American Politics & Pop Culture

This article compares the movies Easy Rider and Electra Glide Blue, in doing so it discuses the many issues that go with the counterculture ear and how Hollywood has an input and influences future movies. I however think the thesis is hidden: the idea of space.
At first, the theme (or at least what I think the theme is) of the article is not brought out. To say it just talks about counterculture and movies would not even cover half of the article. To me this article is about space. Space between counterculture and strait American and the actual space in the movie. The counterculture transition that created space between the younger generation and the conservative “old west” was shown in the movie Easy Rider. The peace loving hippies traveling across the U.S. In the west they were met by a hippie commune that was inviting but down south the red neck conservative attitude was prevalent, this is the attitude that ending the lives of Wyatt and Billy. Showing “Moral corruption of strait America and an affirmation of the righteousness of counterculture escape”
They say that the movie Electra Glide Blue is the Flip side to Easy Rider. I think that the government was behind this movie because it’s the same idea, but it just makes strait America look good. Almost like when the government was controlling what could be put in movies like Double Indemnity. These two movies were virtually the same; the protagonist rides a motorcycle and gets killed in the end by the opposing side. The only difference was which is the good guy, the hippies or the right side. Even though this was a strong argument in the article I still believe that the thesis lies within the other definition of space.
They talked about space, as in the country, actual wide open space. And how in Easy Rider space is shown when traveling from place to place, and at the hippie commune they lived off the land. I thought that this was in some way contradictive. Because technically the “old west” is conservative, yet it’s the hippies who appreciate the land and show it in the movie. In Electra Glide Blue space was not important. The outdoors was just the outdoors, and they did not film it artistically like they did in Easy Rider.
That was not a topic we discussed or read much about in class. The battle between counterculture and strait American is known and seen in films, Easy Rider gave rise to the new genre of anti- government. Showing America’s flaws. Then to counter act that Electra Glide Blue comes in to say “no strait America isn’t the bad guy, look the hippies killed the police officer.” That is old news. What I thought was so interesting was how they discussed space visually and artistically. Maybe that’s how Easy Rider helped give rise to a new genre not the attack of the government, but being artistic in film and using the space of the country to convey it.