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In collaboration with the MV Museum’s ongoing exhibit “Sea Change: Martha’s Vineyard in the 1960s”, join us for the first in this four part 1960s film series.  Historian and movie buff A. Bowdoin Van Riper will talk about how the film fits in the context of the decade.

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.

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A landmark counterculture film, and a “touchstone for a generation” that “captured the national imagination”, Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. In Easy Rider, real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.

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Hopper received the First Film Award (Prix de la première œuvre) at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. At the 42nd Academy Awards, Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

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The film appears at number 88 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Years, 100 Movies. In 1998, Easy Rider was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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“Fonda and Hopper, it should by this time go without saying, give immense performances.” -Charles Champlin LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Iconic 1969 road trip movie with violence, drugs, sex.” -Renee Schonfeld COMMON SENSE MEDIA

“More than anything else, the thing that gives Easy Rider its legendary status is that it’s an indie film that became the spokesperson for a decade when Hollywood was preoccupied with other concerns.” -James Plath MOVIE METROPOLIS