Textual analysis - Easy Rider

Easy Rider (1969) is a landmark for the hippie counterculture in a age of road movies, revolutionising the Beat Generation for a new age of youths who rejected traditional mainstream American values. The acid trip scene is notable due to it's intensely personal and sentimental nature for collaborative writers Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, director and producer respectively. For instance, Dennis suggested the graveyard acid trip scene in order to draw on Fonda's dark past of his mother committing suicide when he was aged just ten. His character, Wyatt, emotionally pleaded with his dead mother with a taut performance which gave verisimilitude to the film. The denial present relates to the effects the acid trip has, causing a dissociation from reality.

The montage of shots features disorienting dutch angles such as the tilted, low angled shot of the sky and trees, this conjures a feeling within the audience of also experiencing an acid trip. This builds on the verisimilitude which was achieved through actual drug use throughout the duration of shooting the film, popularising the use of LSD and propelling social deviants into the mainstream. This changed the relationship people had with film makers, as youths went from seeing them as celebrities to relating to them through the experience of their own counter culture being represented in mainstream media. They identified with the outcast status and hopeless mentality which is presented in Wyatt and Billy's involvement with drugs and alternative lifestyle communes. Fonda even reported that his 'fan mail' had diverged from requests for autographs to asking questions such as "How do I keep myself from committing suicide?".

There is the recurring non-diegetic sound of what seems to be a machine or a train and an alarm throughout the sequence, which then has the diegetic sound of a woman reading from the Bible played over this. The religious iconography in the mise en scene of various statues and Christian symbols such as Christ on the cross reinforce this association. This contrast of modernity with tradition parallels the presence of weeds and plants overpowering the urban environment which Wyatt, Billy and the two hookers are in. This fits with the hippie mentality of rejecting the corporate and controlled state which was born from the pursuit of the American dream and resulted in a nationalistic mentality. They instead strove for a gentler world with emphasis on peace and love, thanking God for 'a place to stand'. In this sequence the mechanical sounds almost fade out as the prayer becomes more prominent and mentions resurrection, a theme in tune with the hippie idea of a new beginning. The frequent shots of the sun could represent this concept as it is that which gives us life and that which will eventually kill us, the varying zoom in/zoom out which is used also reflects the altered perception which the drug use has caused.

As well as freedom to take drugs and escape the rush of urban life, the hippie movement also focuses on the freedom of sexuality. A fisheye lens is used in the wide shot of a naked woman lying in a graveyard, the juxtaposition in the mise en scene seems perverted even in this age of supposed sexual freedom. The type of lens used gives the effect of looking through a spyhole, representing how these people are social outcasts who are viewed as peculiar beings from which one should keep their distance. This is supported by the contrast of the chiaroscuro lighting. It also touches on the frequent sexualisation and objectification of women in media, a problem which was especially notable in the more traditional time of the sixties. A woman in a pink top removes her clothing outdoors in a nonchalant fashion as she stands between two walls, suggesting that she is boxed in and unable to express her sexuality or perhaps simply display her body in a non-sexual way.

Natural lighting is prevalent throughout the scene and indeed the entire film, Hopper stated this was intentional as "God is a great gaffer". This diverges from the common use of extreme lighting and editing techniques in order to represent an altered state of mind. Another frequent technique is the use of lens glare which would often be considered quite amateurish and would be avoided by mainstream films. The fact that Easy Rider was so heavily edited with much of it cut gives this even more significance. Again it is more representative of the real environment which makes it seem as if the director wants us to feel as if we are there, supported by the use of handheld camera. The lens glare gives a sort of haphazard, unpolished feel which is shared by the characters. Overall this sequence, although disorienting and potentially disturbing, really utilities technical aspects to communicate key themes and ideologies which the characters possess.

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