Thaumatrope Features: Easy Rider (1969)

Historical Note: A very early version of a "magic lantern" was invented in the 17th century by Athanasius Kircher in Rome. It was a device with a lens that projected images from transparencies onto a screen, with a simple light source (such as a candle). In 1824, the Thaumatrope was invented by (the earliest version of an optical illusion toy that exploited the concept of "persistence of vision") by Dr. John Ayrton Paris. (Film History Before 1820 by Tim Dirks)

Today's posting represents the first "Thaumotrop Feature", an opportunity for me to reflect on a recently viewed (or rewatched) motion picture or television show that might be of interest.

In 1988, while a freshman in college, the local public broadcasting station showed Easy Rider at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday night. My roommates and I stayed in, an up, to watch it, mesmerized by the music and visuals. Years later, I still enjoy re-watching the film, not just for the excellent performances by Peter Fonda (as Captain America) and Dennis Hopper (Billy the Kid), but for the film's messages about community, freedom and prejudice. While the historical context of the film is the late Sixties, like all great films, the messages are still relevant today in a world which still struggles with the same concerns. It would seem that not much in the national mindset has really changed since the Sixties, especially in the close-minded approach many folks have to nontraditional lifestyles. This film was once hailed as "the greates movie of all time," and as such, has been analyzed to death in a much more depth than I could.

At it's heart this journey "in search of America" is a blue highway trip of the highest order. Billy and Capt. America travel the backroads of the south west toward New Orleans to spend their recently earned cocaine-trafficking money on prostitutes and drugs. Along the way they meet many new friends (including Jack Nicholson as one town's local drunk lawyer), as well as a few individuals best described as "rednecks."

I recommend you view with an eye toward the smaller scenes captured by Hopper (who also directed) that help to give voice to some sixties sensibilites which are worth revisiting today...For example, upon pilcing up another hitchiker who is himself making his home to a commune, Billy asks him wheer he's from...

Stranger on the highway: I'm from the city...Doesn't matter what city; all cities are alike.
Billy: Well, why'd you mention it then?
Stranger on the highway: 'Cause I'm FROM the city; a long WAY from the city, and that's where I wanna be right now.

Or one of my personal favorites (okay there are alot), when Billy and Cap participate in a blessing before a meal at the commune. A minor character, Jack (playesd by Robert Walker, Jr.) leads the commune group in an Eastern-style religious blessing for the meal:

Jack: We have planted our seeds. We ask that our efforts be worthy to produce simple food for our simple taste. We ask that our efforts be rewarded. And we thank you for the food we eat from other hands - that we may share it with our fellow man and be even more generous when it is from our own. Thank you for a place to make a stand. (Amen.)

Amen, indeed. I suppose some folks might never give this movie a try because of the overt drug use and sixties-stylings, but I would suggest their missing out. Check out Easy Rider and take in what is being "said" and I think you'll realize that much of the dream artilcuated throughout the film is possible without the drug use--and that the overall rewards of reaching for the dream are greater without them.