Double Features: Easy Rider & Thelma and Louise

By Corinne Cordasco and Emily Aycrigg
Published in In Earnest Magazine in 2014

Easy Rider

“Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.” —Billy

“Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.” —George

Why It’s Worth Watching

Written, directed, and produced in a collaborative effort by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, who also starred in the film as Billy and Wyatt, respectively, Easy Rider (1969) is a timely depiction of the dying spirit of the 1960s. The story follows two long-haired bikers as they make their way across the country to Mardi Gras, on a journey that starts with a drug deal in Mexico. Helping to usher in the New Hollywood era, Easy Rider was filmed on a budget of $360,000 and without a formal script, but made over $41 million dollars at the box office. The film received two Oscar nominations and is ranked number 88 on the AFI’s top 100 List. One of the film’s happiest surprises is the appearance of a winsome, young Jack Nicholson halfway through. Hopper and Fonda received heavy criticism for the actual use of mind-altering substances in the scenes where their characters “smoke grass,” although the acid they drop later in the film was (reportedly) fake.

Where to Watch It: Netflix Instant

Thelma and Louise

“Something's, like, crossed over in me and I can't go back, I mean I just couldn't live.” —Thelma

Why It’s Worth Watching

When it came out in 1991, Thelma & Louise, a film about friendship and the open road, quickly became part of the national dialogue about female victimization and empowerment. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, the film provides a realistic treatment of topics pertaining to almost every aspect of male/female interaction, but manages to escape browbeating, a pitfall of most films that attempt to handle such a topic. Nominated for five academy awards, the film won for its screenplay. The dynamic character arc undergone by Davis’s Thelma is one of the film’s strongest assets.

Where to Watch It: Netflix Instant

In Tandem

“Man goes on a journey” is not a new plot. Stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey—two of the earliest major works of recorded literature—focus on a protagonist compelled to leave home, embarking on a series of encounters that expand his view of the world and himself. After battling a few convenient monsters and receiving hospitality from those he meets, the hero optimistically returns home, convinced of his own strength and the goodness of others.

Easy Rider and Thelma & Louise tell similar stories, but with vastly different conclusions. In Thelma & Louise, what starts as an innocent girls’ weekend quickly devolves into misadventure after a violent incident puts the title characters on the run from the law, whereas the morally disadvantaged bikers in Easy Rider finance their ambling lifestyles with the profits of a major drug deal. As Billy and Wyatt travel east, the people they encounter become increasingly hostile and less hospitable with each mile, while the reception that the women experience is a mixed bag from the beginning (though skewed toward misogyny). Although touted as a land of freedom and opportunity, both stories accuse America of being a place where hospitality is not, or, perhaps, never was, a cardinal virtue.

Each pair is comprised of one member who is more idealistic–Wyatt and Thelma—and one who is more skeptical—Billy and Louise. Ultimately, it is Billy and Louise whose point of view is validated and Thelma and Wyatt who realize the world they believe in no longer exists. Gentleness, trust, and “doing the decent thing” are expected but rarely, if ever, encountered, and the twosomes are forced to rely on each other or risk the harshness of the open road alone. Two’s company and three’s a crowd for Thelma and Louise, who befriend a hitchhiker who only reinforces their distrust of strangers (and men, natch) but Billy and Wyatt expand their world enough to include the charming but eccentric lawyer George Hanson, played by Nicholson, a softening which puts them at greater risk in the defensively hostile South.

In today’s world, there is an increasing focus on the protection of those who, in the past, have been victims of hate or marginalization, making it easy to forget the prevailing ugliness of a much less tolerant past. In these films, particularly Easy Rider, the characters face strangers who view them not as individuals, but as the faceless “other”: troublemakers, criminals, threats. For the viewer, each story has the potential to be an exercise in empathy for the displaced or misunderstood, and a chance to redeem the sins of the past through our own lives.

For discussion…

If the characters had been alone on their journeys, would they have been forced to adapt to the values of those they met on the road, rather than having their preexisting values reinforced by their partner? How would the outcome have been different if at any point the characters had parted ways?
In Easy Rider, was Billy “asking for it” by responding to the men in the pick-up truck the way he did? How could Thelma have acted differently in the barroom scene? (The second one’s a trick question and if you get it wrong Lena Dunham will murder you in your sleep.)
Are these films a fair portrayal of America, particularly the depiction of the South? Do any occurrences strike you as unrealistic or forced?
If the events of these films had actually happened today, how would locals respond? How would the stories be covered in the media?