Hey, man, like, what's the big deal, man

Last night I watched "Easy Rider" for the first time, and it brought about 2 distinct reactions:

The first was thinking about how exciting it is to see a movie like this for the first time after hearing all about how great it is over and over again. Like the first time I watched "Network" and how it completely blew me away with the weird way it balances over-the-top examples of '70's counter-culture stereotypes ("You can blow the seminal prisoner class infrastructure out your ass. I'm not knockin' down my goddamn distribution charges.") with the male-dominated corporate control and Old Boy's Club mentality, merging the two with Max and Diana's past-future, old-young, acknowledging-the-truth-and-manipulating-it relationship, and also how it merges in the one character of network tool Howard Beale. It's absolutely stunning. "Dog Day Afternoon" is like that too. So is "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" and "Midnight Cowboy." They all live up to what's been said about them.

"Easy Rider" just didn't hit that same nail. Yeah, Jack's great in it and I get the America is un-American thing ("But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.") and how unfair the '60's were to freedom of expression and yah yah yah. But the good moments that actually show that rather than say it (the riding of the bikes on the open road, the way they walk through the seed-planting at the hippie commune) are short and pushed out by weird attempts at avant garde editing and psychedelic camera tricks that smack of art school failure. And then the "heavy" ending and the America's not for the free ... ... cah ... whatever. Although I like when the one guy says "Think we should go back for him" and what that really means. That was a good touch.

Maybe I was in a bad mood while watching it ...

Because the second reaction was the desire this morning to put on a red communist ("бОЛЬШЕВПК!") t-shirt and walk into Walmart.