Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.
Easy Rider is a landmark of New Hollywood counterculture cinema. Its loose, episodic road narrative is intentionally thin on conventional plot structure, but the cinematography — particularly Laszlo Kovacs's sun-drenched wide shots of the American Southwest — is genuinely iconic. The film's novelty is undeniable: it essentially invented a template for countercultural road movies and captured a specific moment in American history with raw authenticity. Acting is solid, with Nicholson's breakout performance elevating the ensemble. The ending is famously abrupt and nihilistic, effective but divisive rather than transcendent.