Easy Rider is a much overhyped film. Peter Fonda and especially Dennis Hopper's performances are highly unprofessional and give the impression that they are largely portraying themselves. An interesting drinking game would be to take a shot every time Hopper says "man."
Jack Nicholson, however, deserves all the credit that can be bestowed upon him in a performance that helped catapult him into a 3 Oscar career.
The film largely consists of Fonda and Hopper cruising on their choppers to a wonderful rock soundtrack shot against beautiful landscape. But this combination is not enough to qualify as a great film, or even a film at all. A more appropriate title would be an "extended music video" courtesy of The Band, Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Harley Davidson, and Laszlo Kovacs' cinematography.
Still, the film deserves credit for being groundbreaking. When
Easy Rider came out in 1969, no film had attempted to capture the contemporary sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll culture. Instead, light films starring pin-up idols and depicting a fantasy world that no longer existed dominated the cinema.
Easy Rider said that it was OK to show people as they really are and changed the content of the films that followed. The flash cuts are also very European and refreshing, signaling the onset of the American Auteur.
Despite the film's innovations, should it have been viewed as classic of its time and still be revered today?
Perhaps a more relevant question: Have certain films of recent years whipped the masses into a frenzy for their supposed freshness, yet lack basic content that quality films possess?