Dennis Hopper: the hippest American bikes off
May 29th, 2010 - 2:04 pm
So when you think of Dennis on that iconic bike in Easy Rider, think of America at its best, out on the open road, optimistic and heading straight on with unflinching belief in liberty.
And to my Hollywood friends, let this be a reminder that traditionally an artist is not someone who goes with the crowd, especially when that crowd hasn’t revised an idea since the presidential campaign of George McGovern. Open your minds. What’s cool may not be so cool anymore. If Dennis can do it, so can you. He wasn’t afraid of losing his job.
Yes, I know, this is not exactly the perfect guy to pick as a role model — but in a way I do. In fact, in honor of Dennis I’m thinking of turning in my Prius for a Harley.
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Frankly, I can’t understand why any artist could not be conservative, and why the very people who were singing and protesting about freedom in the ’60′s are now so dead set against it.
What we call Conservative is too moderate… it has limits. It concedes the world will never be perfect, politics can only do so much and actually, it’s easier for it to screw stuff up.
Artists don’t like it… and I think the Left has absorbed what would be considered Right Wing in Europe. You can preach culture, value elite education, want an organic (code for holistic / totalitarian / Utopian) society and be a ‘leftist’ these days. Like Europe, it’s the ‘left’ and ‘right’ [now also ‘left’) against the classical liberals…
Traditional Conservatisim is what made our country great,and will again.
Many of us that were part of the 60′s counterculture were all about freedom. In spite of differences that we might have had with the war in Vietnam… freedom was something we did, and still do cherish.
Dennis Hopper, as the article suggested, understood the source of that freedom.
I made that journey too.
I saw a bumper sticker today that said: “A closed mind is a wonderful thing to lose”
I don’t think the owner of that car probably saw it with irony, yet there is a truth there. The most closed minded people are those who think they are “progressive.”
Hopper was a true liberal. Good for him.
Well,call me crazy…but I think part of the reason Dennis was a libertarian had to do with a part he played on TV early in his career…a neo-Nazi street corner demagogue wannabe on an hour long episode of Twilight Zone entitled “He Lives”,wherein he comes face to face with the ghost of Hitler and folds like a cheap suit…that episode should have been enough to turn anybody who saw it off on authoritarian government
I loved Easy Rider, but when I think of Hopper I remember him in that great film by fellow Republican David Lynch.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/
‘The character of Frank was to breathe helium at various intervals in Lynch’s original script, but Dennis Hopper suggested this be changed to amyl nitrate which he knew was used to enhance sexual experiences. …’
Plenty of artists are Conservative. The Liberal/leftist artist is largely a stereotype. However, actors aren’t artists unless they write, direct and act. Anything else is a craftsman. Artists conceive of and create their own work.
Terry -
I do hope you are right about the liberal artist being just a stereotype. I’ve been around an assortment visual artists for years and my experience has been that the majority fit the stereotype of screaming liberal. Part of the problem may be that artists are taught to feel, not to think. Deep understanding of technical aspects of media is frequently eschewed in favor of originality. Government support of the arts may be increasing the problem, by rewarding the most “liberal” with juicy government contracts.
Artists who are willing to stand up like Dennis Hopper usually find themselves lambasted or shunned – think of Mel Gibson. We should support them and their work.
Gibson was not lambasted or shunned for his REPUBLICAN views- first as an AUSSIE he is not a REP party memeber, two, if he was ridiculed it was because he was a nasty drunk and jewhater from a Catholic cult- a man who claimed morality while carousing outside his marriage-
Please find a better example
As a former liberal artist who has also undergone the conversion to the RIGHT side, the LIGHT side- I know your stereotypes do NOT fit all of us- many artists and actors are closet REPS and more and more I find them in my day to day experiences- Like gays in the military not so many are OUT of the closet YET- the fact is you can be blacklisted by liberals for holding opposing views politically- funny how liberals always love protest unless it’s against their ideas- and then they prove to be the fascist/racist/intolerants they accuse you of being……….
Cate, I disagree partly. I don’t believe liberals “feel” nearly so much as a true patriotic conservative. I cry when the flag passes, or when I hear “Taps.” I cry when I remember my dad who served for 33 years, three wars, and is buried at Arlington. I cry every day when I think of my daughter’s military funeral 20 years ago. I cry when I see the horrible mistakes our President is making and his refusal to listen to anyone who may know better.
