Easy Rider - Amanda Palazzo
In Miller’s chapter, “The Ethics of Cultural Opposition,� he outlines a number of characteristics that comprise the hippie counterculture. The film Easy Rider, which follows two freewheeling guys, Wyatt and Billy (and the friends they meet along the way), as they make their way, on motorcycle, from Los Angeles to New Orleans, for Mardi Gras, demonstrates all of these conventions of behavior typical in the hippie lifestyle. But in the interest of brevity, I will focus, specifically, on the ideals of abandoning traditional society, play rather than work, and long hair as a political expression, as they are the most prevalent in this film.
The film is centered on the hippie ethics of quitting the “establishment,� the idea of play rather than “meaningless work,� and the search for “poverty, simplicity, and new ideas.� This is shown, in an understated way, at the start of the motorcycle trek. Wyatt and Billy, having just purchased motorcycles, are about to set off on their journey, but as they are about to leave, Wyatt removes his watch and drops it to the ground. Time is a societal construction to which, because of their responsibilities, people are bound. By leaving his watch behind, Wyatt is abandoning the constraints of an oppressive society in which he no longer wants to be part.
Another overriding theme of Easy Rider, is the response Wyatt and Billy garner from the variety of people they meet on their excursion. At night, around the campfire, George, a man they met in jail, tells Billy that, “they’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em… [because] what you represent to them is freedom,� and that, “talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things…, they gonna talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.� Because of their long hair, a hippie ideal that’s a “symbol of separateness,� and its promotion of androgyny, which “reflects a dissatisfaction with one’s actual situation and a wish to recover this lost unity,� they are beacons of what goes against traditional society. These examples of nonconformity infuriate the “hicks,� subsequently leading to some violent, and in the end, fatal encounters.
The film shows the hippie ideals and the characters Wyatt and Billy, as positive. They are the “heroes� of the film and are revered as representatives of the counterculture. However, they live in a society that is hostile to those that go against the grain and the implications of this, being arrested, beaten-up, and eventually shot, are the negative consequences for making this choice.