Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969) established the cornerstone of a new perspective of the West in the countercultural context. As John Ford used the literature for some of his productions, the counterculture gets some influences from the beat generation with authors and works such as Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957). The counterculture’s cultural products share the same fascination for the movement and express a general dissatisfaction towards the traditional community values. This new configuration fight against the traditional in a subtle way: “To rebel against (…) the Established Order and its values, (…) One must not collide with it head on, but rather exorcise it like a possession” , and this is exactly what Hopper does in Easy rider.
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That is not new in the West, the idea of escaping to the wilderness can be traced back to James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales novels (1827-1841). The freedom is the new myth to follow in the West, it is the ultimate reason in movies such as Easy Rider or Vanishing Point. Hopper (as John Ford) tries to recreate the magnificence of the western landscape, Easy Rider expands the cinema outdoors. “Easy Rider, like Breathless before, it is also interested in exploring the road as a metaphor (…) continues and establishes an icon to the genre of the road and the landscape but it is also important to recall that Easy Rider is not a triumphant landscape narrative but one that ends up tragically with the death of its protagonists.” In their ultimate search of the American freedom, Wyatt and Billy bump into the traditional America where they encounter with the old West’s. They deeply respect these values, they are just not interested on them anymore. They do not collide with them head on, they rather exorcise them. Far from the pessimist view of other configurations, the counterculture in cinema looks at the future with great doses of optimism. “A stranger, is putting in risk all our dream”, Billy says. A sign of the distrust of earlier times they try to break with. “Another way is possible”, Wyatt
That is not new in the West, the idea of escaping to the wilderness can be traced back to James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales novels (1827-1841). The freedom is the new myth to follow in the West, it is the ultimate reason in movies such as Easy Rider or Vanishing Point. Hopper (as John Ford) tries to recreate the magnificence of the western landscape, Easy Rider expands the cinema outdoors. “Easy Rider, like Breathless before, it is also interested in exploring the road as a metaphor (…) continues and establishes an icon to the genre of the road and the landscape but it is also important to recall that Easy Rider is not a triumphant landscape narrative but one that ends up tragically with the death of its protagonists.” In their ultimate search of the American freedom, Wyatt and Billy bump into the traditional America where they encounter with the old West’s. They deeply respect these values, they are just not interested on them anymore. They do not collide with them head on, they rather exorcise them. Far from the pessimist view of other configurations, the counterculture in cinema looks at the future with great doses of optimism. “A stranger, is putting in risk all our dream”, Billy says. A sign of the distrust of earlier times they try to break with. “Another way is possible”, Wyatt