I’m amused by the thought of the characters in Easy Rider purchasing government mandated health insurance policies.
He once lamented that he might have made 100 films but for his choices yet I believe the papers report today that he did make that mark. I loved to hear him speak of his very early career and how he began his art collection back then.
I loved Dennis Hopper in Hoosiers. That was his best performance.
And he knew that life was about change, he did not stand still. God bless him.
Blue Velvet changed my life… the world lost a Real American today.
Wow, Dennis Hopper. I haven’t been this saddened by a celebrity death since Ron Silver’s passing. Nobody could play psycho like Dennis! I loved that in real life he played against type. A favorite performance of mine was as the manic photographer in Apocalypse Now–he held his own with an out-of-control Brando as well as anyone (and certainly better than the director). I feel like an era has passed. God speed, Dennis.
Dennis was one of a group of promising Hollywood actors who never reached their potential because there were no roles good enough. I am thinking of him and Vincent D’Onofrio and Eric Roberts. A much earlier example was of course Orson Welles.
The anti American Bastard that spit at me in 1968 when I came back from Nam actually hugged me at a tea party in Richmond Va . All around us cried .
His and my face changed little but my hair was white his was hairless . We have a few road maps in our faces .
He walked up to me …… Me remembering myself in my USMC Summer class A dress ……. and him is his “Tattered ” smelly rags and carrying the VC Flag .
Yes I took him to the ground like a 50 lb sack and yes I took his VC FLAG .
I ask him did he want the VC Flag back ? He said no …… I want America back from Obama .
We are friends now and I even invited him to fish on my 5 acre bass pond on my front lawn .
ReCon: Your story sounds a little like Blumenthals. I have met hundreds of Vietnam vets and none can remember being spit upon. How many protesters back in the day would challange a Marine in uniform? Very,very few.
Semper Fi anyway.
Indego, None were spit on. Sorry, You’re wrong. Sept. 1968, I stood my medical board and had received my medical retirement for wounds received in Viet Nam as a Navy Hospital Corpsman serving with the Marine Corps. As I went from the ticket counter to the concourse where I would fly home, I was spit on. The person then stated “You got what you deserve for being a killer.” As I was on crutches and SFX airport cops were watching and did nothing, I just went to my check-in.
Yes it did happen, most will never forget. But do not tell me that it never happen.
To my brothers and sisters on Active Duty, Semper Fi.
To those who never made it home, Hand Salute.
“A FMF HM”
Indigo: “met hundreds of Vietnam vets and none remember being spit on”
Smell any progressive hyperbole and left wing claptrap in that statement?
Right “Indigo” went up to hundreds of men and asked: “Are you a Viet Vet and were you spit upon?” Ring true to you? Not to me. “Indigo” you made that one up didn’t you?
Well, here is a fact. I WAS in uniform from 1970 – 1972.
And YES I was spit at — on two occasions both at airports. No, I wasn’t hit but that is not the point. And for every attempt at spitting were dozens of “hate stares” from worthless college students. I was drafted out of grad school so I was a bum — but they lucked out and avoided the draft and so they were “heros”
And, YES lots of my GI friends were spit at or on. Yeah it happened alright — often. (this despite the hundreds of vets you asked — gag)
“Indigo” goes on asking how many on the left would challenge a Marine — “very very few” he concludes. Word to the wise. Note the double adjective “very, very”? This smells of more made up progressive claptrap — a single adjective won’t add enough “juice” to their story so they double up — standard left wing tactic.
No, they did not “challenge marines” — and yes the 70′s protesters WERE mostly cowards — but they still threw things at the military and protested them — because same military protected them.
Now this liberal scum has grown into the progressives and they run our government.
The Great American Post. A fitting eulogy for a great American artist. Enjoyed every second of the video. Nice work.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
[For a light hearted take on our present peril]
Dennis Hopper…The Audacity of FREEDOM. I will miss him and I will miss the America he represented. ADIOS
RIP Dennis Hopper. I loved his films.
“A man who is not a communist at twenty has no heart. A man who is still a communist at thirty has no brain.” — Various attributions
I don’t mean to be a pri.k but the quote you are referencing, I believe is from Churchill. “If you are not a liberal at 20,you have no heart,if you are a liberal at 40 you have no brain”.
That’s not being a pr$ck, that’s correcting some truly bad quoting…
…in honor of Dennis I’m thinking of turning in my Prius for a Harley.
