August 17, 2019

"It was a market that had never been played to... Nobody had sung their song to them."

Said Peter Fonda in 2018, talking about "Easy Rider." He is quoted in his NYT obituary, "Peter Fonda, ‘Easy Rider’ Actor and Screenwriter, Is Dead at 79."

That movie was so important to us young Boomers, half a century ago.
In 1967, Roger Corman, then the king of the low-budget movies, directed “The Trip” from a script by an up-and-coming actor, Jack Nicholson. Alongside Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper and Susan Strasberg, Mr. Fonda starred as a mild-mannered television commercial director who uses LSD for the first time and makes the most of it. “Easy Rider,” which he also produced, came two years later.
There was also LSD in "Easy Rider."


What did Peter Fonda say about LSD in his later years?
“For me, it solved a great deal,” he said. “However, I didn’t take it and go out running through the city looking at lights. I was very circumspect and lay down on a couch.” Luckily, he added, “I don’t have an addictive character, and nothing except pot stayed with me.”
There's also The Beatles connection:
His mother committed suicide in 1950, when he was 10 and Jane was 13. Less than a year later, Mr. Fonda shot himself in the stomach with a pistol. Interviewed by The New York Times decades later, he insisted that it was an accident, not a suicide attempt or even a warning. “You shoot yourself in the hand or foot if you want attention,” he said, “not the way I did.”

Years later, he talked about the experience with John Lennon, who was reportedly inspired to write the line “I know what it’s like to be dead” in the Beatles’ song “She Said She Said.”
Here's how Wikipedia tells it:
Having first taken LSD (or "acid") in March [1965], John Lennon and George Harrison were determined that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr should join them on their next experience of the drug. Harrison later said that the heightened perception induced by LSD had been so powerful that he and Lennon had not been able to "relate" to McCartney and Starr since then, adding: "Not just on the one level – we couldn't relate to them on any level, because acid had changed us so much." At the party, the issue of taking LSD thereby became important to maintain band unity. While Starr agreed to try the drug, McCartney refused to partake.

Fonda wrote for Rolling Stone magazine:
I finally made my way past the kids and the guards. Paul and George were on the back patio, and the helicopters were patrolling overhead. They were sitting at a table under an umbrella in a rather comical attempt at privacy. Soon afterwards we dropped acid and began tripping for what would prove to be all night and most of the next day; all of us, including the original Byrds, eventually ended up inside a huge, empty and sunken tub in the bathroom, babbling our minds away.

I had the privilege of listening to the four of them sing, play around and scheme about what they would compose and achieve. They were so enthusiastic, so full of fun. John was the wittiest and most astute. I enjoyed just hearing him speak and there were no pretensions in his manner. He just sat around, laying out lines of poetry and thinking – an amazing mind. He talked a lot yet he still seemed so private.

It was a thoroughly tripped-out atmosphere because they kept finding girls hiding under tables and so forth: one snuck into the poolroom through a window...
Ridiculous to characterize girls sneaking into the stars' environs as "tripped-out." Nothing particularly LSD about louche sexuality and dominant males and teeny-tiny females.
.... while an acid-fired Ringo was shooting pool with the wrong end of the cue. "Wrong end?" he’d say. "So what fuckin' difference does it make?"
As the group passed time in the large sunken tub in the bathroom, Fonda brought up his nearly fatal self-inflicted childhood gunshot accident, writing later that he was trying to comfort Harrison, who was overcome by fear that he might be dying. Fonda said that he knew what it was like to be dead, since he had technically died in the operating theatre. Lennon urged him to drop the subject, saying "Who put all that shit in your head?" and "You're making me feel like I've never been born." Harrison recalls in The Beatles Anthology: "[Fonda] was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool." Lennon explained in a 1980 interview:
We didn't want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy – who I really didn't know; he hadn't made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, "I know what it's like to be dead," and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! ... It was scary. You know ... when you're flying high and [whispers] "I know what it's like to be dead, man."
If he'd already made "Easy Rider," maybe Lennon would have given the Hollywood ingenue some respect.
Lennon eventually asked Fonda to leave the party. After this, the gathering settled down as Lennon, Harrison, McGuinn and Crosby sat in the large bathtub discussing their shared interest in Indian classical music. Crosby demonstrated raga scales on an acoustic guitar and recommended that Harrison investigate the recordings of Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar.
Acoustic guitar in the bathtub... hairy men pontificating about another culture's music.... Oh! I wish there were film of that! I love the way things got so pretentiously serious after the 4 men had ridded themselves of the prettiest boy there.



