Easy Rider Facts:
The scenes playing on a New Orleans cemetery towards the end of the film were shot first on 16mm film to advertise the idea to producers.
The score of the film was asked to be done entirely by The Band.
Real marijuana was smoked in many scenes, but the “undescribed white powder” sniffed by Fonda was powdered sugar. In various interviews, Fonda has said he was told by Hopper it would be real cocaine.
During the shooting, Dennis Hopper, legendary at the time for his drug excesses, tyrannized the crew so much that everyone quit. The rest of the film had to be shot with an entirely new crew
The hippie commune had to be recreated and shot near Mulholland Drive in the hills north of Los Angeles, as the original Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico commune near Taos did not permit shooting there.
Peter Fonda’s young daughter, Bridget Fonda, was one of the children seen in the commune.
Peter Fonda’s character is named only three times in the film, as “Captain America” in prison and in the brothel, and then as “Wyatt” at the final campfire.
The bikes for the film, based on hardtail frames and Panhead engines, were designed and built by African American chopper builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, following ideas of Peter Fonda, and handled by Tex Hall and Dan Haggerty later during shooting
On the final day of the test shooting, the cemetery acid trip was shot. Hopper tried to get Fonda to talk to the statue of Madonna as though it was Fonda’s mother (who had committed suicide) and ask her why she left him. What was left of the crew (most had quit due to Hopper’s drug excesses) were outraged at Hopper’s methods but Fonda went ahead with it. Surprisingly, Hopper was the one that was close to tears.
Hopper and Fonda hosted a wrap party for the movie and then realised they hadn’t shot the second campfire scene when Wyatt explains ‘we blew it’, so they had to shoot it later. At this time, the bikes had already been stolen, so they are not visible in the background
The pin Wyatt wears on his jacket is an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge.
The scene where Wyatt, Billy and George arrive in Louisiana over a bridge (accompanied by Jimi Hendrix’s If 6 was 9) was filmed in the city of Franklin, Louisiana.
Great Quotes from the Movie:
Captain America: I’m hip about time.
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George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.
Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened. Hey, we can’t even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or somethin’. They’re scared, man.
George Hanson: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ’em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ’em.
Billy: Well, it don’t make ’em runnin’ scared.
George Hanson: No, it makes ’em dangerous. Buh, neh! Neh! Neh! Neh! Swamp!
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George Hanson: [Drinking his Jim Beam] Here’s the first of the day, fellas! To old D.H. Lawrence.
[He starts flapping one arm like a chicken]
George Hanson: Neh! Neh! Neh! Fuh! Fuh! Fuh! Indians.
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George Hanson: [Seeing his first marijuana cigarette] Lord have mercy! Is that what that is?
George Hanson: [holding up a business card] The governor of Louisiana gave me this. Madame Tinkertoy’s House of Blue Lights, corner of Bourbon and Toulouse, New Orleans, Louisiana. Now, this is supposed to be the finest whorehouse in the south. These ain’t no pork chops! These are U.S. PRIME!
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Captain America: No, I mean it, you’ve got a nice place. It’s not every man that can live off the land, you know. You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud.
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George Hanson: I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.
Billy: We did it, man. We did it, we did it. We’re rich, man. We’re retirin’ in Florida now, mister.
Captain America: You know Billy, we blew it.
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George Hanson: They’ll talk to ya and talk to ya and talk to ya about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ’em.
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George Hanson: What’s “dude”? Is that like “dude ranch”?
Captain America: Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.
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Billy: Where ya from man?
Stranger on the Highway: Hard to say.
Stranger on the highway: I’m from the city… Doesn’t matter what city; all cities are alike.
Billy: Well, why’d you mention it then?
Stranger on the highway: ‘Cause I’m FROM the city; a long WAY from the city, and that’s where I wanna be right now.
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Billy: [after being flaked off by a motel manager] You asshole!
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Captain America: [reading inscription] If god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.
Billy: [while smoking a Joint] Oh wow! What? Who’s that man? What the hell was that, man?
Captain America: Huh?
Billy: [nervous] No, man, like hey, man. Wow. I was watching this object man, li-like the satellite that we saw the other night, right? And, like, it was going right across the sky, man, and then… I mean it just suddenly, uh, it just changed direction and went whizzin right off, man. It flashed…
Captain America: [interupting him] You’re stoned out of your mind, man.
