The most prominent aspect of the film’s mise-en-scene opens the sequence: the Harley Davidson motorcycles (Fig. 1). These ‘choppers’, the ‘Captain America’ and the ‘Billy Bike’ tap into a 1950s and 1960s subculture and would be key to popularising this form of customised motorcycle after the film’s release. A key symbol of the counterculture, these motorcycles represented a movement that disregarded conservative notions concerning societal norms and the status quo. In one of the first shots, the motorcycles jerk along the dirt road, mimicking the stride of the horses that pass them by. This could allude to the overall aesthetic of the film and the similarities it draws with the western genre, albeit in a contemporary setting. However, while the western genre of the time exemplified, even romanticised, American history, Easy Rider uses the same iconography to criticise ideals considered uniquely American during a decade marked by political assassinations, the trauma of the Vietnam War, and a struggle for civil rights.
As the men meet (Fig.2), the combination of the American flag prominently displayed in the foreground on the back of Wyatt’s jacket, the rocky landscape in the background, and the two farmers tending to their horse, acts as another instance of visual influence derived from the western genre. The colour scheme produced here is one of Earth tones, mostly used to characterize a natural atmosphere. However, the American presence in this shot, whether it be the flag’s notable red, white, and blue or the farmers’ own attires, disrupts this harmony. Wyatt occupies the frame in a way that is intrusive and artificial, perhaps a subtle commentary regarding the destructive and jingoistic ‘Manifest Destiny’, something often celebrated, both advertently and inadvertently, in the western genre. Adding to this, the connotations carried by the horse and attire of the farmers, as well as the colour of the set design, are of cowboys, which is tied to frontier imagery. Linking also to class, their costuming serves as a reference to a rural, working class aspect of the ‘American Dream’, a nostalgic throwback to the promise of a sustainable and independent prosperity that is earned as a reward for hard work and individual ingenuity. Griffin describes aspiration and its links to commercialism as having ‘[o]ften been defined in terms of material wealth – owning land, one or more homes, several cars, expensive jewellery and clothing, and so forth’ (Benshoff and Griffin, 2011; 168). This is a notion that is seemingly rejected by the two protagonists who are instead champions of many ideals of the counterculture movement of the time, namely the consumption of psychedelic drugs, open sexuality, and a rejection of the traditional interpretation of the American Dream, preferring instead hedonism and individual liberty rather than a conformity towards class-based social hierarchies and social mobility. Despite this, however, the pair’s motivation to travel cross-country is driven entirely by an entrepreneurial venture in narcotics; so, while they may be operating outside the legality of a system they reject, they’re still incentivised to partake in an albeit socially frowned upon form of free-market capitalism.
This juxtaposition between the more conservative elements of rural America and the fringe aspects of the hippie movement embodied by Wyatt and Billy is made evident in a shot where they’re fixing their chopper in a barn in the background, while the farmer is hammering on a horseshoe in the foreground (fig. 3). The preferred transport mode of previous generations is contrasted visually to a powerful internal combustion engine, an apparatus that just so happens to be accommodating lots of cocaine.
This comparison presents two differing versions of the American Dream. One, a picturesque landscape and a family in harmony with the environment around them, the other, a cold transient existence with little room for security. The inclusion in the set of hay, an anvil, and other props representing rural life serve to mark the chopper out as an invasive object with its silver frame and black wheels. While the characters interact with each other in a friendly and open manner, and mark a certain brand of Americanism, especially in their clothing, there is a gulf between the two groups, as if they aren’t living in the same country at all.
Griffin claims that ‘[i]t is wrong to think that the nation has no class issues’ (Benshoff and Griffin, 2011) and Easy Rider is a film that challenges the American Dream and the belief the United States is a classless society. In its use of mise-en-scene, the film clearly demarcates the two groups to express possible versions of what it means to be American against the backdrop of the former frontier.
References
Benshoff, H.M. and Griffin, S. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies (Malden, Ma: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
Dimitri Bakalis is a student at Queen Mary University of London currently working towards a BA in Film Studies. Originally from Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, he is a founding member of the QMUL Cinema Society and hopes to pursue a career in creative writing after graduating.
Please obtain permission before redistributing. Copyright © Dimitri Bakalis 2020