That's Peter Fonda in 1965 (with his sister Jane, who's displaying less cultural appropriativeness than the 4 men in a tub who idolized Ravi Shankar).

ADDED: The annotations of "She Said She Said" at Genius.com give some interesting extras:

1. The line "I said, who put all those things in your head/Things that make me feel that I'm mad" was originally was "Who put all that crap in your hair/it makes me feel like my trousers are torn."

2. George Harrison reported, "He was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool." Bullet wounds are uncool. Foreshadowing of Lennon's death.

3. The line "She said, you don't understand what I've said" was originally "I will love you more when you’re dead."

IN THE COMMENTS: Fernandistein convinces me that the photo of Peter with Jane in 1965 is not Peter Fonda but Peter McEnery. This shows how I got it wrong:

104 comments:

Lucid-Ideas said...

The tweet he made towards Melania and Barron Trump cancels out everything he ever did.

Screw him. I count those as his last words in my mind. A violation of every principle in Easy Rider if there was one.

Typical Hollywood.

mccullough said...

Henry Fonda’s son.

rehajm said...

Hauled over from the open thread:

I remember him shooting the neighbors dog then throwing it in the neighbors yard. Then bragging about it.

On Monday I caught my largest brown trout ever, not far from his place. I’ll give him credit for once living not far from that...

He left the world a better place, in a manner of speaking....


I like that Ann mostly talks about the importance of the movie and not the man. Appropriate.

The Godfather said...

Someone said that the best thing about “Easy Rider” was that it had a happy ending.

Fernandinande said...

I watched Easy Rider semi-recently and cringed. Except for Nicholson.

Besides that now I hate Harleys in general because so many of the riders are muffler-free, aaaand when I see two guys riding Harleys I reflexively think "assholes".

Oso Negro said...

I find “She Said” one of the most listenable of the Beatles repertoire

dreams said...

I don't think that's Peter Fonda in the picture.

Ken B said...

Once it was open minded to be interested in the high art of other cultures. Now perhaps Althouse will sneer at Van Gogh for his interest in Japanese art. And don’t forget to sneer at Toru Takemitsu for his interest in Debussy.

Shouting Thomas said...

Very bad movie with thousands of even worse sequels.

I'm so fed up with 60s music replaying for the zillionth time in every cafe.

Fernandinande said...

Mr. Fonda shot himself in the stomach with a pistol...
Beatles’ song “She Said She Said.”


which was on the album....REVOLVER.

chuck said...

That movie was so important to us young Boomers, half a century ago.

Speak for yourself.

Ken B said...

Shouting Thomas
Maybe you prefer Ravi Shankar ...

Ken B said...

I wasn’t really a fan of Easy Rider, except for one scene, the one where they sit around popping pills and discussing the need to fact check Mad Magazine.

Darrell said...

Easy Rider meant nothing to me. Except a warning to stay away from drugs.

Eleanor said...

For most of the Boomers the 60s were more "Happy Days" than Easy Rider, and the 70s getting a job, getting married, and having kids. LSD? Hardly. More like a beer and a barbecue grill on a Saturday night.

wild chicken said...

Didn't like that movie either. I'd already had my hippie experience and the characters just seemed like the old and jaded horndogs who glommed onto us for Peace and Love, baby!

Though u think Born to be Wild is the best rock record ever. But it existed before Donny bit co opted it.

Fen said...

Fuck Peter Fonda.

Where is the piece of shit buried?

Asking for a friend.

Thuglawlibrarian said...

It is a vastly overrated movie that isn't good.

wild chicken said...

Didn't like that movie either. I'd already had my hippie experience and the characters just seemed like the old and jaded horndogs who glommed onto us for Peace and Love, baby!

Though I think Born to be Wild is the best rock record ever. Has all the elements, beat, funky rhythm guitar, cool Hammond organ, nihilistec lyrics. But it existed before sonny boy co-opted it.

wild chicken said...

What the hell

Kay said...

RIP. Loved The Trip, and She Said is probably my favoritest Beatles song.

Tom T. said...

Stories like these make LSD seem really uninteresting. Imagine the conversations they could have had if they were all lucid.

The stories have always been that Henry Fonda was an awful father. Peter started life at a certain disadvantage. At least he cleaned up enough to live a long time.

gilbar said...

didn't Peter Fonda have a sister, once?
I thought she'd made some soft porn (movies and tv)? What Ever happened to her? Not that i care

Fernandinande said...

I don't think that's Peter Fonda in the picture.

