In the Last couple weeks, I have watch Battle of the Bulge by Ken Annakin and this week I watched Easy Rider by Dennis Hopper who was also an actor in the film. These two films don’t share many similarities besides time ere and an action and adventure story line. However, they both contain moments with a serious setting and can be seen as movies for certain demographics of people. However, I do believe that a similarity is war, what is going on during the war and what is taking place back home even though it’s through a different war. Battle of the Bulge shows the hardcore military actions in war with the Germans, where Easy rider shows more home life of people going through the Vietnam war.
Easy rider became one of the most anti-culture films to release in the sixties, and starting to become really popular throughout the 70’s. It was said that during this period of film had a great capture of the era and still holds up well today. It can be best recognized as “The story of the man who went searching for America and couldn’t find it anywhere”. In research I found that this film was made on a very small budget yet grossed about twenty times their starting fund. It showed the spending power of the younger generation and the topical social issues of the time. I decide to re-watch this movie because it was always one of my dad’s favorites that we watched back in the day, he also had the posters.
This movie is about the journey that two savage bikers take across America (from Los Angeles to New Orleans). The two men where all about drugs and partying, and end up getting thrown in jail in the process. However, the lawyer that they end up getting help from decides that he wants to with them. This trip started as a way to find America then retire after all was done, but the men soon find out that the Freedom we think we have isn’t so free, and it’s more of just an illusion.
This clip is from one of my favorite scenes when all three of the men where sitting around the fire getting ready for bed. As the sit around the fire one of the men roles a joint and its the lawyers (George) first time. He is skeptical to try since he already has a drinking problem, shortly after all three men where high telling stories and possibly seeing UFO’s flying by.
The Battle of the Bulge shows art cinema though war, life and, death. It shows scenes of the cruel unforgiving battle ground with the mediocre living conditions. It can really stun an audience when they see how big some of the military forces where and the different strategies used to be victories in battle. Even though being a historic film, it has been review negatively on things like dull actors and certain scenes, followed up by a couple dull performances. However, it was made this way so they could attempt to expand their audience and lower the maturity rating.
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