Writing Hopper and Fonda's first collaboration was in
The Trip (1967), written by Jack Nicholson, which had themes and characters similar to those of
Easy Rider. When seeing a still of himself and
Bruce Dern in
The Wild Angels, Peter Fonda had the idea of a modern
Western, involving two bikers traveling across the country after a drug sale. He called Dennis Hopper, and the two decided to turn that into a movie,
The Loners, with Hopper directing, Fonda producing, and both starring and writing. Back in LA, Fonda introduced Hopper to
Cliff Vaughs, who Peter had met after his second arrest for marijuana in 1967, when Cliff interviewed Peter for radio station
KRLA. Over multiple meetings, Vaughs provided his experiences riding a chopper through the South while working on civil rights with the
SNCC in 1963–1965, including being shot at by two duck hunters in a pickup while he was riding his chopper with Iris Greenburg on the back, between Jackson and Little Rock. Vaughs had a handmade poster on his living room wall with collaged letters spelling 'Where has my easy rider gone?' atop a poster from the Mae West film
She Done Him Wrong. Vaughs was made Associate Producer of the film, and designed/built the two choppers, with the assistance of Ben Hardy and Larry Marcus. Fonda and Hopper later brought in screenwriter
Terry Southern. The film was mostly shot without a screenplay, with
ad-libbed lines, and production started with only the outline and the names of the protagonists. Keeping the Western theme, Wyatt was named after
Wyatt Earp and Billy after
Billy the Kid. According to Southern, Fonda was under contract to produce a motorcycle film with A.I.P., which Fonda had agreed to allow Hopper to direct. According to Southern, Fonda and Hopper didn't seek screenplay credit until after the first screenings of the film, which required Southern's agreement due to
writers guild policies. Southern says he agreed out of a sense of camaraderie, and that Hopper later took credit for the entire script. During test shooting on location in New Orleans, with documentary filmmaker
Baird Bryant on camera, Hopper fought with the production's ad hoc crew for control. At one point, a paranoid Hopper demanded camera operator
Barry Feinstein hand over the footage he shot that day so he could keep it safe with him in his hotel room. Enraged, Feinstein hurled the film cans at Hopper and the two got into a physical confrontation. Among the
extras who appear in the sequence are actors
Dan Haggerty and
Carrie Snodgress, musician
Jim Sullivan, and Fonda's daughter
Bridget. and
liftgate, similar to this
Chevy C-50, were used for motorbikes and filming equipment A short clip near the beginning of the film shows Wyatt and Billy on
Route 66 in
Flagstaff, Arizona, passing a large figure of a lumberjack. That lumberjack statue—once situated in front of the Lumberjack Café—remains in Flagstaff, but now stands inside the
J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome on the campus of
Northern Arizona University. A second, very similar statue was also moved from the Lumberjack Café to the exterior of the Skydome. Most of the film is shot outside with natural lighting. Hopper said all the outdoor shooting was an intentional choice on his part, because "God is a great
gaffer." Besides the camera car, the production used two
five-ton trucks, one for the equipment and pulling an 750 Amp generator trailer, and one for the up to four motorcycles, with the cast and crew in a motor home. the film did not have a U.S.
premiere until July 1969, after having won an award at the
Cannes film festival in May. The delay was partially due to a protracted editing process. Inspired by
2001: A Space Odyssey, one of Hopper's proposed cuts was 220 minutes long, including extensive use of the "
flash-forward" narrative device, wherein scenes from later in the movie are inserted into the current scene. • The original opening showing Wyatt and Billy performing in a Los Angeles stunt show (their real jobs) • Wyatt and Billy being ripped off by the promoter • Wyatt and Billy getting in a biker fight • Wyatt and Billy picking up women at a drive-in • Wyatt and Billy cruising to and escaping from Mexico to score the cocaine they sell • An elaborate police and helicopter chase that took place at the beginning after the dope deal with police chasing Wyatt and Billy over mountains and across the Mexican border • The road trip out of L.A. edited to the full length of
Steppenwolf's "
Born to Be Wild" with billboards along the way offering wry commentary • Wyatt and Billy being pulled over by a cop while riding their motorcycles across a highway • Wyatt and Billy encountering a black motorcycle gang • Ten additional minutes for the volatile café scene in Louisiana where George deftly keeps the peace • Wyatt and Billy checking into a hotel before going over to Madam Tinkertoy's • An extended and much longer Madam Tinkertoy sequence • Extended versions of all the campfire scenes, including the enigmatic finale in which Wyatt says, "We blew it, Billy."
Easy Rider's style—the jump cuts, time shifts, flash forwards, flashbacks, jerky hand-held cameras, fractured narrative and improvised acting—can be seen as a cinematic translation of the
psychedelic experience.
Peter Biskind, author of
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls wrote, "LSD did create a frame of mind that fractured experience and that LSD experience had an effect on films like
Easy Rider." ==Motorcycles==