You're right: "Peter McEnery, with Jane Fonda." (same picture - and it looks like other pics of McEnery)

Bay Area Guy said...

Dropping acid with the Beatles? Far out, Man!

I always accociated Easy Rider with Kerouac's book, On the Road. I think the "idea" of both - get on the road, leave home, find new adventures is not so bad. Particularly, when your young and have no obligations.

But, of course, in practice, the Hippies took it too far, got stoned, wrecked relationships, embraced leftist politics, and often died young.

Had Peter Fonda done anything since Easy Rider?

RIP

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Easy Rider. Another "classic" movie that I have never watched.

Someday, maybe, I should get current with classic movies. Today is not that day.

wild chicken said...

Hippies were pretty young in those days. These guys looked too old.

It was just cohnterculture porn for the silent gen straights who regretted their early marriages and mortgages.

Remember that? Buying houses was a drag, man.

chuck said...

Someone jog my memory, who played Jack Nicholson in that movie?

chickelit said...

Had Peter Fonda done anything since Easy Rider?

I thought "Ulee's Gold" was pretty good.

chickelit said...

didn't Peter Fonda have a sister, once?
I thought she'd made some soft porn (movies and tv)? What Ever happened to her? Not that I care


You must be thinking of "On Golden Blonde."

Phil 314 said...

Interesting since Lennon died after being shot in the stomach.

etbass said...

The sixties were the beginning of serious decline in morality in this country. Don't see a thing in Easy Rider or the Fondas to applaud, whatsoever. Those who muse over the fond memories are seriously deluded, IMO.

Phil 314 said...

OK, looked it up. Bad memory. He was shot in the back not the stomach.

Doug said...

Ditto Chuck at 9:08

Big Mike said...

I always thought acid trippers were pretentious. Nothing in the description of Beetles in a bathtub changes my mind.

chickelit said...

Lucid-Ideas said...
The tweet he made towards Melania and Barron Trump cancels out everything he ever did.

People will try to say similar things about "Hanoi Jane" when she passes. Instead she will be lauded as an inspiration for American women.

Just a prediction.

Kevin said...

Had Peter Fonda done anything since Easy Rider?

He was great playing essentially himself but presumably slightly more murdery, in The Limey.

buwaya said...

"Easy Rider" did not travel well, I think.
Did not click with international audiences, even as a cult movie.

Bill Crawford said...

Was it Cheech & Chong or Firesign Theater who advertised "The Easy Rider Rifle Rack"?

AllenS said...

Far out, man.

I'm Full of Soup said...

This post makes me want to watch the movie Joe again.

AllenS said...

On the back bumper of my farm truck, I had a sticker --

Boycott Jane Fonda
American Traitor Bitch

I received a lot of honks and thumbs up from other motorists.

AllenS Vietnam vet

Guildofcannonballs said...

Fonda? Forget Fonda man, Hopper. Hopper Man!! HOPPER!!!!

Arashi said...

I remember seeing a Peter Fonda interview - maybe on Dick Cavet - where he expressed amazement at the popularity of the two characters in Easy Rider, since the movie is about two drug dealers selling out their dope and going to Florida to retire.

Later, he started doing the 'cultural' aspect interviews for the movie.

So basically two asshole drug dealers get killed on their way to Florida. Yep, real important movie for 'boomers'. Pre-Reagan admonishment to just say no?

The movie does not age well - just like Mr. Fonda.

Roger Sweeny said...

"I've got a great idea! Let's sell self-pity to teenagers."

Ice Nine said...

Allen S - at the Red Dog Saloon, a dinky Quonset hut O club at the Danang base, there was always a small photo of Hanoi Jane on the bullseye of the dart board. We joyfully shredded the thing and it had to be replaced daily. The hate for that bitch pervaded the place - and it was good.

grimson said...

That movie was so important to us young Boomers...

The year--1969. The youngest boomers--5. It's a myth that there is some kind of cultural cohesion to the boomers. There is a world of difference between coming of age in the sixties and the seventies.

William said...

I've resisted seeing Easy Rider again. I think it would be embarassing for all concerned. I don't know if you can even re-watch it. So much of the movie depended on the shock of the new and hearing that music before it had crusted over....As I remember, he had financed the movie himself and made a ton of money from it. He had a fortunate life. Born rich, got richer, blessed with good looks and excellent health. There's no great moral to be gleaned from the study of his life. Well, let it be remembered that he was nowhere near as annoying as his sister. I suppose that's something....The defining tragedy of his life seems to be not his mother's suicide but how his father handled the disclosure of that suicide. Both he and Jane seem to have had an inordinate distrust of the authority figures in their lives. There's no denying that the US Govt does wrong and lies about it afterwards, but that dynamic is not isolated to the military industrial complex. In fact, it seems to be a widespread phenomenon, especially among left wing governments.

rcocean said...

