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Filme produzido nos EUA, em 1969, 94 minutos
Wiatt (Peter Fonda) e Billy (Denis Hoper) iniciam uma viajem sobre duas rodas pelo território americano, rumo a um famoso festival de música. No percurso encontram comunidades hippies e vários representantes do pensamento provinciano conservador e intolerante para com estilos alternativos. Com a intensificação dos movimentos de contra-cultura, este filme apresenta uma nova opção de vida, rompendo com os padrões convencionais da sociedade americana. George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), um advogado alcoólico, com uma visão clara sobre essas divergências sócio-culturais, resolve acompanhá-los em sua jornada e também acaba por ser vítima da violência de uma sociedade ignorante que teme o que essa empreitada libertária representa. Este grande filme do final da década de 60 do estilo dos road movies mostra, através de uma bela fotografia, vários espaços do território americano – alguns cuja beleza não foi ainda explorada, e faz uso de uma linguagem cinematográfica diferenciada, com cortes não convencionais e sequências delirantes. Destaca-se também a excelente banda sonora, composta por vários clássicos do rock, com destaque para a música "Born to Be Wild" que se consagraria como hino dos motoqueiros. Easy Rider é o clássico drama dos anos 60 que reflecte as atitudes e aspirações da nova geração, e o seu inevitável colapso. Peter Fonda e Janis Hopper são dois anti-heróis intinerantes que rejeitam a sociedade, passam assim a representar uma ameaça. Contrabandeiam algumas drogas através da fronteira mexicana e partem com os lucros através do sul da América . Com as suas motocicletas, cabelos longos e atitudes irreverentes, não demora muito para irem parar a uma cadeia do Texas. São postos em liberdade por um advogado alcoólico esquerdista (Jack Nicholson), que resolve partir com eles numa odisseia "de-costa-a-costa” pelos Estados Unidos, em busca da verdadeira América.
As Músicas de Easy Rider:
Easy Rider Perdida a inocência, um ano depois de 68, Dennis Hopper o jovem actor rebelde dos anos 50, parceiro de James Dean em "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) e "Giant" (1956), torna-se realizador com este filme, que também interpreta ao lado de Peter Fonda e Jack Nicholson, o qual terá sido de todos os filmes geracionais o que assumiu mais veementemente esse papel. A sátira e narrativa subjectiva não estão muito presentes, à excepção de algumas situações pontuais de "viagem" alucinogénica e de percursos motociclistas, em contrapartida, a música "rock" faz-se ouvir como bandeira de uma geração, tendo algumas imagens do filme - as motas e os seus cavaleiros da estrada - ficado intimamente ligadas aos sons ácidos das guitarras eléctricas em distorção contida, ao ritmo de uma batida motorizada, contundente e às vozes ásperas e roucas dos "Steppenwolf" em «Born to be Wild». O tema da guerra do Vietname ainda não está aqui explicitamente exposto, mas a iconologia de alguns dos principais elementos compositores do filme, leva-nos a identificar símbolos de associação óbvia: "O capitão América" (Peter Fonda) e a sua mota de bandeira correspondente, estampada no depósito de gasolina - o motor de um movimento contínuo em busca de liberdade por uma juventude algo desolada, já com a noção de que ande por onde andar, provavelmente irá terminar sempre num mesmo sítio, eventualmente sem retorno. Este tema, aliás, está directamente ligado com um outro paradigma fílmico, geracional - o "roadmovie", que mereceria uma análise só por si, mas por agora, interessa reter essencialmente a ideia de revolta e rebeldia, já não só contra as instituições basilares como a família e a escola, senão também contra a lei dominante e contra a autoridade policial que a faz observar, ainda que tal afronta possa custar a morte aos ousados. E entre a morte na estrada, ou no Vietname, a escolha para uma geração apresenta-se óbvia. Easy Rider is the late 1960s "road film" tale of a search for freedom (or the illusion of freedom) in a conformist and corrupt America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. Made in the year of the Woodstock concert, the tone of the film is remarkably downbeat and bleak, reflecting the collapse of the idealistic 60s. The iconographic, 'buddy' film is both memorialized as an image of the popular and historical culture of the time and a story of a contemporary but apocalyptic journey by two self-righteous, drug-fueled, anti-hero bikers eastward through the American Southwest. Their trip to New Orleans takes them through limitless, untouched landscapes, various towns, and a hippie commune, but also through areas where local residents are increasingly narrow-minded and hateful of their long-haired freedom and use of drugs. The film's title refers to their rootlessness and ride to make "easy" money; it is also slang for a pimp who makes his livelihood off the earnings of a prostitute. [The names of the two main characters, Wyatt and Billy, suggest the two memorable Western outlaws Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid - or 'Wild Bill' Hickcock. Rather than traveling westward on horses as the frontiersmen did, the two modern cowboys travel eastward from Los Angeles - the end of the traditional frontier - on Harley-Davidson choppers on an epic journey into the unknown for the 'American dream'. According to slogans on promotional posters, they were on a search: A man went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere.Their costumes