![]() ![]() When he takes the acid that was given to him by the hitchhiker, Captain America’s journey becomes a bad trip both figuratively and literally. When he and Billy reach New Orleans, Mardi Gras is a letdown. After George’s murder, Wyatt loses his faith in himself. George’s death opens Wyatt’s eyes in much the same way that the turmoil of the 1960s did for the rest of America. It is only after George is beaten to death by a group of rednecks that Wyatt loses his optimistic outlook and his generous spirit. It is the stoned George who tells Wyatt and Billy that they represent freedom. When George smokes for the first time, Wyatt is the one who teaches him. (Billy always rides alone.) Whenever they stop for the night, it is always the generous Wyatt who offers to share his grass with whomever is traveling with them. When they stop to pick up a hitchhiker and then later when alcoholic lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) joins them on their trip, it’s always Wyatt who volunteers to share his bike. You should be proud.” When they later stop off at a ramshackle hippie commune, Wyatt is the one who says, in the best tradition of American optimism, that “They’ll make it.” It’s not every man that can live off the land, you know. When Wyatt and Billy eat dinner with a rancher and his family, Wyatt alone appreciates what the rancher has accomplished and says, “You’ve got a nice place. If the always paranoid and nervous Billy represents America’s worst impulses, Wyatt represents the best. On their way to New Orleans, Wyatt and Billy interact with many different people. If you replaced their motorcycles with horses, there would be little to distinguish Wyatt and Billy from the American outlaws who might show up in an old Henry Fonda western. At the start of their journey, Wyatt takes off his watch and leaves it on the ground, declaring that time has no meaning to a man who has freedom. Having made their money, Wyatt and Billy ride across the country to celebrate. It is no coincidence that the fuel tank is decorated with the stars and bars. Taking Spector’s money, Wyatt stuffs it into a plastic tube that he keeps hidden in his motorcycle’s fuel tank. They are selling cocaine to none other than Phil Spector. When we first meet Captain America, he and Billy are engaged in a business transaction, bringing to mind the old saying that the business of America is business. It is an appropriate nickname because Wyatt represents everything that is good about America. ![]() Wyatt is nicknamed Captain America because he wears a leather jacket with an American flag on the back. Instead, this Captain America is actually Wyatt Williams, a motorcycle rider who is planning on going to Mardi Gras with his friend Billy (Dennis Hopper, who also directed). The Captain America of Easy Rider should not be mistaken for the super soldier played by Chris Evans. ![]() And, in Easy Rider, Peter Fonda played Captain America. In They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, daughter Jane Fonda played a woman struggling to survive the Great Depression. In Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West, Henry Fonda played Frank, a gunslinger so ruthless that he shoots a child during his first scene. While the war in Viet Nam dragged on and turmoil raged at home, movie audiences watched as two generations of Fondas appeared in movies about the American dream. 1969 was a watershed year for both America and the movies. ![]()
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