Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 7 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. 100
    Someday it was inevitable that a great film would come along, utilizing the motorcycle genre, the same way the great Westerns suddenly made everyone realize they were a legitimate American art form, Easy Rider is the picture.
  2. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    A finely observed film but insufficiently developed as a satire of middle America. [Review of re-release]
  3. Fonda and Hopper's now-classic film hit the old guard with the force of a rifle shot to the head. [Review of re-release]
  4. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    90
    The film has refurbished the classic romantic gospel of the outcast wanderer.
  5. Reviewed by: Gene Moskowitz
    90
    Fonda himself has given this a fine production dress, with associate Bert Schneider, and the brilliant lensing, excellent music background ballads, especially Bob Dylan's "Easy Rider," are fine counterpoints to this poetic trip along Southwest America.
  6. With the exception of Nicholson, its good things are familiar things - the rock score, the lovely, sometimes impressionistic photography by Laszlo Kovacs, the faces of small-town America.
  7. 70
    The film may be a relic now, but it is a fascinating souvenir - particularly in its narcissism and fatalism - of how the hippie movement thought of itself. [Review of re-release]
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 3 out of 6
  1. Just as the film explores what the limits of freedom are in an unjust and prejudiced world, the actual movie pushes the limits of the quality of a picture produced by two drugged-out stars on the road, defying the logic of big, Hollywood, money-bloated moguls. But just as the taste of total freedom turns sour in the movie, the question of whether this movie should be considered a classic is a shaky "I don't know..." Full Review »
  2. This has gotta be the worst movie ever made, nothing appealing except Jack Nicholson, Two guys riding throughout the movie which is very tedious to enjoy. Full Review »
  3. ShannonP.
    3
    Portrays the hippie/drug culture wanderers with great depth and sympathy, but paints middle America with a broad nasty brush. Slow. Boring. Very little actually happens and when it does, it takes the easy way out. If this had been released 10 years later, it would have been relegated to the dustbin. And I wanted to like it. Full Review »