I seem to recall Peter Fonda in an interview saying that Hopper actually hated motorcycles.
May he rest in peace. Hoosiers was indeed a great movie in many ways. Should we ever endeavor to pursue the values in a film like that, I mean – apply them each and every day to our lives, the world would indeed be a better place. And we would not need to be PC to get there.
He directed an underrated gem, The Hot Spot (Don Johnson, Jennifer Connelly, Virginia Madison). Ten years ago, I attended the Brian Wilson tribute concert that was filmed by TNT, I think. He was chosen to narrate the description of Brian’s “sandbox period,” which he did with respect. Then he added, “You know, I wonder why they asked ME to do this speech?” The good will in the audience reaction was unforgettable.
Hopper could make a deer-in-the-headlights look seem hip. He was not into projecting that omniscience that is usually all too much of what hipness and cool are about. This is a guy who’d have felt honored by dialogue with Socrates while riding in Fireball XL5.
ReCon USMC:
That is a great story. God bless his courage to admit his past disrespect towards you and your ability to forgive him. And thank you for your service, sir.
I always thought “Hoosiers” was his best performance, but he was also a great director.
Thank you Dennis, for all you brought to us.
@ReCon USMC,
Thats a nice story – atleast a few people are able to change their ways, i suppose – it takes some amount of courage to do that. it was good you let bygones be bygones.
Good luck to you and your new friend.
Look, Roger Simon has found a way to write about himself.
Hate to be the stinker at the party, but y’all know Hopper came out for Obama last year, right?
I’m just sayin’…
People forget that, in his BE (Before Easy) days, he was one of the best character actors on TV. A great bad guy (he did great psycho gunslingers in Westerns, very underplayed) and often a ‘victim’. A lot of those characters showed a considerable passion behind the cool. I always enjoyed his work.
It is a sad day….RIP Dennis Hopper…i think this is the tribute song that would be appropriate for him
We are the poorer for his passing. . . .Guys like he and Jon Voight are among the few that stand against the Hellywood crap. Ahnold and co. could take some lessons. . . .
Hopper was a very talented actor. Of course, sometimes he got to play himself. Probably the only real hippie in Hollywood, a place that is so desperate to be hip and so full of phonies.
Dennis Hopper was one of my favorite actors. If he was in the movie, I bought the DVD. He was that kind of actor, amazing to watch. He seemed like a genuine person. I’ll miss him
WOW! Ihonesly didnt know he died until just now. He always was a good actor. I never knew his politics tho. to my own error, I thought he was jut like all other liberal actors. It realy goes to show tho,tht a good actor can trancend politics in his career. It also shows that we all make mistakes in our lives. Some worse than others. But when we take responsibility for them and deal with them vs blamming others and other excuses, we can really achieve any life we choose. Thats a wonderful lesson we all could learn and relearn over again! RIP sir.
I left Southeast Asia 9/5/69 to enroll at USC’s film school. “Easy Rider” was released that summer and getting all sorts of attention. One of the faculty, Mel Sloan probably, set up a screening at Columbia followed by a Q&A with Hopper. The screening ended about 8:30 PM and Hopper, perhaps fueled by something extra, held forth almost non-stop until well after 3AM. I remember him saying that this was one of the first times he’d ever had a chance to talk about “making movies” to an outside group that had some interest in the process. Among the takeways, I remember that he said the reason for the flash editing was that they didn’t have the budget to pay for dissolves. He spent about 15 minutes bemoaning a reflector flash on one of the teepees in the commune scene. He was also emnphatic that the hero of the film was the farmer. He did an extended rap on how hard it was to work the land, love the wife, rear the kids, do honest, decent work. I didn’t learn until I read the obits that he was from Kansas.
BTW,Indigo, I know it’s obligatory for Progressives to deny any and all Vietnam era spitting stories. FYI, I was spit on in November 1967 on the campus of Boston University. I was there for a special USAF course prior to deploying to SEA. We had to wear our uniform every Thursday. Walking to class one Thursday morning, a coed stopped me, spit at my face and then ran off laughing to join a young man standing about 15 yards away. They both ran away then laughing like they had played an enormous joke. It was actually more of a spray than a blob of spit. Because she was short, only a little bit even reached my chin. We had been warned to expect incidents and avoid any retaliation. I went on to class, reported the incident to my Tac officer, and let it slide.
