Easy Rider

Easy Doze

When I sit down to a movie as legendary as Easy Rider, I have some expectations of being entertained, moved, or at least shocked. Easy Rider failed on all three counts. It took me a few seconds too many to realize the significance of Peter Fonda throwing his watch away. Unfortunately, I found myself consulting the clock all too often through the rest of the movie. It just drags so horribly, except when it's cutting from scene to scene by ping- ponging back and forth between them. It's at these points that the movie stutters because the timing of the switches never feels quite right. This is particularly tragic because this visual technique is now made much easier by the advent of digital editing, and must've been a tremendous effort in the editing room for little benefit.

The best things in the movie are the scenery, Jack Nicholson, and the moral. As with many road movies before and since, Easy Rider includes footage of the natural beauty of the American Southwest. The section at the beginning with the Steppenwolf classic "Born to be Wild" made me hungry for similar photography, but the movie largely fails to deliver. As for the moral, Easy Rider has taught me to not take acid in a New Orleans cemetary with a prostitute. I think that's a lesson we can all live by.