We messed up

If American mythology was still operating effectively in the early 1950s, and only independent films faintly expressed their doubts and worries, then in the late 1960s and early 1970s, traditional myths were completely shattered by reality. The failure of the Vietnam War in the United States directly led to the dissolution of the Western mythology. People questioned the justice of opening up new frontiers. John Wayne, a representative of the hero of the West, starred in the movie "Green Berets" that supported the Vietnam War. Generally opposed. The Watergate incident further disintegrated the political myths of the United States. The democracy, freedom, and American dream that Frank Capra has always promoted in the movie became a joke.

Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" filmed in 1969 was a catharsis of American youth after the myth broke. The actor in the film, Peter Fonda, is the son of Henry Fonda, a veteran Hollywood star. Henry Fonda once starred in hero images representing American mythology such as "Young Lincoln" and "12 Angry Men". However, in "Easy Rider", he overturned the illusion created by his father, pointing out that the United States is actually a country lacking rationality, sympathy, tolerance and freedom.

The story of "Easy Rider" tells the story of two young men who made a fortune by buying and selling drugs. They took the money and rode around on motorcycles. They witnessed the prejudice of the older generation, who prevented them from staying in the shop because their hair was too long, and even attacked them at night; at the same time, they also witnessed a group of young hippies leaving the big city sowing food on the dry hillside, it seemed It is the runaway young people who are constructing a new myth on this wild land. But in the end, after frantically having fun with prostitutes in a cemetery, Peter Fonda cried bitterly while holding the statue of Liberty. That night, Peter Fonda said to his partner: "We messed up." The next day, they were shot and killed on the road just because they couldn't understand their hairstyle.

In "Young Lincoln" and "12 Angry Men", Henry Fonda used reason and law to exclude the prejudices of others and saved the lives of innocent people; and in "Easy Rider", Peter Fonda and Dennis Howe Perkin was shot and killed just because his hairstyle was different. Young people tried to find new myths after their faith was shattered. Faced with the group of hippies who sowed the wasteland, Peter Fonda once believed: "They will succeed." But in fact, they are just doing useless work because of acidity. The soil will never grow food. The director also hinted that these two knights are heroes of the new era. They came to a small town to repair motorcycles. In the foreground, an old cowboy was saddling his horse. In the background, Peter Fonda and the others were giving him a saddle. Motorcycle tires. However, they still messed up things, because the road they took has neither an end nor a beginning. They can neither return to the traditional family nor find their own new myths and utopias, so they can only die. On the way.

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