Rider v. Vagabond
"This European road movie refuses to romanticize rebellious driving/traveling, as most American road movies do. ...Mona is ugly and disheveled; she has no car nor any impulse to drive, a truly distrurbing homeless drifter "(Laderman, 267).
Mona is much different than the main men of "Easy Rider" in the sense that her sort of drifting is frowned upon, she is pitied by people. In "Easy Rider" Wyatt and Billy are almost respected or admired by some of the people they meet. Their drifting symbolizes freedom. In "Vagabond" several people say "poor girl" about Mona. The professor and the caretaker of the old woman both "feel bad" for her and treat her as a charity case. No one does this for Wyatt and Billy. Also, it could be argued that all 3 character want to be on the road, it is a choice. Mona is offered places to stay but continues drifting. Yet, "Easy Rider" portrays our motorcycle cowboys as rebels almost, and they always have money to eat, buy gas ,etc. It is as if they had a plan, or at least the funds to be on the road. We see Mona as hungy a lot throughout the film, as well as sometimes stealing. "Easy Rider" has the audience admiring the drifters, even the camera shots and music encourage this. "Vagabond", on the other hand, has the audience shaking their heads at Mona. She is alone, dirty, hungry. People offer her assistance but in the end she is lazy and abuses the handouts she receives. The film opens with her lying dead and continues to tell her story with camera shots that do not even deem her very important, as well as sort of eerie music. These two films tell the story of three very different "riders" of the road.