He believes that religious thought can be divided into two categories, one is the tragic religious thought born out of the world, and the other is the utopian religious thought of joining the world. In his opinion, American culture in the 1960s, and even the entire American culture, was born under the latter tendency. In the 1960s, Americans "favored esoteric art, admired Eastern religious magicians and meditation skills, and gained short-term Nirvana through drug abuse, polymorphism, or rapid therapy." This is exactly the "utopian religious transformation". The result formed by the words and sentences of secular humanism. In this belief, people believe that moral and spiritual victory can be achieved by improving the enjoyment of the senses.
Here, the latter tendency is connected to two levels: the former Garden of Eden and the future Utopia. The Garden of Eden points to salvation, the desire to be born in the former tendency, because it is too deep to enter the world, so I want to go back; while Utopia is forward-looking, it wants to break the present and build a heaven on earth, so it must Go.
"Easy Rider" is like a wonderful footnote to this discussion.
It is easy to recognize the shadow of America in the 1960s in the movie: drug abuse, group sex, rock, carnival, hippies... Two guys riding Harleys all the way down south, one by one, a throbbing America in The sound of rock and roll broke ground over and over again. And they actually talk about the most difficult philosophical and religious propositions of freedom, redemption, existence and nothingness. In connection with Dickstein's thesis, this madness of joining the world points to a higher level: the utopian religious tendency. There are religious beliefs and secular political demands. According to my words: the garden of Eden in the past and the utopia in the future. On the other hand, "Easy Rider" is a typical commercial film (the most typical example, as the ancestor of the road film, its main selling point was set on the scenery along the road from the beginning, and the audience got pleasure through consuming the scenery). It conspires with the current ideology and settles in the present world. It can be said that its own form naturally rejects this pursuit. And this is actually the paradox of American culture throughout the 1960s, that is, the problem that Dickstein mentioned after "utopian religion is transformed into secular humanism", that is, the current world and the past The tension between the Garden of Eden and the future Utopia: We can neither go back to the Garden of Eden nor reach the Utopia.
The long series of interlaced shots at the end embodies the nature of the film's dual narrative. In my opinion, this is the theme of the whole film.
White and Billy took the girl from the brothel to the cemetery. After taking drugs, the four of them hugged and fooled around. The next shot that appeared was like a nightmare running out of the hearts of the four people. The shots quickly switched between different scenes, accompanied by ambiguous mutterings.
What runs through it is a prayer made by a young girl in the cemetery. It probably talks about how people fell and how they seek salvation. The religious connotations are clearly revealed. The interpretation of original sin here directly points to the sound of construction as the background. Before that, the two protagonists went through a construction site to the cemetery. The sound of construction from the construction site implies the connection between human degeneration and highly developed capitalism: the latter’s harm to human nature is like industrial civilization embedding itself in the body of nature, just like the tragic death of a cemetery in the city by the side of the road. Wild dog. The film has been dedicated to revealing this. The Catholic families and hippie groups that the two protagonists meet on the road carry their words on this theme: a way of life far away from industrial civilization. The road film itself’s impulse to leave the city illustrates this point (Harley Motors as a symbol of industrial civilization is a typical example of the above-mentioned paradox). The female nude here is a symbol of salvation, their posture is the crucifixion posture, and at the same time they resemble the Virgin Mary. The voices of the two prostitutes have been talking about death. The girl on the other side talked about the resurrection of Jesus from the very beginning. Looking at the two together, it is easy to see the theme of salvation. Here, Fall and Redemption point to the Garden of Eden. That once paradise has long since ceased to exist because of our sins, and the hope of redemption exists in this way of looking back at the Garden of Eden.
In addition, there is a voice of political appeal beyond the theme of religion. The stars and stripes behind White's clothes and the gesture of hugging the Statue of Liberty said this. Contacting the gossip in the street sleepers in the previous article, the lawyer and Billy's statement about freedom, it is easy to see this appeal:
"This country used to be a good country, I don't understand what went wrong."
"Everyone has chickens ." That's it, we can't even get into a second-rate hotel."
"They are not afraid of you, but what you represent."
"What we represent is that everyone needs a unique hairstyle."
"No, What you represent is freedom... Talking about it and realizing it are two different things. Real freedom is very difficult, especially when you are bought and sold in the market, so don’t tell people that you are not free. They will kill and do. Evil will prove you wrong."
Here, the current politics is considered bad, and the prescriptions offered by the film are not reforms that follow one step at a time, but a conception of a unified world (typically represented by the self-sufficient hippie community), and the demand for social justice is expressed as A kind of utopianism, combined with the search for the true meaning of the individual.
In this long series of shots, the beginning and the end are the same shot: the sun shines at an angle of forty-five degrees. Behind this sun, is the former Garden of Eden or the future Utopia?
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