Seminal low-budget countercultural road movie which perfectly taps into the spirit and disenchantment of the youth in America at the time. Peter Fonda and director/star Dennis Hopper are a pair of doped-out, hippie bikers searching for a ‘lost America’, only to be confronted by violence and bigotry; Jack Nicholson, in a breakthrough role, is a boozy lawyer they meet on their travels.
Made with casual conviction and intermittent frenetic bursts, this classic created its own unique, unrepeatable formula. It certainly challenged (then) Hollywood conventions like a breath of fresh air; Laszlo Kovacs provides superb photography harking back to pioneer land; the soundtrack is absolutely brilliant, too.