Happy 50th anniversary, Easy Rider, on Sunday.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2019, 01:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Yeah, that's right. 50 years.

Easy Rider

Easy Rider



Original theatrical release poster

Directed by: Dennis Hopper
Produced by: Peter Fonda
Written by: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern
Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Music by: The Band, The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Roger McGuinn, Steppenwolf
Cinematography: László Kovács

Release date: July 14, 1969
Budget: $360,000–$400,000
Box office: $60 million

Easy Rider is a 1969 American independent road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper played two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking during the early 1970s.

A landmark counterculture film, and a "touchstone for a generation" that "captured the national imagination," Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. Real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.

Easy Rider was released by Columbia Pictures on July 14, 1969, grossing $60 million worldwide from a filming budget of no more than $400,000. Critics have praised the performances, directing, writing, soundtrack, visuals, and atmosphere. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1998.

Here's Phil Spector examining the merchandise, to a tune written by Hoyt Axton:

From March:

Today would have been Hoyt Axton's 81st birthday.

Jack? In the commune? That's Robert Walker Jr.

Robert Walker (actor, born 1940)

Robert Walker Jr.



Walker in 1963

Born Robert Hudson Walker Jr., April 15, 1940 (age 79); Queens, New York, U.S.

Robert Hudson Walker Jr. (born April 15, 1940) is an American actor who was a familiar presence on TV in the 1960s and early 1970s. He became less active in later decades. He is best remembered today for playing the title role in the Star Trek episode "Charlie X".

[Freedomofspeech]

1. OMG...

I was a junior at Slippery Rock State Teachers College (now SRU...) when I saw Easy Rider. I still play the sound track...loved it!

[virgogal]

2. Never saw it...I had 5 young kids when it was released....chaotic years,for me.

[maryellen99]

3. It's being shown in select theaters Sunday and Wednesday

https://www.fathomevents.com/events/easy-rider-50th-anniversary

[Bradshaw3]

4. At 16 in a conservative twon it was an act of rebellion for me to go see it

In a city. I later lived in the Sunset Crater Volcano area outside Flagstaff where some of the early riding scenes were shot.

BTW, Grizzlie Adams was also in that commune scene, as, I think but am not sure, was Rosanne Arquette's father.