“What the hell is wrong with freedom, man? That’s what it’s all about,” asserted Billy, Dennis Hopper’s wide-eyed, mononymous antihero in search of America during a memorable scene in the groundbreaking 1969 road movie Easy Rider.
Billy – along with Wyatt, his travelling companion, played by Peter Fonda – represents the hedonistic and rebellious cult of youth, endeavouring to survive in a straight and intolerant society. That Hopper, also the film’s director, chose to model his adventuring and idealistic character – complete with a drooping walrus moustache, shoulder-length hair and fringed jacket – on David Crosby was testament to the pervading influence the free-spirited countercultural icon held on a generation atthe tail end of that revolutionary decade.
