Two-lane blacktop (1971)

[oscar jubis]

I don't have anything to say about Kael I haven't said before. I respect the fact that you find/found reading her reviews to be exciting and that "Kael made it exciting to think about the movies during this period". I was certainly curious enough when she came to my attention in 1980 to go back and read her reviews from the 60s and 70s. Generally speaking, her writing didn't have the same effect on me that it had on you. You can respect that.
Five Easy Pieces may be better than Easy Rider but I have to go by recent experience with this movie and say that Easy Rider held up pretty well in my estimation. Ending still packs quite a punch and some of the improvised scenes are endlessly fascinating to me.
I also agree that a lot of 70s creative capital was wasted because of various kinds of excess.
I find movies to get excited about, movies to rewatch with pleasure in every decade. Don't want to generalize too sweepingly but there was something particularly fresh and different going on in and out of Hollywood in that late 60s to mid-70s period.