Cinema St. Louis’ Golden Anniversaries: Films of 1969 Series Continues With EASY RIDER This Sunday September 8th at 1:30pm

“You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.”

Golden Anniversaries: Films of 1969 features 6 classic films celebrating their 50th anniversaries. This second edition focuses on 1969 and features a half-dozen films, all screening for free at the St. Louis Public Library (1301 Olive Street St. Louis) over 3 weekends in late summer.  (This series kicked off August 31st at 1:30pm with MIDNIGHT COWBOY). On Saturday September 14th at 1:30pm the ’69 film will be THE WILD BUNCH directed by Sam Peckinpah. There will be an intro and post-film Q&A with W.K. Stratton, author of The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film . Admission is FREE. A Facebook invite can be found HERE

EASY RIDER (1969) is much more than a 60s relic – it’s still a great movie even today. I find it fascinating that Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda took Roger Corman material and gave it an European- influenced arthouse approach. Combined with breathtaking visuals, a well-chosen rock soundtrack and some classic, stoned, improvised dialogue EASY RIDER is still an impressive movie all these years later. Fonda had recently made THE WILD ANGELS, Hopper the less remembered THE GLORY STOMPERS, and Jack Nicholson HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS, but EASY RIDER reinvented the biker movie (or technically created a new subgenre: the “hippy” Biker Film), and things were never quite the same in Hollywood for the rest of the Seventies. The supporting cast is interesting and includes a great role for the fantastically underrated Luke Askew as the “Stranger on Highway”, and cameos from the star’s buddies Robert Walker Jr, Luana Anders and Sabrina Scharf, as well Karen Black and Toni Basil’s New Orleans hookers, Look for Phil Spector’s coke snorting bit part, and a fleeting glimpse of young Grizzly Adams Dan Haggerty. You either love EASY RIDER or you don’t, and I’m most definitely in the former camp. A 1960s generation-defining counter-culture classic!

Here is the rest of the schedule for Cinema St. Louis’ Golden Anniversaries: Films of 1969 Series

The Wild Bunch Saturday, Sep. 14 at 1:00pm

Women in Love Sunday, Sep. 15 at 1:00pm