Easy Riders, aka Easy Livin'

The movie, Easy Riders is a classic movie about the 60's and the alternative lifestyles that were being expieremented with at the time. The movie starts out in California where the two main characters, (Fonda) & (Hopper) sell a large quantity of drugs to fund their trip to New Orleans. After that's all said and done the two embark on their long journey throughout the countryside. They come across a hitchhiker who leads them to a hippie gathering as well as the "best hookers around" and a sheriff who later relates on the two men. This movie was based off the 60's and has a realistic plot that evolved just like other story's from the 60's. The dialogue is very real because the actors are just speaking like themselves and not trying to impersonate somebody. A theme that is pretty evident in this film would be that of finding yourself with the help of drugs and sex. This idea was widely experimented with during the time which is why this movie does a great job of replicating the 60's. The actors fit these characters well due to the tone of their voices and the way they came across to viewers; the long hair and outlaw biker outfits make these guys nobody you wanted to associate yourself with, it wasnt that they were scary but who they represented. The landscapes and scenery are astonishing when you first see them. The film crew did a great job of using wide angle tracking shots on scenes when (Fonda) & (Hopper) are cruising in the countryside. The background is all mountains and desert. The music was incorporated beautifully leading you in and out of different shots and scenes. Lighting wasnt as much a big role in the film because either it was day when things were going about or at night around a camp fire or house where guys were getting messed up on drugs and liquor. The sound was breathtaking because it set major scenes apart and hinted at further things to come. Not to mention even if these guys were poor pot heads they definitly loved what they were doing int'll later on when as always their drugs turned to addiction and life led to death. Many medium shots were used to show a neutral stand point in a scene because it was more of what was going on, not (low angle will make the bikers look powerful because thats not what they were going for). I would say that the close up shots did a nice job of creating reality while the high angle shots around fires were put there to look down on them and their stupidity at times. The film crew might have done this to be informative of the hippie culture but also make them look like they dont have the power they could have. There were disolves and quick cuts, espicially at the end when the guys were in the hooker house dropping acid. The editing there was great becasue it showed what they might have been expierenceing and had many editing techniques along with sound. The lighting in that scene was low which showed shadows and other realistic things if you were on drugs. To sum this up I would say without the music this movie woulndt have been as powerful as it was to me.