Thank you Joe, for giving this movie your personal context. I’m sure many other readers will relate to this.

I’m also sharing the link you emailed to me, as I think it’s super fun!

https://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-cliff-vaughs-appreciation-20160707-snap-story.html

I first saw “Easy Rider” when it came out; for me and most of my friends, this movie provided the mental traction that we needed to come to grips with our own feelings about “authority figures”; to wit: the police, our fathers, the older generation, and The Military Machine in the USA. The “subtext” was clear; even if you can’t win, the “fight” against authority was worth the price of admission; better to lose your life fighting against “authority” than to lose your life by succumbing to authority. Perhaps THIS was the (subtext) journey that Wyatt was looking for, and why both Wyatt & Billy “blew it” in the end. In my own case, it’s a fight that I have been fighting ever since! Great Blog, BTW – I’m all-in!

Yeah, but the quote I love is: During production, Dennis Hopper divorced his wife Brooke Adams. As part of the divorce, it was within her right to claim half of his profits from the film, but she decided against it, because “I didn’t want him coming at me with a shotgun”. It just shows to go that there are always layers within layers – or wheels withing wheels Brendeth.

Thanks John, that’s great stuff.
The trivia about this film in IMDb are just sensational. Couldn’t stop reading!
Don’t forget Henry Jaglom, who saved the day in the edit, but didn’t get the credit…

Some trivia for you. Terry Southern lent his name to the project in the early stages of pre-production, because they were having trouble raising funds. It was shown for so long in Sydney at the Strand that it broke several records. It was (and probably is) one of the most successful box office stories ever.

It was shown in wide screen format using back projection reflected through mirrors at a 45 degree angle. The mirrors were especially engineered with the silver reflecting surface on the top surface of the mirror. This was to save space and reduce aberration in colour and light scatter which would happen with a normal mirror.

I enjoyed the film from the start, which was just as well as when you see something that many times, you are either going to like it – or go nuts.

Some observations. This is a classic narrative in that follows a quest into new territories with our two explorers tested at every turn – coming to grips with new challenges and trying to find a way through. They are offered various solutions – suggested lifestyles along the way – but are always guided back on their “search for America” either by choice or by circumstances.

To me Jack Nicholson is the joker in the wood-pile. He is the yeast that fires the energy to a new level. When Wyatt asks him:”Got a helmet?” His response: “Oh I go a helmet. I got a beauty!” is pure gold as is the image that immediately follows of George (Jack) behind Wyatt on the bike kitted out with grid-iron helmet.

I see the film as an odyssey in all senses of the word. Like the classic poem it is a series of incident stories cobbled together and forming a rather chaotic whole. It is the music which makes it all come together. Not just the the obvious Born To Be Wild and (God Damn) The Pusher but also If You want to Be a Bird and It’s All Right Ma (I’m only Bleeding.) (Thank you Mr Dylan.)

What is more interesting than the subtext within the film itself – is the subtext of the relationship between the two main creatives: Hopper and Fonda. Fonda as the producer tried to get Hopper fired on several occasions during the early stages of the movie. They ended up barely on speaking terms and for years were in conflict over money and creative differences which surfaced during the making of the film and afterwards.

See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

There are also a number of commentaries which detail the explosive nature of the process during the making of the film. Final credit and kudos must be shared between them (Fonda and Hopper), Laszlo Kovacs (DOP) and Donn Cambern – the editor.

What this goes to prove is that the great entertainment often comes at a price. But the price has to be paid if there is going to be a transfer of energy – a transformation of character born out of chaos and forged in passion and determination. If we try to tame the beast within we will end up with something which is bland, insipid and forgettable. Only something which tears at our hearts and rips open a can or worms which we are barely able to conyain – can we fire up something which will grip an audience and make them forget where they are in a moment of pure desperation. We are not meant merely entertain – but grab our audience by the throat and shove them into a furnace of voyeuristic uncertainty and delight. “Is this the fun part? Are we having fun yet?”

I agree with the Captain America irony.
Back then, it was a hippie trademark that would infuriate the mainstream.
Today, the image has been completely hijacked by Hollywood.

Also the “Captain America” tag name for Wyatt has triply symbolic and thematic dimensions for the metroplex cinema universe of today. Not only might Wyatt be a symbol of America back then, he might be a symbol of the state that Hollywood is contemporarily in from a mass audience storytelling point of view. (Nicely barely co-incidental that Marvel (“Captain America”) movies do well with the mass viewing audience … Whereas, in general, less escapist movies do not … Might this be a hint of some kind of deeper cultural void or denial??)