I remember seeing Fonda in "dirty mary, crazy Larry" in the mid-70s. i didn't know who he was, but it was my first drive-in movie so i remember it.

"Easy Rider" sucks except for some Nicholson, good music and good photography. And the motorcycles were nice. It was one of those milestone films that make and big impact because it was different or "spoke to" people at the time. Now, its a big nothing burger. Nostalgia for boomers.

As Fonda himself, just anti-American Hollywood trash. One fonda kid down, one to go.

dreams said...

Peter Fonda's daughter Bridget Fonda had a better career than her dad, IMO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Fonda

rcocean said...

IMO, unless you graduated from HS before 1971, you aren't a a true boomer. Born in 1954, you were too young for Vietnam or wood-stock, were nine when 9 JFK was shot. If wore long hair in the 70's you weren't a rebel, you were a conformist.

rcocean said...

I wonder if Fonda had lung cancer when he made those hateful tweets about Baron Trump and the 1st Lady. What a way to go. Of course McCain was a hate-filled petty asshhole to the very end.

AZ Bob said...

Someone said that the best thing about “Easy Rider” was that it had a happy ending.

It is a common theme from Hollywood: anti-South. The movie hasn't held up, if it ever did. If you stumble across it on the tv you get bored very quickly. The dialogue puts me to sleep. The music, however, has held up.

rcocean said...

BTW, the idea of the Beatles throwing Peter Fonda out for being a downer is hilarious. They would've been in their 20s and didn't want to hear about death.

Jeff Brokaw said...

My favorite thing about Easy Rider is that it inspired Albert Brooks “Lost in America”.

So many great scenes. The Nest Egg is one of my favorites: https://youtu.be/xdMilnKGJdA

rcocean said...

Ending a movie with your characters dying is an easy,lazy way to end a movie. But I'm sure lots of kids came out of Theater in 1969 hating those "damn rednecks".

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
Easy Rider. Another "classic" movie that I have never watched.

Someday, maybe, I should get current with classic movies. Today is not that day.

8/17/19, 9:46 AM

Don't waste your time. I tried watching it a few years ago and turned it off halfway though. It's dated and boring.

Andrew said...

The Beethoven shirt makes me respect Jane for who she was at that age. But she and her brother threw all that away with their ugly politics.

I remember hearing vaguely that Jane became a Christian and then expressed remorse for her wartime activities. But I've never found confirmation about it. Anyone know?

rcocean said...

The only way to make Peter Fonda interesting is to bring in trump, the Beatles, and a 50 year old movie. Or talk about his sister.

rcocean said...

Jane Fonda issued a fake apology when she was selling a book, then took it back latter on. She's anti-American Scum.

dustbunny said...

Dennis Hopper became quite conservative before he died. No one in Hollywood likes to talk about that.

Fernandinande said...

Had Peter Fonda done anything since Easy Rider?

Why yes, yes he has!

"Not so Easy - A Motorcycle Safety Film" (17:56)

"A public safety film narrated by Peter Fonda with special guest Evel Knievel who provide safety tips and guidance for motorcycle riders. Features performance riding by the Los Angeles Police Department."

Tomcc said...

I remember watching it (on TV?) when I was about 14. I enjoyed the insight into American counter-culture. I found the Nicholson and Hopper characters to be the most interesting. Overall, I saw it as a cautionary tale.

MadTownGuy said...

Bay Area Guy said...

"Had Peter Fonda done anything since Easy Rider?"

Bit part in Cannonball Run.

Jeff Brokaw said...

All the assumed and built-in cultural heft for Easy Rider looks undeserved to this guy.

Counter-culture sympathies viewed through the bong haze.

Same with Woodstock - the concert, the song, the movie, all of it. Severely lacking in quality.

Roughcoat said...

Easy Rider is so bad it's funny. One of the best bad movies ever made. Particularly the hippie commune sequence. That's really just hilariously bad. Luke Askew and Robert Walker Jr. should commit ritual hari-kari for the shame they brought upon the acting profession.

Favorite hilariously bad quote: "No, I mean it, you've got a nice place. It's not every man that can live off the land, you know. You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."

cf said...

