John Erck - Easy Rider Reflections...
As Timothy Miller states in the opening section of The Ethics of Cultural Opposition, “The counterculture never saw itself as just another subculture; it was the Disloyal Opposition to Establishment culture.” The movie Easy Rider exemplifies the Disloyal Opposition to Establishment culture in a way few films have been able to. In this blog I’ll be arguing that the film does in fact do a good job of depicting what Miller calls “yearning to quit or “drop out” of establishment society”.
The prevailing attitude during the preceding decade (the 1950’s) was that of group cohesion and conformity. Two examples of this would be the massive increase in what we call “suburban sprawl” and the abundance of “white collar workers”. The movie Easy Rider is in direct contradiction to this “group culture”. The entire premise of the movie is to document Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson as they abandon the compulsions of conformity and pursue their own individualistic passions. The characters are out on the road living their lives as independent individuals rather than individuals that are dependent upon a certain group (such as a suburban community or corporation). They travel across the country on their motorcycles and make decisions on the fly. They don’t plan much and make decisions as they go. The phrase “shooting from the hip” summarizes their mentality succinctly. So, after watching the film, it’s easy to see how it clearly exemplifies what Miller calls “yearning to quit or “drop out” of establishment society”.