Northwest Film Forum

This low-budget road movie directed by then-unknown weirdo Dennis Hopper and featuring rock music as its score (mostly songs from Hopper’s record collection) turned out to be a huge success that turned Hollywood on its ear. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) use a drug deal to finance a cross-country motorcycle journey, on which they meet up with a drunken lawyer (Jack Nicholson). Co-written by Terry Southern, Easy Rider struck a nerve with youth and ushered in a new era of American filmmaking.