Billy the Kid: Drugged and Dying

             In the Movie Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper, Captain America and Billy the Kid are the two main figures throughout the film. Both characters represent the hippie movement but on two extremely different ends of the spectrum.

            Captain America embodies the version of the hippie that lives off the land, maintains a high level of ethics, and has a relationship to a higher power. But Billy the Kid represents the side of the hippie that is causing the movement to die.

            Billy the Kid uses substances in order to be inebriated and not to reach a higher state of being. He lacks a sense of ethics that maintains a heavy focus on politeness to others. He also chooses to see his ultimate goal in life as retirement in Florida and not as finding a place in which he can be whatever he wishes. This dichotomy can be viewed in the scene from 00:35:00 to 00:39:00.

            Captain America fits seamlessly into the society of the hippie commune by bonding with a few of the members. He is even invited to stay at the camp. While Captain America feels included and welcome, Billy the Kid’s experience at the commune is quite the opposite.

            When Billy tries to follow one of the members into an area where a small gathering is taking place, a member of the commune blocks his entrance and the man they had picked up on the highway asks Billy who sent him in an unwelcoming tone. Billy is then accosted by the group performing on stage who is singing about long hair as they grab at his. The unfriendly and dominant tone of the commune suggests that Billy the Kid’s version of the hippie has no place within the back to nature, peace, and love image of the hippie that the commune has prescribed too.

            When Billy tells Captain America that he needs to leave, Captain America brushes Billy’s needs off while accepting a request from two women in the group at the commune. This rejection is then followed by Captain America trying to educate Billy as to why Captain America had agreed to the girls’ request. The unreceptive attitude of the commune as well as Captain America’s rejection and then education of Billy presents a non-homogeneous view of the hippie movement.

            The separation of the hippie subculture shown in the scene from 00:35:00 to 00:39:00 is also visible in the last scene of the movie. Billy the Kid’s demise is the starting point for the end of the hippie era. To cover up the death of Billy, the two men in the truck go back to kill Captain America. This double homicide represents how the whole hippie movement died because of individuals like Billy who instead of choosing a more humble and nature oriented perspective turned to heavier drugs and focused less on the idea of living from the earth. This negative image of the hippie that Billy presents permeates the consciousness of the country at the time.  

            Billy the Kid and Captain America seem so different throughout the movie and this difference is especially evident in their final outlooks. While Billy thinks they made it, Captain America thinks they blew it. Easy Rider attempts to bring these two different sides to the hippie subculture together to see how they interact with one another. The scene discussed above suggests a division within the group that is not so easily mended and bridged. Just as the easy riders died, so did the hippie movement.