combine traditional patriotic symbols with emblems of loneliness, criminality and alienation - the American flag, cowboy decorations, long-hair, and drugs.] Both Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper co-starred, Fonda produced, and Hopper directed (his first effort). [It was produced by B.B.S. (formed by Bob Rafelson - the director of Five Easy Pieces (1970), Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner), already known for the groundbreaking, surrealistic Head (1968), a cult masterpiece that starred the Monkees (from the popular TV series) and was co-written by unemployed actor Jack Nicholson.] The film premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and won the festival's award for the Best Film by a new director. The film received two Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay (co-authored by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern), and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson in one of his earlier, widely-praised roles. Easy Rider was a ritualistic experience and viewed (often repeatedly) by youthful audiences in the late 1960s as a reflection of their hopes and fears. Easy Rider surprisingly, was an extremely successful, low-budget (under $400,000), counter-cultural, independent film for the alternative youth/cult market, with sex, drugs, casual violence, a sacrificial tale, and a pulsating rock and roll soundtrack reinforcing or commenting on the film's themes. The pop cultural, mini-revolutionary film was also a reflection of the "New Hollywood," and the first blockbuster hit from a new wave of Hollywood directors (e.g., Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, and Martin Scorsese) that would break with a number of Hollywood conventions. It had little background or historical development of characters, a lack of typical heroes, uneven pacing, jump cuts and flash-forward transitions between scenes, an improvisational style and mood of acting and dialogue, background rock 'n' roll music to complement the narrative, and the equation of motorbikes with freedom on the road rather than with delinquent behaviors. However, its idyllic view of life and example of personal film-making was overshadowed by the self-absorbent, drug-induced, erratic behavior of the filmmakers, chronicled in Peter Biskind's tell-all Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (1999).
One morning, two free-wheeling, long-haired, social misfits/dropouts/hippies ride up to La Contenta Bar in Mexico. With Jesus (Antonio Mendoza), they walk around the side of the bar through an auto-wrecking dump yard. After Jesus scoops out a small amount of white powder (cocaine) onto a mirror, they both sniff the dope. In Spanish, the thinner, calmer one chuckles: "Si pura vida (Yes, it's pure life.)" Then, he hands a packet of money to Jesus who thumbs through it and smiles. The two bikers, who have presumably orchestrated the decision to buy the cocaine in Mexico, are given cases of the powder in the drug deal. Before the film cuts to the next scene, the loud noise of a jet engine plays on the soundtrack. In the next scene of their dope deal, they are now in California where they have smuggled the drugs. The two are on an airport road next to the touch down point of jet planes at Los Angeles International Airport - the sound of approaching planes is excruciatingly loud. A Rolls Royce pulls into the frame with their Connection (Phil Spector, the famous rock and roll producer in a cameo role). While testing the white powder in the front seat of their white pickup truck, the Connection ducks every time a plane lands. In exchange for the drugs, the Bodyguard (Mac Mashourian) gives a large quantity of cash to one of the bikers in the front seat of the Rolls. The drug deal is finalized to the tune of Steppenwolf's "The Pusher," a song which is overtly against hard-drug pushers and dealing. You know I smoked a lot of grass Oh Lord, I popped a lot of pills But I've never touched nothin' That my spirit could kill You know I've seen a lot of people walkin' round With tombstones in their eyes But the pusher don't care Aw, if you live or if you die God damn the Pusher God damn, hey I say the Pusher I said God damn, God damn the Pusher man. With the money they've made from selling drugs, they have financed their trip, including the purchase of high-handled motorcycles. One of them rolls up the banknotes and stuffs them into a long plastic tube that will be inserted snake-like into the tear-drop shaped gas tank of his stars-and-stripes decorated motorcycle. The two part-time drug dealers are: a cool and introspective "Captain America" Wyatt (Peter Fonda) on a gleaming, silver-chromed low-riding bike with a 'stars-and-stripes' tear-drop gas tank, wearing a tight leather pants held at the waist by a round belt-buckle and a black leather jacket with an American flag emblazoned on the back; also with a 'stars-and-stripes' helmet Wyatt casts off his wristwatch to the ground, a literal and symbolic flourish that shows his new-found freedom and rejection of time constraints in modern society. As they take to the open road on their motorcycles, cross the Colorado River and pass through unspoiled buttes and sand-colored deserts, the credits begin to scroll, accompanied by the sound of the popular song by Steppenwolf: "Born To Be Wild." It is the start of a beautiful adventure as they travel through memorable landscapes of America's natural beauty, accompanied by the pounding of rock music.
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