That young “lady” probably retired as a GS-15 from DoJ or HHS!
…she more likely retired from Department of State.
Hopper was a radical always. As an actor, and then in all the other roles he filled, he looked for truth. He sought authenticity. He found it in life, and resorted to alcohol to deal with it. When he found it in sobriety, he mined his drunkenness for that same authenticity.
Labeling him as Simon attempts to here, is not honoring him or his work, which transcends labels.. It is bandwagonning- trying to make more of himself in Hopper’s afterglow.
Hopper, and every other name you know from Hollywood, is a hired gun for the people that run the business. Those people are conservative.Like Wall Street, they buy every politician, so it won’t matter to them who wins. The business is about exploiting hearts, and thus does better when it looks and sounds liberal.
BTW if you have a 5 acre bass pond, which part of it did Obama take away?
Shared a joint with him in ’70, ’71, I forget which. Hope he’s tokin’ to his heart’s content wherever he is now.
Never liked Easy Rider, but then, I’m hard to please. I was pleased with the quality of that joint, however, and did like his photography.
about the 1940′s we would say of the stars they had faces then. in the ’60′s and ’70′s we could say they had intelligence then. dennis hopper is a splendid example of this, you see it shining from him regardless of the role. we knew a lot about many things because intelligence and knowledge had value, history wasn’t faked, we chased the truth. then it went away. and now the icons of our generation are leaving us. it’s hard. RIP, dennis hopper.
Dennis Hopper seemed to believe in progress and that freedom enables progress. In this way he was a fine artist. I imagine dealing with addiction and pulling his life together allowed him to see what works and what does not.
“In fact, in honor of Dennis I’m thinking of turning in my Prius for a Harley.”
Personally I would just trade in the Prius for a Mustang. Much more iconic and a true symbol of American freedom. What’s more free than a Mustang?
Love ya, Dennis. Rest in peace, brother.
Nice comp tribute vid edit job! Xcorps will always ride with Dennis Hopper!
Xcorps
Amazing, that’s really good info, cheers.
Hopper may have gone con for a while, but in 2008 he supported and voted for Obama.
So he came back to his senses after seeing what the GOP-on-steroids Bush years did to this country.
Good for him.
Actually, #42, a lot of folks in “The Town” voted for Obama in 08 because they wanted an African-American to be president – had nothing to do with their politics. (I did too, btw, though now I regret it.) I ran into Dennis at several Hollywood conservative gatherings thereafter. He was no fan of Obama. Now, with the economy in mega-decline, almost no one as much good to say about the president – Hollywood or not. Do you?
Yes, I do. The economy has improved since the unlamented Dubya left office, no thanks to the GOP. And it’s nice that you can claim a dead man agreed with you, but pardon me if I don’t take your word for it.
Also, Hopper himself said he voted for Obama because the choice of Sarah Palin for VP was just something he could not abide. In this he was aligned with all rational observers, of course.
Could not abide Palin but vote for Obama? Now that’s hardly a tribute in good thinking to lay on anyone — including Hopper.
You will find out how great Obama is doing in November. Oh sorry I forgot no bad electoral result is ever about Obama is it?
Thursday: Obama: “I’m the President and I’m responsible for the oil spill — we are directing BP on the clean up”
Monday: Obama: “We are prosecuting BP and it’s Bush’s fault.
What an asinine clown for POTUS — the telepromter would do a better job eh?
Hopper was a true rebel that makes me wish there were more when it comes going against the ‘establishment’.
It reminds me of George Orwell – Idealistic rebel who looked around one day and figured out that the utopia he was working towards was a hellish fraud. At that point many people are content to keep their realizations to themselves – it takes real courage to do the right thing and say now I get it. David Mamet is another one – realized overnight that every time one of his liberal new york friends said something, he was clenching his fists and trying to stop from telling them to STFU.
Hopper was the ultimate rebel– political and otherwise. For any side
of the aisle to claim him is just plain silly. Pothead to the end,
voted for both 41 and 43, and then Obama. Supporter of free speech
including the artistic avant-garde, and fan of Newt Gingrich. What I
most respected about him, is his refusal to be pigeon-holed as
conservative, liberal, libertarian. What he was, was a free thinker.
Not enough of those
Don’t waste your money, Roger. Buy a Ducati.
Buy a Ducati — who can fault that idea. Depends if you want to cruise or race though doesn’t it? Who would vacation in a Ferrari?