A Waste - Andrew Probelski
For as long as I can remember, people have always raved about the film Easy Rider. For some reason, I never really had any desire to see it. Maybe it was the unflattering picture of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper riding choppers on the cover that turned me away. Whatever it was that kept me from viewing the film did so rightly. After finally seeing it in class last Wednesday I knew my instincts had been correct. Easy Rider is supposedly the main film of the counterculture movement, and after learning about the truth behind the counterculture movement I could understand why. Hippies are supposed to be free and different than everyone else, when it is apparent that hippies are the most rigidly conformed group. And with no real goals or purposes that seem to matter, hippies waste their time burning out while doing nothing, and that is what Easy Rider made clear to me. The counterculture movement faded away because it had no substance. Easy rider was a pretentious student film to me. With cheesy dissolves and bad acting (except for Nicholson), there was little substance in the film as well. I'll give it credit solely because of the ending, when Fonda realizes what a waste of time the hippie life is.