Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Director: Dennis Hopper
IMDB
Emily says:
This is one of my dad's all time favorite movies, and I have to say that I enjoyed our conversation about it way more than the film itself. The movie's not bad, its definitely indicative of its time - a period piece about free love that features a drug deal, a commune, and a semi-creepy drug induced mardi gras experience in New Orleans.
The soundtrack was unbelievably good, as was much of the filming, but the ending was abrupt and a sad commentary on the close-mindedness of the South in the 1960's.
By far, the best part of this movie was the conversation I had with my dad afterwards about how his family was living in a suburb of Paris in 1969 when this movie came out and how he would take the Metro down into Paris to see this movie over and over again with some friends from school. You had to be 16 to see the movie and my dad was only 12 so he had a fake ID to get in. He told me about how he had a friend who worked in the school ID office at the American School in Paris who got it for him.
A period piece maybe, but the soundtrack alone is enough reason to watch this one - even if you don't have a dad to walk with you down memory lane. Thanks, Dad!
Paul says:
What is this movie about? Seriously? The first hour or so is pretty good, although not much happens. The characters transported some cocaine and made a bunch of money and now want to go from California to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. There are a lot of really pretty shots of a very pretty Peter Fonda in front of various very pretty scenery on the way through the American West. At some point they run into an alcoholic Jack Nicholson who joins them for the ride. They get to New Orleans and have some sort of crazy drugged out sex adventure, and then I feel like they just didn't know how to end the movie so they killed everybody. Really, this comes out of left field. It's a great road movie, with lots of good shots of shenanigans on the highway and a good soundtrack, but I suspect that I was too sober to get the full experience out of this movie. Maybe some mind-altering chemicals would've helped, who knows.
Rating: 7/10
Paul says:
What is this movie about? Seriously? The first hour or so is pretty good, although not much happens. The characters transported some cocaine and made a bunch of money and now want to go from California to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. There are a lot of really pretty shots of a very pretty Peter Fonda in front of various very pretty scenery on the way through the American West. At some point they run into an alcoholic Jack Nicholson who joins them for the ride. They get to New Orleans and have some sort of crazy drugged out sex adventure, and then I feel like they just didn't know how to end the movie so they killed everybody. Really, this comes out of left field. It's a great road movie, with lots of good shots of shenanigans on the highway and a good soundtrack, but I suspect that I was too sober to get the full experience out of this movie. Maybe some mind-altering chemicals would've helped, who knows.
Rating: 7/10
Posts
With all due respect to your opinions and your dad, I absolutely HATED this movie.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those movies that represent a time period (the late sixties, of course) so it's not surprising that anyone who wasn't around then finds the movie meandering, pointless, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the gifts of this movie is that each of the characters were just like someone you knew in real life (yes, there were folks who were just as odd in real life). In addition to one of the best soundtracks ever (Harold and Maude's is probably a close second), Peter Fonda was the coolest guy especially since he was completely clueless about most every facet of his existence. But hey, it was the sixties.
Anyway, if you can buy that Bob Dylan was the voice of his generation, then you can buy that this movie is the movie of the same generation (Bob's probably aged a bit better).