Bill Crawford mentioned "Firesign Theater"! oh man, blast from the past, thanks, way more fun than Easy Rider.

"I'm high on the real things! A clean windshield, a tankful of powerful gasoline and a shoe shine."

one of my laugh-out-loud memories that always refreshed in those complex, memory-crowded times.

William said...

I actively avoid movies or shows with Jane Fonda in them. She's self righteous, strident, and wrong. That bleeds over even into her performances. It sets your teeth on edge. She complains about western decadence but is herself a prime example of the phenomenon...Peter Fonda seems to be a minor Hollywood figure. The animus directed against him here is mostly because of his sister. I have a vague memory of him appearing to be smug and fatuous in some interviews, but, by Hollywood standards, it was nothing spectacular. He got lucky with one movie. That was the sum total of his contribution to the zeitgeist. He's best remembered as a lucky mediocrity. Horseman, pass by.

Big Mike said...

Jane Fonda issued a fake apology when she was selling a book, then took it back latter on.

My recollection is that it was a typical, non-remorseful, non-apology “apology.” I hope she dies in screaming pain.

Big Mike said...

The animus directed against him here is mostly because of his sister.

Look up what Peter Fonda has to say about Barron Trump.

Phil 314 said...

“Has he done anything since ‘Easy Rider’?”

Fonda was nominated for an Academy Award for “Ulee’s Gold”.

Rabel said...

We were told that it was an important movie for us boomers. Some of us believed that and sought to emulate the antiheroes, some didn't and rejected the counterculture uber alles premise.

Megaera said...

AZ Bob: it was the cartoonist Al Capp, during one of his many appearances with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Undoubtedly a setup, he was asked his opinion of "Easy Rider" and disposed of the entire film -- justly -- with the dismissive "Well, at least it had a happy ending."

Daytime said...

We've been told repeatedly Hippie culture was supposed to be a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. According to my Mother, it was divided into two camps: those who took drugs and those who didn't. Growing up in the 70s & 80s, however, and being subjected to endless Charles Manson, Patty Hearst robbing banks scenes....it always looked to me like drugs and violence won out.

Jupiter said...

rcocean said...
"IMO, unless you graduated from HS before 1971, you aren't a a true boomer. Born in 1954, you were too young for Vietnam or wood-stock, were nine when 9 JFK was shot. If wore long hair in the 70's you weren't a rebel, you were a conformist."

And get off his lawn, too.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Sleazy Rider held as much for the peeps as did BILLY JACK. Entertainment gems to be analyzed forever! They reek of heavyosity.

Narr said...

La Fonda was hot back in the day.

I have seen ER only in bits and pieces, never straight (ha) through and though I was around a lot of trippers for a time I never felt the need to emulate them in that, or taste in movies. Mostly we got high and/or drunk and played music (or comedy) too loudly.

IIRC, Ian Anderson and co were one of the very few non-druggie bands of the era, but that may be legend. (And I like what I have heard of Indian raga, stoned or not.)

I see some allusions to Firesign--that happens every few months here, and makes me glad.
We were listening to them in 1970 and a few years later . . .

Narr
Antelope Freeway, one half mile . . .

Bilwick said...

He was excellent as Frank O'Connor in THE PASSION OF AYN RAND.

John henry said...

I remembered him from a couple of movies in the 60 & 70s and Easy Rider.

I knew about the bee movie but never saw it.

Like others here I was of the impression he had not done much in the past 40 years.

Check his imdb filmography. 117 movie credits between 1963 & 2020.

Nothing too spectacular but working steady to the end.

And fuck Jane fonda.

John Henry

Narr said...

I culturally appropriate in a culturally appropriate manner that is appropriate culturally.

Narr
Hey man, got any peyote?

John henry said...

David Horowitz and Peter Collier wrote a great series of family bios In the 80s. Ford, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Roosevelt.

I read and really liked them all.

Peter Collier, alone, wrote o e on the Fondas which I never did find. I thought now might be the time but, alas, it is not available on Kindle.

Amazon does have it on paper. Not interested enough to try to read it in paper

John Henry

Leora said...

I went to college in the South. I went with other students of the hippie persuasion to see Easy Rider at the local theater. We became quite nervous when the rest of audience cheered at the ending. I re-watched about a decade ago and had to fast forward through a lot of it. The New Orleans and the hippie commune sequences were embarrassing.

tim in vermont said...

People call me a boomer because I was born during the official period, but one way I know I am not is that that movie meant nothing to me and I could never watch more than a couple of minutes of it.

Daniel Jackson said...

