In the following essay, I will attempt to highlight the phenomenon in cinema known as the
“counterculture youth-pic.” This trend in production started in the late 1960s as a result of
the economic and cultural influences on the film industry of that time. The following essay
looks at how those influences helped to shape a new genre in the film industry, sighting
Easy Rider as a main example, and suggests some possible reasons for the relatively short
popularity of the genre.
“The standard story of the counterculture begins with an account of the social order against
which it rebelled, a social order that was known to just about everyone by 1960 as the
“mass society.” The tale of post-war malaise and youthful liveliness is a familiar one; it is
told and retold with the frequency and certainty of historical orthodoxy.” (Thomas Frank,
Conquest of Cool)
Following World War II, The United States entered a decade of prosperity. Consumerism
flourished, and the middle class worker enjoyed the benefits of an economy on the rise.
Part of the reason for this rise in the economy, was the change in the work place. Time
management and efficiency were emphasized, and the conditions of corporate America
reflected it. The cubicle, nine to five workday, and business dress were all products of this
change. This focus on efficiency could be seen outside the workplace as well.
“College campuses were such Monoliths of conformity at the decades start that university
of California chancellor Clark Derr, confidently predicted that “employers will love this
generation” because “they were going to be easy to handle.”” (Shaky Ground, Alice
Echols)
However, this conformity of the populace to fit the needs of the adult consumer society
aroused feelings of disgust in the youth of the day. They felt as though corporate society
saw them merely as pieces of a machine, to be worked over and used for the greatest
profit. The counterculture movement can be read as a direct result.
Many factors converged to create the hippie counterculture, namely drugs and rocknroll,
but the forming of this subculture wouldnt have been so popular had America not at that
moment economically well off. While the rebel youth of the 1960s were rejecting
Americas relentless materialism, their revolt was enabled and underwritten by Americas
unprecedented prosperity. Following the beatnik movement of the late 1950s a number of
young people, embracing some of the same ideas, congregated in San Diegos Haight
suburb. But it was not necessarily just the youth of the day that were part of this social
rejection.
“The last half of the 1960s saw the emergence of seemingly new cultures among young
people, which were promptly collapsed under the label youth culture by adults. Even so,
these cultures were neither entirely novel, nor limited to young people, nor so
homogeneous as to be described by one label.” (Grans, Comparative Analysis)
Part of what made this movement so distinguishable at the time was the rebellion against
the fashion industry, as well as social norms. It was relatively easy to pick out which
people sympathized with the movement, especially with the characteristic male look of the
“Jesus Christ hair and beard.” They dressed to highlight their freakiness, combining clothes
of other times and cultures.
“Davy Crockett buckskin, military surplus, Buddhist robes, Edwardian suits, Errol Flynn
pirate shirts, native American headbands, capes, cowboy and Beatle boots, hats-bowlers,
stove-top, cowboy, Eskimo, anything-and beads, of course.” (Echols, Shaky Ground)
It was not only the social values and fashion trends that were experimented with. This
period in history also saw a large rise in drug usage. Marijuana in particular became very
popular. The invention of acid (LSD) was also crucial to the music scene at the time, which
was a large part of the counterculture. These new drugs allowed the mind to experience
certain stimuli that the brain under normal functioning reduces to a slight impulse. The
theme of drugs and drug usage was prevalent in the counterculture symbols of the time as
well. And towards the end of the 1960s one of those symbols became the counterculture
youthpic film.
“As for America, the poor boy and rich girl story (or rich boy and poor girl), which was the
staple of the popular film before World War II, had disappeared. Money as romance had
receded, not because everyone was now rich but because the middle class image has
replaced both the poor image and the rich image. There was, for example, little difference
in appearance between the clerks car and the bosss. The ascendancy of the middle class
had reached the point where it was strong enough to control cultural forms, and to magnify
its own image in art.” (Frank, Conquest)
The movie industry at the time had been filling the screens with spectacular productions,
melodramatic love stories, and popular culture. These films, which were very successful
early on, soon became clich*d, and were no longer profitable. For the first time in its
history, Hollywood was having trouble pleasing the audience. The culture of the time had
worked so hard to condition American audiences to accept a certain image onscreen, that
they had removed their desire for change.
“Despite its apparent enthusiasm, goes the standard binary narrative, the Establishment
was deeply threatened and in mortal conflict with a counterculture that aimed to undermine
its cherished ethics of hard work and conformity. Easy Rider concludes with its hip heroes
murdered by white Southerners; the hero of Zabriskie Point and those of Bonnie and Clyde
are shot as well; the hero of Hair disrupts a society dinner party, is arrested, and then killed
