“It had been cut in such a way that Peter had nothing to, Jack had very little. Nicholson had told Jaglom about shooting the scene at the campfire when George gets high and talks about aliens. I think there are now six rides on the film, maybe seven. “Editing the film,” says Jaglom, “was a gigantic job because much of it was just endless rides, rides, rides. “Myself, William Hayward, Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson, Donn Cambern went to work in the editing room at Columbia and took the film down to 96 minutes.” Jaglom was hired by his friend Schneider to shape the film. “After 22 weeks, we sent Hopper and his girlfriend off to Taos,” notes Fonda. And Jack was complaining and terribly unhappy about it.”Įverybody seemed terribly unhappy with Hopper’s first edit of the film, which took 22 weeks and ran nearly three hours. Bert sent me to see that Jack really got a proper ’50s haircut. Hair was really important to us in those days. We got into arguments about how long the hair could be. To play this part you really have to be a country guy. “I said to Jack, you’ve got to cut your hair. “We went down to executive barbershop Columbia,” he says. Jaglom - who is credited as editorial consultant and worked with Nicholson and editor Donn Cambern on the film - recalled that Nicholson didn’t want to cut his long hair to play George. Torn sued Hopper for defamation and won after Hopper went on The Tonight Show and said Torn pulled a six-inch knife on him and threatened his life. The late Rip Torn was set to play George until there was an incident between him and Hopper involving knives. Independent filmmaker Henry Jaglom ( Eating, Festival in Cannes), who was a young actor then under contract at Screen Gems, was good friends with Nicholson when he was cast as George. Bert Schneider replaced me as executive producer.” Bert’s father was a senior executive at Columbia and agreed Columbia would finance and distribute the picture with no restrictions on Dennis. “Bert Schneider and his partner Bob Rafelson heard about what had happened. “This angered Peter and me and infuriated Dennis,” he recalls. Corman says they had a clause to the contract stating that because Hopper had never directed before, American International Pictures could replace him if he fell more than one day behind schedule. We all came to terms quickly and started preproduction.”Īt that point things hit a snag. Because I had previously produced and directed two pictures for American International, The Wild Angels, starring Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern, and The Trip, starring Peter and Dennis, which were highly successful, American International accepted immediately. “I accepted, and with their approval took the project to American International for financing and distribution. “Because they had never made a picture before and we had all worked together in previous films, they asked me to join them as executive producer,” recalled Corman by email. It was a journey that Corman hoped to take also. When asked today if it’s still relevant, go look out the window and tell me we haven’t blown it.”ĭuring Easy Rider, Wyatt and Billy smoke copious amounts of dope, pepper their conversations with “man,” visit a commune, befriend an alcoholic ACLU attorney named George (Jack Nicholson), encounter rednecks who kill George, and trip out in New Orleans during Mardi Gras with two prostitutes (Karen Black, Basil) only to be shot to death by good old boys on the road. “I never intended to answer that question,” he tells THR by email, adding, “I intended it to be enigmatic and applicable to all kinds of things. Audiences are still trying to figure out what Wyatt means when he is sitting with Billy at a campfire near the film’s end and tells him, “We blew it.” Fonda didn’t explain then and he won’t explain now. The movie, which was made for around $375,000 and grossed $60 million worldwide, stars Fonda and director Dennis Hopper as two biker buddies - Wyatt, aka Captain America (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) - who travel through the Southwest and South with the money they made from their last cocaine deal. When the film rode full-tilt-boogie into theaters, the entire landscape changed and dozens of movies looked to emulate the spirit of the drama. Ahead of the film’s 50th anniversary on July 14, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with those involved and close to the making of the project, including producer-writer-star Peter Fonda, veteran filmmaker Henry Jaglom, actress Toni Basil and singer-songwriter Roger McGuinn as well as Roger Corman, who was originally set to executive produce but was replaced ahead of the shoot. But in a year packed with classics, the film that made the biggest impact was a deceptively simple biker flick, Easy Rider.
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