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"Easy Rider"
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Life on a Farm
The life on a farm as presented in the movie "Easy Rider" is a life of hard work but on the other hand a life with many advantages. It is a life without technology. The farmer is a simple man, a kind of "country boy". He is tolerant towards the two bikers. The farmer allows Billy and Wyatt to use his tools in the barnyard to patch up Wyatt´s flat tyre and pays him compliments about his motorbike. He is a very helpful and friendly character.
We are introduced to his farm work in the beginnig of the scene: When Wyatt is pushing his engine into the barnyard the farmer and an older man are fixing horseshoes.
The fact that Billy and Wyatt are invited to have lunch with the big family underlines the hospitality of the catholic family who prays before the meals.
During that meal they have a kind of small-talk about where the bikers come from. The farmer is old-fashioned caused by the solitary life without any media because he does not know what "L.A." means. He and his wife have many children (at least five).
The farmer confesses that he wanted to visit L.A. when he was young but his wife, their children and his work came in between and made these plans impossible.
When Wyatt tells the farmer that he has a "nice spread" which means that he should be proud of his way of life.
Wyatt admires him because he can be his own boss, he lives off the earth and he reaps what he sows. The scene ends with Wyatts sentence "Who of us is able to live like this."
Review
I have am ambivalent about the movie "Easy Rider". It did not bore me but sometimes it was a bit long-winded. For example the recuring road-scenes showing Billy and Wyatt riding confidently in the open air, accompanied by the soundtrack of the great songs, on their motorcycles were, in fact, very impressive, but from the third time on I thought that this might be great for nature-loving motorbike-freaks but for me it was exhausting.
I am also critical of the protagonists´ obvious lack of reality.
I think that the script makes no real effort to utilize the subjects of pot-smoking as genuine political statements; such facts exist as if they were entirely natural. The only thing which emerges as a statement is the idea of getting back to nature and of self-sufficiency.
I can´t identify with the ways of living presented here, because I would prefer my creature comforts to having to dig in the dirt every day.
Nevertheless I liked the movie as there were many exciting scenes in it and I sympathized with the two protagonists - especially during the last scene, when both of them were killed.
A fact is that the movie holds onto his original power and his epoch-making impact.
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