Film analysis of Easy Rider - Movie Review Example

Download file to see previous pages The worth of a spiritual journey is emphasized throughout the movie, something that is closely associated with the idea of freedom in the movie. This is important in the context of an increasingly repressive America in which the movie was set in and released. The space of the carnival is invoked here and this makes one aware of the need for freedom in the everyday lives of men and women. This then becomes an important motif in the movie. This paper shall look at different aspects of the movie and also of its production. It shall do so through an examination of the conditions of its production and the people who were involved in the production of the movie. Dennis Hopper is considered to be one of the first of the directors in Hollywood to have broken from tradition and to imbibe in his methods of filmmaking the rebellious air of the 1960s and 1970s (Dennis Hopper, n.d.). This made him a very popular figure, even though the success of Easy Rider could not be replicated until much later. The movie in that sense depicts his style of filmmaking and his ideology regarding the process of filmmaking very well. Hopper’s ideas of filmmaking were inspired by the counterculture of the United States of America which was at its heights when the movie was released. The movie remains one of the most important contributions to the development of the agency of the youth of America. After this wave of the counterculture, there was hardly any understanding of the need to revolt for a while in America, something that was recovered in the decades to follow. In terms of the genre of the movie, one may say that Easy Rider falls within the genre of a road movie. A road movie provides certain set patterns of moviemaking to the filmmaker and Hopper abided by this during the making of the movie. The angles that were used during the shots were almost always that which enabled a realistic portrait of the main characters. This involved shots that were taken from a close angle that allowed the illusion of movement to the audience. This is one of the most important aspects of a road movie. The illusion of movement and pace is provided to the audience which is then gripped with suspense as to the next movement of the characters on screen. The importance of this lies in the fact that the pace of the movie is something that led the audience to identify with it and also to turn it into a cult classic. The fact that Peter Fonda was a part of the cast was a very important step in establishing for the audience the genre of the movie. It also established the nature of the movie as one that was opposed to the hegemonic culture of the times. Fonda had acted in a movie called The Wild Angels in 1966. This was a road movie as well and was a path breaking achievement in its own right (The Easy Rider, n.d.). This opposition to the hegemonic culture earned the movie great success despite the lack of a great deal of technical innovation in the body of the movie as such. The genre of a road movie was something that was popular even before the release of this movie and it incorporated many of the motifs of the road movie. This included a generous dose of machismo that played a great part even in the final denouement of the movie. The plot, in a great way, is driven by these ideas of machismo that also was a large reason ...Download file to see next pagesRead More