American Freedom: Cool

Easy Rider was definitely a cool film. However, I would argue that Dennis Hopper's character Billy was much cooler than Peter Fonda's character Captain America. Captain America lacked coolness because of his constant striving to reach an ideal. He did not see the real life in front of him. Instead, he was striving to reach the same kind of life that the farmer and the commune were trying to achieve. Also, instead of taking advantage of the commune's offer to join them, Captain America decided to leave the commune to continue his search. Ultimately, his lack of coolness stems from him not seeing what he really wants. When he descends into New Orleans, he is furthest away from the life he wants. Nevertheless, he decides to use acid at an absolutely horrible time in a continuation of his search. This is what leads to his bad trip-instead of using it in good company at the commune, he uses acid in the synthetic happiness of Mardis Gras with bought friends. Captain America himself proves that his path for truth is wrought with failure when he says "We blew it".

Conversely from Captain America, Billy was a very cool person. Throughout the film, he only wants three things: drugs, money, and freedom. Normally, I do not find people who are entrenched in drugs and money to be very cool. However, Billy has an almost transcendental quality about him. Instead of reveling in decadence, Billy just wants to enjoy life as much as possible, and because he sees the conventional ways of living in America as a roadblock to happiness, he simply chooses to live in his own way. Furthermore, although Billy has the mainstream want to retire in Florida and relax for the rest of his life, he is still retaining his transcendental qualities. Just because his goals and the goals of mainstream America interact, he sees no need to change his ways to match some goal of nonconformance.

Regardless of the coolness of Captain America and Billy, the absolute coolest idea in the movie is the road trip across America. The road trip symbolizes the epitome of freedom in America-the ability to travel anywhere in the country without being impeded by laws or traditions. In a way, this is a continuation of people traveling west to live in the lawless frontier. No matter when the time, the idea of being able to live without rules will always be cool.