Quote:
In the oldest, finest tradition of teenpics, Easy Rider (1969) became a hit with kids mainly because adults found it unwatchable. Director Dennis Hopper borrows from the avant-garde to suggest the LSD experience, and some of the trips have a definite flavor of Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren. The film may be a relic now, but it is a fascinating souvenir—particularly in its narcissism and fatalism—of how the hippie movement thought of itself. This was the same year, remember, that Hopper played a heavy offed by John Wayne in True Grit. With Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and Karen Black. R, 94 min.
It's just not one of my favorites, that's all. I lived on the edge of hippiedom myself and it just seems to me simplistic and corny. It seemed that to me back then, but people found it new and didn't see that side. Part of the excitement was wondering what the audience would think, as Kehr notes in his comment. Now that's gone.