October 3, 1969
The N. C. Essay
Page 3
from page 2)
superficial studies. Fasy Rider
is a recent important exception.
Easy Rider smacks of reality; it
focuses on the new American Dream
and makes the quest seem neither
rromantic nor hopeful.
What is most significant about
Easy Rider is that it is not
content to deal with sterotypes, but
with real people and real situations.
There are no heroes in Easy Rider,
but screwed up, confused people who
are searching for something, some
thing they are not sure exists. The
film is, in essence, a modern %,'5'
existential tragedy and its char
acters, despite their put-on names,
are not caricatures of coqI, but
lonely, desperate searchers.
The film begins with Captain
America (Fonda) and Billy the Kid
(Hopper) copping and dealing meth.
Then, in true frontier fashion, Fonda
and his sidekick ride off looking
for America, not on horseback, but on
motorcycles. Hopper's goal is to
reach New Orleans and the Mardi Gras;
H I LL ASSUnES DUTIES
(Con't from page 1)
examiner in the auditing department
and as supervisor in the executive
training program and administrative
assistant in the loan administration
department.
He taught mathematics at
Hampden-Sydney College at Hamnden-
Sydney, Virginia and was in the
actuarial research department at the
Connecticut General Life Insurance
Company at Hartford, Conn. He
served in the U. S. Army as chief
clerk in the field medical labora
tory in Africa, Italy, France and
Germany, from 1942 to 1945. ,
Hill received an accounting
diploma from the Draughon School of
Commerce at Atlanta, Ga. He
received a B.A. degree in mathe
matics from Duke University at
Durham and has done graduate work at
Duke. He is a member of Phi Beta
Kappa.
In Winston-Salem he has served
on the executive committee of the
Child Guidance Clinic of Forsyth
County, treasurer of the Forsyth
County Mental Health Association,
chairaan of the budget committee of
the Winston-Salem Arts Council and
financial advisor for the Children's
Theater Board.
He is a member of the Rotary
Club and a member of the board of
ushers at Home Moravian Church. He
and his wife and son live at 398
Plymouth Avenue in Winston-^alem.
Fonda's search entails something
deeper. Neither can ever articulate
what it is they are looking for. And
therein lies the basic concept of the
film: a new American Dream must be
sought. To want "freedom" is not
enough, because freedom is too ab
stract a term. Although their ex
terior and their actions (long hair,
riding the open road, smoking dope
freely) may suggest freedom. Captain
America and Billy are really trapped,
isolated individuals.
y^Into the South, they are
. hasslVd by the law and local toughs,
{?one incident resulting in the death
of a drunken lawyer (played expertly
by Jack Nicholson) they befriend.
Once in New Orleans, they drop acid
for the Mardi Gras and manage to sur-
vive an insane freak show. Having
reached their destination, they take
off again.
: . Near the end of the film, Fonda
and Hopper sit by the roadside dis
cussing their journey. Hopper is
overjoyed, his thirst for thrills
temporarily satisfied. Fonda, in
the film's heaviest moment, tells
Hopper that they blew it, that their
search had been fruitless. The
film's final scene is one of tragic
irony and despair, a frustrating
epitapth for Captain America and
Billy - and for the American Dream.
Serving as a bitter realization for
the young people in this country.
Easy Rider bears down confrontation
between the establishment and the
"new youth".
Easy Rider is a disturbing film,
offering a view of life in the
1960's, one that will leave you iso
lated in your realization of what and
who you are or are not in this society.
It is a compelling and beautiful film,
one that marks Hopper as an actor and
director of considerable potential.
Fonda, although he tends to under
play his role, nonetheless turns in
his finest screen performance. It is
a film to be seen and to ponder over,
because it asks some very real
questions. It is an indictment of
the American way of life, not only of
the establishment, but the "hip"
society as well.
JULY 18
I doldrums
[without waves
.even of nausea
[exactly nothing
jbut grey
[shapeless no
things slow-winding
through my mind
drowsy limpid
annoyances some
sufficient to
half-waken me.
hy KatKleeen
Fitzgerald
Twenty-five dancers, both modern
and ballet, left early Sunday morning
to perform in Charlotte at Freedom
Park. This has been the second year
that the school's dance department has
participated in the festival.
The stage was outdoors and the■
surrounding atmosphere proved to be a
kind of circus flavor, with lakes,
ducks, balloons, and screaming kids with
their tired parents. It was terribly
hot and after a long afternoon of
listening to bands, watching baton
twirlers, and swinging in swings, the
performance finally got underway.
Works presented were "Concertina,"
"Peasant Pas de Deux", "Ten and Two",
and Screenplay". Nolan T'Sani, a
former student at N. C. S. A., now
studying with The School of American
Ballet in New York, performed in "Ten
and Two" and in the Peasant Pas de
Deux". Even though there was much
balloon popping, babies crying, and
music stopping in the middle of dances,
it proved to be an enjoyable evening.
MIDNIGHT
COWBOY
(Cont, from page 2)
slicker con men and women. He gets
taken and taken, and no one buys what he
is selling. He is convinced by someone
he meets at a bar that all performers
heed managers and so he hires the fenter-
prlzing-lobking native, unaffectionately
called Ratzo by a young man in drag.
ButpRatzo’~^Hoffman) also betrays Buck
and"Joe Buck finds himself penniless in
the street.
't .•* ^ ’■ ‘•■'S ■
■'' ' There follows-a'struggls''f6r ''ic
stirvi'^alfwith hjis onlyeaify'^^ RaCzo
Ri2zo?swho'’left ChS’^yonng'^hick nothing
but hisvPaul Newman self-itsags.
, ■' 'n ''
Midnight Cowboy ±s 'a bleak look■
at many inst.1 t:uticn>- t)f elty life: '
illusion, disalluSlonment, hoiiio-
spxuality, hypersexuality, starvation,
d^paif, disease, and death. Can a
man be stripped of all of the symbols
he depends upon to express his self-
respect and'Still maintain that self
respect. '
Midnight Cowboy shows graphi
cally and not prettily the systematic
murder of a man's sense of values, yet
the resolution'of the movie is one of
a curious triumph that suggest, per
haps, ghktttwe are'more than the clothes
we wear and the people we sleep with.