Easy Rider (35th Anniversary, Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

Easy Rider hit theaters before I was born, but age has nothing to do with liking this movie. This is one of the most personal movies you could watch as not a single moment seems like acting and, as you will find out, a lot of it isn't as the cast and crew picked up extras on their cross-country journey to Mardi Gras.

I had not seen Easy Rider before getting this DVD to review, but I had heard enough about it to know that it was one that I could not miss and for good reason. I was reviewing the George Lucas Director's Cut of THX 1138 when on one of the featurettes Lucas says of Easy Rider, "It completely changed the corporate concept of what would be a hit movie." A pretty powerful statement considering the movie he was talking about was an independent feature about two guys traveling across the United States on their motorcycles using money they got from selling cocaine.

Then again, that is simplifying this movie way too much and this Special Anniversary Edition DVD does this movie justice in proving just what a force it was and what an impact it had on American Cinema.

The special features are limited to a making-of documentary and a Dennis Hopper commentary but the documentary is approximately 90 minutes long and is just as good, if not better than the documentary on the new THX 1138 DVD, which I also loved. Covering every aspect of the movie from beginning to end you see just how important Easy Rider was to the time and how important it was for those making it.

Along with the DVD you also will get the soundtrack to the movie and the BFI Modern Classics book Easy Rider, which does such a good job of capturing the essence of Easy Rider by giving a detailed look into the making of the movie, the selection of the soundtrack songs and the impact the movie had on filmmaking.

For those of you that have seen Easy Rider I don't need to draw any comparisons but for those of you interested, but not quite sure if it is the movie for you, it is really hard for me to think of similar films but I would say you can find a lot of similarities in Thelma and Louise and some shades of Easy Rider appear in movies such as True Romance and Natural Born Killers.

This is a movie that is jaw dropping and this DVD Edition is absolutely awesome and with the addition of the soundtrack it just sweetens the deal. Pick this one up immediately, you won't regret it, for $21 it is almost a steal considering everything you get.