http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/easy-rider-right-wing-classic/
June 8, 2010
Today's idea: Far from simply glorifying the drug-infused hippie
counterculture, the 1969 film "Easy Rider" contains a deeply
conservative, Christian message, an argument holds. It's a morality
tale right up there with Chaucer.
--
In an essay on the recently deceased Dennis Hopper and his unorthodox
politics, Jesse Walker of Reason magazine points to debate over the
meaning of "Easy Rider" (timely now too because Turner Classic Movies
is reprising the Hopper-directed film in the wee hours Wednesday).
In 2007, J.F.X. Gillis, a blogger for Newsvine, disputed conservative
critics like Michael Medved, who "hated almost everything about the
movie." They were missing a lot, the blogger contended, finding stern
moral parallels with Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" in the
heartland American wanderings of Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Mr.
Hopper). Among other things, they spurn the models of a "meaningful
life" offered by a traditional rancher and a devout commune, and pay
the price:
If this narrative had been Medieval, could there be any doubt at all
of the theme or the moral teaching intended? Sinners wander the
countryside on a secular quest, encountering God's message but
failing to acknowledge Him. They seek worldly pleasure at the expense
of spiritual fulfillment, finding treasure and discussing it under a
tree, only to finally to die a horrid death by the wayside. …
Wyatt and Billy were given choices, opportunities to find meaning in
their lives beyond that gas tank filled with money, beyond the
pleasure of the brothel or the bottle, beyond the aimless wandering,
meaning offered through spiritual commitment. Could there be a more
conservative theme?
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/01/the-id-and-the-odyssey
http://jfxgillis.newsvine.com/_news/2007/12/12/1146900-they-blew-it-the-secret-of-easy-rider
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