Oh the burdens of being a genius and knowing it. See Dennis Hopper pontificate ad nauseam in
the middle of the only brief period in his life when he was actually justified
in doing so. Easy Rider (1969)
had just come out and he was famous for saying that making a blockbuster was
the easiest thing in the world to do.
His new film, The Last Movie (1971), on which he is working in
this documentary, hadn’t seen the light of day yet. That film brought a quick end to Hopper’s
ride at the top. Yes, he comes off as
unbearably pretentious, but in all fairness, he was a genuinely fascinating
guy, and there was a camera crew in his face asking him questions; so what else
was he going to do but philosophize? Living
in some kind of ranch house in the desert, and surrounded by pretty young women
who bathe with him, cook for him, nod at his musings about art and politics,
and giggle at his every witticism, he is almost a cult leader, and I was
reminded of the stories about him being keenly interested at the time in playing
Charles Manson in a film that never got made.
The sight of Hopper running around naked and tongue-kissing various poor
girls is something I could’ve done without, but otherwise the film is actually
pretty interesting. The 70s were a bleak
time for Hopper and the roots of that phase are all evident in The American
Dreamer.
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