)), loosely based on the latter's novel Red Alert (1958). It is a unique masterpiece that is also strange in the way that I personally feel I can't bear to watch it again for some reason, even though I greatly admire it.

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Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Sterling Hayden in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

George C. Scott in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

In lieu of a trailer for the film, watch instead here one of the legendary war room scenes from it, prominently featuring George C. Scott and Sellers

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 9.4 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[Sellers playing multiple roles was initially on insistence of studio Columbia Pictures, because they thought his playing a character with multiple identities had made Kubrick's last film, Lolita (1962) a hit. The titular character was mostly inspired by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was recruited by the US after World War II. The film was scheduled to be released on Nov. 22 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The release was therefore changed to January 1964, and a few minor things in the film were altered. The film was a hit, making 4.4 mil. $ in North America on its initial run, and garnered 4 Oscar-nominations: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Actor (Sellers). Strangelove has been re-issued at several different times in different countries since its release. Even without a world gross made public, we can certainly label it a huge hit. Kubrick wanted Terry Gilliam to direct a sequel to the film, scripted by Southern, in 1995, but the plans never materialized, and Gilliam only learned of it after Kubrick's (and Southern's) death. It is also on Roger Ebert's list of great films, and was voted the 5th best film ever by Sight & Sound's poll in 2002. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is #49 on IMDb's Top 250 and it is certified fresh at 99 % with a 9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?
Are there any masterpieces that you admire but for some reason can't bear to watch again?