Easy Rider

Lee Hill's meticulously-researched study of the 1969 cult road movie Easy Rider analyses both the circumstances surrounding the film's making and the social and cultural forces that found expression in it. Easy Rider broke the mould of Hollywood studio production, making stars of its producer, director and stars Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, and launching a new wave of radical and experimental American cinema. It was one of the crucial films of the late 60s, a film that enshrined the ideals of the counterculture but also foresaw the demise of these ideals in the despair and paranoia of a nation rocked by Watergate and the Vietnam War. It was a seminal road movie and a massive financial success that spawned endless imitations. Few films since have been able to catch its particular blend of innocence and cynicism, hope and despair.

Hill persuasively argues that the role of illustrious screenwriter Terry Southern in Easy Rider has been neglected as the exact circumstances of production, filming, and editing have become lost in mythmaking. Referring to little known archival material, Hill questions and sheds new light on some of the legends that surround Easy Rider.

In his afterword to this new edition, Hill looks back on Easy Rider more than 50 years after its first release.