It's a well-known fact that EASY RIDER is a touchstone film of late 1960s Hollywood, one in which the youth market overtook the old Hollywood studio system and, even if they didn't destroy it, they changed it in such a way that it could never go back again.
There is only a small need to revisit the plot: these two guys on Harleys, producer/co-writer Peter Fonda and co-writer and director Dennis Hopper, take a ride across the country to find the heart and soul of America, all the while fueling their journey with plenty of grass and powder, but what they find is disillusionment and a whole hell of a lot of distrust...especially once they get into that part of America known as the Bible Belt, where people who look like them are looked upon with disdain. All of this is fueled by a radical 1960a soundtrack that includes FM rock standards by Steppenwolf ("Born To Be Wild"; "The Pusher"); Fraternity Of Man ("Don't Bogart That Joint"), Jimi Hendrix ("If 6 Was 9"), and the Byrds ("Wasn't Born To Follow"), among others.
But while all this is evident, it should be noted that EASY RIDER, which was made for a mere $400,000, not only put Fonda and Hopper in the realm of 1960s anti-heroes, as well as actors, it also helped establish the careers of at least two soon-to-be Hollywood acting heavyweights. Karen Black is one of those; she plays one of the prostitutes that Hopper and Fonda meet in New Orleans. The other one, of course, is the great inebriated small-town lawyer George Hansen, portrayed by none other than Jack Nicholson. Indeed, even if much of the rest of the film is clearly still stuck in its 1969 time warp, Nicholson's performance remains timeless, with his incredible eccentricities, Southern-fried drawl, and crazy philosophy, But it is really in the fireside scene where he lectures both Fonda and Hopper about the nature of what they represent to those in Red State America, who view "longhairs" like them as Commies, not "true" Americans; and that their idea of freedom is not what Hopper and Fonda view it as. As Nicholson tells them: "They're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom; but they see a free individual it's gonna scare 'em."
As of this date, almost half a century has passed since this landmark film hit screens during the long, hot summer of 1969, and, though a lot of EASY RIDER is very dated (hear how many times Hopper utters "Man!" throughout the film, plus a lot of weird psychedelic scenes), a lot of it remains relevant because, sadly, very little about America has necessarily changed for the better; and indeed, a lot has gotten noticeably worse since. Besides both Black and Nicholson, Fonda and Hopper got some of their close circle of Hollywood friends like Warren Finnerty, Luke Askew, Toni Basil (she later had a #1 pop hit with "Mickey" in 1982), and Robert Walker, to appear here, along with the innovative cinematography of Lazslo Kovacs.
All in all, EASY RIDER, despite its datedness, remains a must-see movie to understand what America was like as the 1960s came to a close, and what changes have been wrought since then.