Mention the words Road Movie, America and Harleys, and most motorcyclists and movie fans will immediately think of Easy Rider. And it’s now been released in the UK as part of the Criterion Collection, who specialise in restored, special edition film packages. So this must be the ultimate Easy Rider Blu Ray edition, with plenty of extras.
Easy Rider starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as two bikers who are traveling through America selling marijuana. Fonda had previously starred in 1966 bike film The Wild Angels, and Hopper had appeared in The Glory Stompers in 1967, but Easy Rider was a departure from outlaw bikers. Instead it was a counterculture film featuring the hippie movement, the communal lifestyle and drugs.
Besides using real drugs for the filming and introducing a young Jack Nicholson, Easy Rider also made a star of the motorcycles themselves. A total of four former police Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glides were bought at auction for $500, dating from 1949, 1950 and 1952. Then two of each of the customs, the Captain America and the Billy Bike, were built to have one Harley as a backup by Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy.
The Captain America which was destroyed in the making of the film has since been rebuilt and is currently in the National Motorcycle Museum. The other three bikes were stolen and probably stripped for spares without anyone realising how significant they would become – the museum spent $1.35 million for the remaining bike.
Criterion Collection Easy Rider:
So the 95 minute, 1969 film has already had a restored high-definition digital transfer with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack featuring the iconic music of the film (plus 2.0 and 5.1 alternate surround sound versions).
Then there is a 2009 audio commentary with Dennis Hopper, and one from 1995 with Hopper, Peter Fonda and production manager Paul Lewis.
Also included are the 1995 Born To Be Wild and 1999 Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage documentaries about the film. If that’s not enough, you also get TV excerpts of Hopper and Fonda at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, a 2010 interview with production company co-founder Steve Blauner, and theatrical trailers.
So basically, if you like Easy Rider, or fancy seeing it for the first time, this is the option to choose. And it’s not as expensive as you might think – Amazon currently have it for £17.99.
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