Several months ago I borrowed a copy of Dennis Hoppers book (1)Photographs 1961-1967. In it are great shots taken around Los Angeles in the states. Some of them show the view through the windscreen of his car and include the rear view mirror of his car driving on Sunset Strip. I thought about capturing shots of my journey between home and Skipton. I make this journey every Thursday. So here are the contact sheets for this road journey.

I set the camera so that I could whistle to trigger the shutter this meant I could drive and take shots when I chose in a safe manner. I wanted to get shots of where I was going and where I had been this is difficult in one shot.

Looking at the exposures I like the ones in town as they have lots going on in them. But my favourites are the ones out in the narrow lanes that lead to Skipton. On the contact sheets there are 109 exposures only around 10% are interesting in so much as they show where I am going and where I have been. The triggering by sound definitely worked.

To improve the work I would try to make a bracket to hold the camera in the same position. However this may make them all the same and render them sterile.

In the brief for this exercise we are asked to review a road movie. I had thought of Dennis Hopper earlier so why not review (2)Easy Rider which is most definitely a great road journey.

The movie was released in 1969 at a time when the USA was suffering from lots of areas of social, civil and foreign unrest. Assassanations of both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had shocked the country, Woodstock was held with a back drop or civil unrest and segregation for the young.

What is it about? The movies starts with a drug deal at the end of which Wyatt (Peter Fonda} breaks his watch. Whilst Billy (Dennis Hopper) watches on laughing. The two hippies then leave to have several adventures on the journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans. This journey has the promise of a better life at the end of it bought by the proceeds of breaking the law.

They travel across country to a great soundtrack of music. The country they travel through is typical mid America scenery. With lots of Gas Stations, Deserts, Billboard and Sunsets.

Sleeping outdoors or on one occasion on a farm which leads to an interlude with a commune where drugs and free love are freely available. After a break our riders get back in the saddle and back on the road.

Our two desperados enter a town and join a parade on their motorbikes. This leads to them to be arrested for “Parading without a permit”. After a night in jail they awaken to find they have been joined by a drunk in a suit. George Hanson (Jack Nicolson) turns out to be a lawyer who soon has them released on he joins them on the journey. He sees the business card he has for a brothel in New Orleans as an omen.

Again out on the road they are now three riders on the open road. They go to eat before leaving the town and engage in conversation with some young ladies in the diner. This upsets the local males who fall out with the three who decide to leave.

After sunset with a belly full of food and some recreational drug consumption the three fall asleep. Later in the night the local men attack the three killing Jack Nicolson. Our two protaganists leave the body wrapped in a blanket and take his belongings to return to his family.

They then arrive in New Orleans and have an advernture/experience with tow ladies of the night. This experience taking LSD in a grave yard. This part of the film is a challenge to watch and is quite disturbing. During this psycodelic piece a flash forward appears showing a motorbike on fire.

The pair are now in sight of their Nirvana and are horsing around when a truck with some rednecks passes them by. Billy has an argument with the Rednecks who produces a shot gun and kills him. Wyatt goes after the rednecks for revenge, he too his shot and the scene shown earlier as a flash forward is revealed as the end of the film.

I think this film is about an end of an era within the United States, the 1960s are fast coming to an end. The seventies are approaching fast. The American Dream of the land of the free is promised every where. However when people decide to break free they are not accepted in fact they are in peril.

This film is a modern cowboy film, it has many similarities to the cowboy films of old. Riders out in the wilds around campfires meeting many people friends and foe. Even the names Wyatt and Billy refer to characters in the old wild west. Being on the wrong side of the law chancing everything for a better future as Wyatt says by the fire on the last night “We Blew it”. Is he making this statement for America?

The first cut was going to be four hours long. What would it have done if we had been shown all the road trip bits. I like the fact we aren’t shown all the story. We are left to fill in the bits we aren’t shown after been shown the bits that lead us to the conclusion, we don’t have to know everything to experience a story.

References

Easy Rider 1969 (Film) Colombia Pictures, (Hollywood, USA).

Hopper, Dennis Photographs 1961-1967 (Book) 2017 (Taschen Cologne)..