America in the 1960s.
White and Billy, a pair of freelance bikers. After a drug deal, they took the money to ride a Harley from Los Angeles to New Orleans for a local carnival. In this way, the road movie “Easy Rider”, which had a profound impact on the world’s popular culture, began. Along the way, White and Billy enjoyed the view. If you are hungry, you will find a good person to eat with, and if you are sleepy, you will knock on the door of a cheap hotel. When you are bored, light up a marijuana cigarette and feel good. However, young people who do nothing like them are despised by mainstream society. So there will be setbacks along the way. For example, hotel owners turn them away simply because of their looks. Sneak into the cheerful parade, but was detained by the police in the name of “illegal parade”.

In a restaurant full of conservatives, their long hair was mocked, forcing them to fail. After all these bad things, they finally made it to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. After the carnival, they found two more women and went to the cemetery to drink medicine. White and Billy live a cool life, and everything but drugs is enviable. But after that, White said to Billy with a look of frustration: **We screwed up. Released in 1969, Easy Rider is a classic American film and a critical commentary on American culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Its emergence gave birth to the “road movie” genre, officially opening the “New Hollywood” era. In the next 10 years, Hollywood has produced many angular works, such as “The Godfather”, “Taxi Driver”, “Apocalypse Now”, etc., showing a style of freedom, restlessness, violence and realism. New Hollywood films have become an important part of American film history and even world film history. Why does “Easy Ranger” and the “New Hollywood” it started filming have such a temperament? This is related to the social environment of the United States at that time. In the 1960s, the United States fell into a series of social crises. Like the Kennedy assassination and a series of political murders. Unjust Vietnam War. economic crisis caused by the war. Black American Movement and more. These social upheavals have awakened Americans. They no longer believe in government and are eager to change society and regain their freedom.

In this environment, films that express mainstream values ​​become synonymous with hypocrisy. Audiences wanted to see something sharp, and a new Hollywood movie was born. Easy Rider is full of liberal, anti-mainstream content. For example, before White and Billy set off, they threw away their watches. This means that they are determined to break away from society and that time means nothing to them. Along the way, they lived in a hippie neighborhood. The film also uses a lot of space to depict the life of a hippie. As we all know, “Hippie” was a well-known countercultural movement in the United States of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s out of touch with society, it’s against war, and it’s known for its obsession with rock and marijuana.

Fortunately, “Easy Rider” does not just preach freedom, but objectively points out that freedom has a price. The main characters in the film don’t end well. Hanson (Jack Nicholson), the lawyer White and Billy meet halfway through, is a sane man with a unique take on freedom. But his fate was that he was beaten to death by his enemies in the middle of the night. White and Billy were also shot and killed by a malicious truck driver on their way home, simply because the truck driver hated their long hair. Although the plot is exaggerated, it outlines the true attitude of people to freedom. That is, people keep saying they love freedom, but when it does come, they reject or even hate it. As Hansen said in the film: “Talking about freedom and achieving freedom are two different things.” In reality, although hippies have had an impact on world culture, they have become a hotbed of crime because they have not contributed to the functioning of society. escape the fate of decline.

In today’s public opinion environment, people seem to no longer believe in freedom, but more in self-discipline, hoping to rely on self-discipline to gain a firm foothold in society and achieve success. Freedom has become illusory and useless. Perhaps, the issue of freedom can never be resolved, but that doesn’t stop me from liking Easy Rider. Because SoverSky is passionate about that spirit: Live My Life.