Let me see if I have the story correct. Two biker dudes get rich by selling off a lot of white powder to the sounds of "God Damn the Pusher Man." They head off on their Biker Bikes criss-crossing the US causing destruction and chaos in their wake. Some hippies lay acid on them to get rid of them. A small town lawyer hitches up with dispatched by instant karma with The Pusher Men. They come to New Orleans, drop the acid in a grave yard and meet the Angel of Death on their way out of town.

Sounds like a morality play from the Middle Ages.

Yawn.

tim in vermont said...

I always get it mixed up with “Five Easy Pieces” which at least had the chicken sandwich scene.

Quaestor said...

That movie was so important to us young Boomers, half a century ago.

Best capsule explanation of its triviality I've ever read.

Roughcoat said...

"Billy Jack" was even more hilariously bad than "Easy Rider." It was cosmically hilariously bad, whereas "Easy Rider" was only glactically hilariously bad. When I think of those two movies, I know there is a God and I know that he has a divine sense of humor.

tim in vermont said...

Barbarella is the only decent movie a Fonda kid ever made, if you ask me.

Joe Bar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Bar said...

Let's try again.
I've disliked this guy for most of my life. He built his career on being the"Outlaw Biker". Easy Rider and that movie where he wants to "Get Loaded" really established the bullet culture. I've been riding and teaching for 50 years, and I constantly have to combat the stereotype.

Joe Bar said...

Racing, not teaching.

Fernandinande said...

Fernandistein convinces me that the photo of Peter with Jane in 1965 is not Peter Fonda but Peter McEnery.

"dreams" is the highly paid facial recognition AI analyst, I'm the guy with too much free time.

But what a cool name -

I'm McEnery the Eigth I am,
McEnry the eighth I am, I am

narciso said...

I made the futureworld reference, that was the westworld sequel, with Gwyneth Paltrow's mom, blythe danner, she has nearly the same expression, it concerns the replacing of world leaders with cyborgs,

Narr said...

What, they're not cyborgs now? (Speaking of--Rutger Hauer died! Not a word here, and you people call yourselves connouisser conneuseur connsensurs experts on bad movies!)

But really, Soldier of Orange was a fine movie, and Blade Runner was good.

Narr
Not really a Dick fan

narciso said...

I wondered who would pick that up, well no self respective cyborg would be Trudeau for instance,

eddie willers said...

one snuck into the poolroom through a window...

So now we know where "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" originated.

That was some party.

Narr said...

Trying to keep a thread going on Saturday night is like swimming uphill.

Since the great Ludwig van has been invoked, he was considered a raving liberal by most of society--and he probably was.

Fidelio, Egmont, and The Ruins of Athens, for threestance-- national or personal liberation struggles that were PC in acceptable ways, but in his legend also helping create the modern image of the heroic creative artist and iconoclast--IOW fight-the-power Romanticism, even down to 1960s counterculturedom.

Narr
Dit dit dit dah, what a dogwhistle!

bonkti said...

All he wanted was to be free.
And that's the way it turned out to be.

Hauer's dying words at the end of Blade Runner in the theatrical release of Blade Runner, however distressing to the purists, we're beautifully rendered.

Bay Area Guy said...

Well, it wasn't quite Easy Rider, but as a teenager, I had a '71 Dodge Charger (thought motorcycles were fun, but too dangerous) and used to drive back and forth from San Francisco to LA on Highway 101, listening to "Born to Be Wild" on the tape deck, with the windows down, and the wind blowing my hair.

Half the time, I had a friend join me, and once in while a girl, too.

Get your motor runnin'!

narciso said...

Well he was eldon tyrells frankenstein, or golem if yoh like he was designed to kill in the most brutal way possible. But he could never return to those who he served.

Tina Trent said...

Easy Rider was just another pity party imagining victim status for hippies in the hope of transforming them into another oppressed minority, the gold ring even that early, especially if one could retreat to the Hollywood mansion after manufacturing another day's reel of grotesque stereotypes of the hated bourgeoisie.

Distasteful blackface for chillun' of the elite. Meanwhile that hag Jane Fonda played kissy with the murderous North Vietnamese and their concentrarion camps. She should have been hung for treason.

While we're on the subject, Jack Kerouac couldn't write his way out of a paper bag, and Timothy Leary drugged and rape children.

Trashcan O Man said...

He's in his cage with the pedos now. R.I.P.

BJM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JamesB.BKK said...

It's a pretty good movie for defining the kind of thinking that led to giving the whole country away.