Easy Rider brief analysis

As a group we watched and analysed the 1969 American New Wave film, Easy Rider. We watched this film as it is a classic New Wave film, in addition to it giving great examples of New Wave shooting, editing and techniques, which will become useful when we begin to shoot our own New Wave films.

• The viewer is put into the same situation as the characters --> a foreign environment (Mexico) and a language barrier.
• Long/establishing shots.
• Counterculture --> cocaine use/dealing.
• Regular people are in the area, including non-actors.
• Using famous people for cameos e.g Phil Spector.
• Diegetic sound --> aeroplanes at the airport.
• Uses music of the time/era.
• Lens flare.
• Song lyrics replicate the story, "I've smoked a lot of grass".
• Fast-cuts and close-ups.
• Peter Fonda's character goes by the name 'Captain America' --> intertextual reference. American hero?
• Not wearing their helmets when riding their motorbikes whilst "Born To Be Wild" is playing, showing a rebellion.
• There is no vacancies at any hotels --> intertextual reference to Mary and Jesus, 'no room at the inn'.
• Handheld jump-cut POV shots/edits.
• Dennis Hopper's character called Billy --> intertextual reference to Billy the Kid, a historical American outlaw.
• Reference to the West --> cowboys and indians.
• Actors actually smoked drugs for effect and some sequences were un-scripted.
• People's reflections in windows/mirrors are filmed and left unedited.
• Shallow depth of field and focus shifts.
• Visual metaphors.
• Montage sequences in between scenes.