Easy Rider (1969) is a seminal work of the 60s. With the dearth of new material containing nudity lately, I am catching up on classics that, for one reason or another, I have not previously done. In case someone reading this has not seen this low budget film, the plot is rather simple. Dennis Hopper, who co-wrote and directed, and Peter Fonda, who co-wrote and produced, are outlaw bikers. After a successful coke sale, they take a road trip from LA to Mardi Gras. Along the way, they spend time in a hippy commune, and then are arrested in a small town for parading without a license. They find themselves in a cell with Jack Nicholson, an alcoholic lawyer who has worked for the ACLU. Jack joins them.

Camping outside a small Louisiana town, the locals beat Nicholson to death for hanging around long haired freaks. Hopper and Fonda make it to Mardi Gras, visit a whore house, and take two ladies on a tour of Mardi Gras and have an acid trip in a cemetery. On their way out of town, locals shoot both of them. Just before, there is an important discussion around a campfire, where Hopper is excited about having scored with the dope deal, and that they can now retire in Florida. Fonda only says, "We blew it."

While the music was very nostalgic, and was the first time that "found music" was used in a film, I was not impressed watching it. It was sort of old news. The "we blew it" line did puzzle me. Thank god for a featurette also on the DVD. In a very real sense, the MPAA was directly responsible for this film being made. LBJ had just created the MPAA and put Jack Valenti in charge. Peter Fonda was in Toronto promoting The Trip, and heard Valenti's first public speech. Valenti said, "My friends, you are my friends, we have to stop making movies about motorcycles, sex and drugs, and make more movies like Doctor Dolittle." Fonda went back to his hotel, fired up a couple of joints, had a Heini, and was signing publicity photos, and suddenly knew what he wanted to do for his next film. He woke Hopper out of a sound sleep to get him interested in the project.

The featurette is chock full of anecdotes about the making of the film, and the attitudes they encountered shooting in the south. Most interesting of all was Hopper's explanation of the "we blew it" phrase. According to Hopper, the film is actually an anti-counter culture message. The two "outlaws," by exercising their version of freedom, were actually destroying their country, and with it, their freedom. I would never have guessed that. Indeed, the film was interpreted very subjectively wherever it played. In Texas, they cheered the killing of the outlaw long hair hippy freaks, while California audiences stood up and screamed "off the pigs," which, in a way, makes Hopper's point about "we blew it."

The film was nominated for Oscars for best original screenplay and best supporting actor (Nicholson), won Best First Work at Cannes, and received several other awards and nominations. Interestingly, the 20 minute making of featurette also won awards. Hopper claims that he was trying to make a "European art film" and hoped to win at Cannes. I was unable to find complete Box Office information, but this little independent film, made for $340.00 K, has earned $19,100,000.00 in rentals alone. Not all of the talent was in front of the camera. László Kovács was the DP, and did amazing work. Bob Dylan wrote lyrics for a song for the film.

We have female nudity in two scenes. The first, in a hot springs at the hippy commune, Luana Anders and future California State Senator Sabrina Scharf show breasts. In the second, Toni Basil, as one of the New Orleans hookers, does full frontal and rear nudity.

It is currently sitting at 7.2 with fairly consistent scores from all demographics. There is no doubt about the importance of this film, but I found the back story far more compelling than the film itself viewing it from the perspective of 36 years later. This is a B+, as much for the importance of the film as for its quality.

Updates:

• Charlie's French Cinema Nudity Site has been updated.

Crescendo (1970)

I have never seen this movie. As far as I know, it is not available anywhere on any home medium. I suppose this was taped off a TV broadcast.

I don't even know much about the film, but I know it features the one and only time when a big TV star from my generation (Stefanie Powers) did any clear nudity. That's pretty much all I need to know.

• Stefanie Powers .wmv

Other Crap:

Other Crap archives. May also include newer material than the links above, since it's sorta in real time.

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MOVIE REVIEWS:

Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

• The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
• If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
• A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Junior or Brainscan, or somebody else besides me)
• If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

Words, pictures, and vids from ICMS

"Keys to Tulsa" (1997)

Scoop's notes:

1. Given the complete incomprehensibility of this film in English, I can't see any additional problems caused by the simultaneous Polish voice. In fact, it may make more sense in half-heard Polish. To tell ya the truth, this is the case of a bad movie that I like because it is sexy, atmospheric, and over-the-top. Joanna Going, however, is beautiful.

2. I switched from Windows Media Video V8 to V9 after the first two of these .wmv's. You may need to upgrade to that codec. Info here.  I made the .wmv versions of each of the ICMS videos. (He makes the .avis, of course.) The latest codecs for these: Windows Video V9, Windows Audio 9. The upside of these is that you know the codecs, and they'll play in the Windows Media Player. The advantages of these are (1) that they are compatible with any up-to-date windows OS, and (2) the file sizes are economical. The downside is that the quality is inferior to the originals.

3. If you have trouble with the .avi videos on this site, there is a tool designed to determine which codec is needed for any video. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

4. Because of a unique combination of circumstances with the Windows media player and some substantial bandwidth theft, we have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Left click on the files as you normally would to view a picture. When you get a choice, click on "save", and put it on your hard drive in the directory of your choice. UnZIP and play from there. I know this is not especially convenient, but it allows us to carry film clips. I can protect .zip files from hot-linking in the same way I can protect still images. For some reason, if I protect .avis and .wmvs from hot-linking, they will not play in the Windows media player, and I can't get a satisfactory work-around. Perhaps I will find a better solution, but for now this new policy allows you to continue getting the movie clips you want to see, which is much preferable to my abandoning the clips altogether.

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"Nailing Vienna"
Shoot video of your every move, and turn it into a movie. That's the premise of this 2002 comedy from the UK. It's also, unfortunately, the way they made the movie, so what you get is 1 hour and 34 minutes of video, purposely (I assume) made to look very amateurish.

Three petty thieves, and not very good ones, decide that the real money is in making a movie about bank robbers. They enlist a very thuggish bank robber for the part of the villain, and he turns the tables by committing a real robbery during filming.

There are some funny bits, but frankly, overall this thing falls flat, and the video gimmick is downright annoying, even though they kept the quality decent. Kate Magowan and Caprice Bourret are beautiful, and there are a few more lovelies flitting about, but that's maybe the only reason you might want to check this one out.

• Kate Magowan
• Caprice Bourret

JOHANSSON TIRED OF OLD GUYS
Lost In Translation - 20-year-old actress Scarlett Johansson says she's sorry she told a newspaper that she enjoys the company of her older male co-stars, such as Bill Murray and John Travolta. Asked if she'd date an older man, she said, "A guy who's 40, 50 or 60 years old...why not? I don't think that you can control who you fall in love with." She said that ever since, "It's horrible," that only "balding men with giant guts" ask her out. She pleaded, "Young men can feel free to seduce me."