Easy Rider- "We Blew It"
"If they have failed to be truly countercultural, the road now mirrors their failure with images of technology's own failure to fulfill its ideological promise of improving society: here, it seems more like a contamination" (Laderman, 77)
This quote connects Wyatt's words of, "We blew it" with a failure to be "truly countercultural". It is a prophetic statement in that it hints at a failure of countercultural ideals in general. The failure of the countercultural movement to instill all of its ideals moving into the seventies can be thought about in terms of Wyatt's statement. To juxtapose this failure with a very different type of riding montage than the others in the film speaks to Laderman's connection of the two men's countercultural failure and the technological failure of modern society. The landscape is quite different-- stark and uninviting with power lines and factories (Laderman, 77). This differencee as opposed to the beautiful landscapes seen in previous driving sequences equates the failure of Wyatt and Billy's trip with the failure of technology to make better the society in which we live. The ever-present tension between rebellion and conformity comes to a climactic end when the rednecks (representing conformity) kill the easy riders (representing rebellion) amidst an ugly industrial landscape. Conformity wins in the backdrop of industrial society and Wyatt and Billy's attempt at being truly countercultural does not happen. They cannot find the true "America" through the means that they choose-- continual mobility-- and conformist America hinders their chances time and time again on their way and ultimately ends their journey and quest for freedom.