Dennis Hopper's 1969 biker film Easy Rider is a display of the death of the counterculture and hippie movements of the 60s caused by over-comfortability and conservatism. During that time brought a mass surge in progressive movement. Women, black individuals, and homosexual communities took to the streets and protested for rights, the use of drugs and psychedelics were popularized, rock and roll took a new meaning with the Beatlemania craze, and everyone just wanted to feel happy, being sick of the war with Vietnam and Soviet Union. The core belief eradicated the old America in favor of the new America, one where the American Dream was mended from whatever the people believed it to represent. Hopper took these aspects and criticized it, showcasing its inevitable demise from the eyes of two stoner hippie bikers.

 

       The protagonists of the film are named Wyatt and Billy. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) rides a Harley-Davidson chopper with American decals and wears a leather jacket with an American flag patch on the back. It is clear that the film sees him as a western figure. There is an obvious parallel when Wyatt replaces the flat tire of his chopper next to a man mending a bent horseshoe on his horse, viewing Wyatt as this modern cowboy. Billy (Dennis Hopper) is a hippie looking biker, riding a Norton P11 motorcycle. Billy is a character built on personality, always acting happy and free, representing the naive and jolly personality of people during the 60s. A character they run into later, George (Jack Nicholson), comments on his behavior, saying during the campfire scene: “What you represent to them, is freedom.” The duo have their own ethos of what America is for them, it's full of drugs, money, and comfort, similar to people's views in the 60s. Speaking of George, he is a lawyer the duo runs into in jail in New Mexico and helps them get out to join their travels. As they journey down south east he constantly warns them that they most likely won't be welcome there, knowing the kind of people they are.

 

       As their travel continues they are constantly oppressed by the people around them for being the hippies they are. Inns and Motels refuse to shelter them so they resort to sleeping out in the wilderness in sleeping bags. While in Louisiana, the trio enter a restaurant and are harassed by the rednecks in the establishment, one of them refers to the trio as low and “should be put in a cage.” Wyatt and Billy are hippies and the hippie group is viewed as an extremely progressive movement for its advocating for many minority groups. Due to this, it is one of the reasons it is frowned upon by conservatives, and they had a bad look towards hippies. That night, the trio gets attacked while sleeping out in the forest, an attack that leaves Wyatt and Billy injured and George murdered.

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       Another element that affected the hippie counterculture is their eventual demise from over comfortability and losing track of their objective. Once the duo arrive in New Orleans they enter a brothel and hire two prostitutes to accompany them as they walk the streets during Mardi Gras. This ends in a cemetery where they all take a tab of LSD, leading to a scene filled with sex, blasphemy, and despair. It was common at the time that hippies would induce drugs and free sex, and these things are what transformed the hippie movement as a joke of its own self. So this scene is a reflection upon those elements of hippie culture and its impact on Wyatt. That night around the campfire, when he gets the sting of realization he says to Billy: “We blew it.”

 

       What follows is a tragic conclusion that is filled with symbols and metaphor. As they drive down the road after leaving New Orleans two rednecks pull up next to Billy with a shotgun and shoot him. Wyatt comes to aid his friend and places his leather jacket with the American flag patch on him to cover his wounds. The act of Wyatt leaving behind his jacket with a dying Billy is hinting that their American Dream is fading away, being left behind. It is further amplified when Wyatt drives down the road and is shot and killed, leaving his bike to be engulfed in flames the film ends. The bike, being the central symbol of their American Dream, a dream filled with joy and freedom, is left at the side of the road burning away in the body it once was.

        Easy Rider is a masterpiece that is a cinematic snapshot of the 60s. The film has ever since garnered a well deserved cultural following, many citing the movie as the prime movie about the 60s. Not only capturing its look and feel, but from its characters, what they do and what they experience, we witness the death of the 60s and hippie culture.