The "Beat Generation" was a basic literary genre that first appeared after World War II, and its influence on later generations of Western culture was powerful and far-reaching. "Beat" literati have a keen interest in experiencing various extreme lifestyles (such as indulgent sex and drugs), and they are also the most fierce challengers to the authority and mainstream culture of the American intellectual class. The hippies who appeared in the 1960s inherited the practice of the "Beat Generation" of the 1950s, emphasizing individualistic freedom with drugs, sexual freedom, and weird hairstyles and clothing to resist the mainstream society. American society in the 1960s was in the midst of a series of harsh social realities: murders, Vietnam War, civil rights movement, economic recession, political crisis, etc. The "New Hollywood Film Movement" was born in such an era of "social turmoil and democratic crisis".
"Hippies" are the two young people in the film, White and Billy, who are looking for unique hairstyles and clothing at the time: one leather jacket and helmet with the American flag printed on the back, and the other wearing a hippie fringed leather jacket. , With long hair, the two rode Harley-Davidson on the highway. On the way, I have encountered friendly Bohemian crowds, and also encountered young people who resonate, and have been squeezed out by mainstream social crowds.
The other important character in the film, the lawyer George, is just like the film said, wearing a "nice man" coat and suit and leather shoes, but his heart is extremely painful. He uses alcohol to relieve his pain. In the end, it was these similarities that allowed the three of them to go together and embark on a journey of finding Utopia. A sentence Billy said before George's death: "They are not afraid of you, but of what you represent-freedom, and they will prove their freedom by killing and doing evil." So they all died in the end. , Leaving life on the road to find freedom.
Yes, the mainstream society killed them on the road to find freedom and dreams. Before killing them, they punished the hippies in a cruel way. The arrest for "participating in a parade without permission" in the film is a great irony and mockery of the United States, which is known as the spirit of freedom and equality; the three people in a small restaurant in the town endured the sheriff and other linguistic ridicule and contempt. And the young girl's affection for them made the sheriff and other young people's indignation even higher, and openly stated that they would never be allowed to cross the state line. So they were attacked that night, and George died with a club. Soon after, Billy and White also died under the gun of a stranger. Just because they can't understand the uniqueness of their hairstyles.
It is this beat generation, these desperate hippies, who, because they are young, dare to go on the road in search of freedom. Because of confusion, I went to find a living answer. It is precisely because of despair and pain that I find a way to escape and mentally paralyze. And in the end they also understood that this road will never end, and the acid soil will not grow food. So they exited the curtain call, withdrew from this chaotic and insensitive world, leaving behind a series of puzzles to beat and beat those hypocritical and self-deceiving people.
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