Easy Rider by H.Getachew
All of Miller’s ideas of Hippie counterculture are present in the movie Easy Rider. The two main characters drop out of society, we see Wyatt throwing away his watch to symbolize they are free, and they are not constrained by any obligations like mainstream America. They live by their own rule, they smuggle drug into the US. They share love with people they meet, and the other hippies help them by providing food and shelter. The idea of hedonism and anti-materialism are also present in the main characters life, their main character’s purpose in life is pleasure by make just enough money to retire in Florida.
I think hippie ideals in Easy Rider are shown negatively. The hippies have all of the right ideas such love, nonviolence and environmental awareness but their ideas in a practical sense is disastrous. The hitch-hiker’s family says, they want to plant “simple food for their simple taste” which shows the family are environmental aware and anti-materialistic, they don’t exploit the land for more than they need. But at the same time, they are not sure if the plants will grow to feed their family, therefore they resort to praying and doing the sun dance. The two main characters making their livings not by working, but by selling drugs. Their life is aimless; they do drugs and have sex. Miller wrote “But the hippies hardly achieved perfect love. They were human after all, and therefore flawed, the more perceptive among them tempered idealism with realism.” At the end of the movie Wyatt says, “we blew it” which symbolizes the hippies know what is wrong with society; but they don’t seem to know how to fix it.