Easy Rider Film Analysis

When talking hippies so many things come to mind, drugs sex, and music are probably some of the first. However, the hippies or “flower children” as they preferred to be called were actually more complex than history gives them credit for. There were a number of specific circumstances that created the hippy movement and gave them the mass following they possessed. When the hippies came to be in the second half of the 1960s they heavily drew on the ideas brought on by the “beat” generation of the 1950s. As Rorabaugh mentions that in the 1950s the U.S had essentially reached a period of universal conformity (15). It was during this time that the beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg exploded into the countercultural movement. Both

With such a small budget no one imagined this movie would be an instant hit. It was a success however because at least superficially showed what the youth of the time were feeling. In this quintessential adventure/ roundtrip movie exemplified what the hippies stood for, freedom. Rorabaugh explains how the hippie and beat movement came together in 1964 when Neal Cassady drove Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters across the country in a colorfully painted bus (47). In the movie Captain America, Billie, and later George are traveling around the country on their motorcycles. This gave viewers that same view of freedom and spontaneity that they also

The hippies were completely disillusioned with society and purposefully lived their lives in the least confirmative way possible. The characters of Easy Rider don’t seem to necessarily be discontent with the values of society outside of themselves. They seem to be going on these adventures just for the sake of doing something fun and different. They don’t seem to be a part of the bigger countercultural movement of authenticity, individualism, and community that Rorabaugh claims is the essence of the hippies