The American Dreamer

I'm always wary of someone who makes a documentary about the making of a film or a portrait of a film-maker at work, that it isn't just an ego-trip particularly if the film-maker in question hasn't really earned his stripes. I've always thought that Dennis Hopper was more famous for being Dennis Hopper than for anything he did in the cinema. He made one great movie, ("Easy Rider"), but that feels like a fluke and he gave one great performance, (in "Blue Velvet"), yet you always felt he was just playing himself.

After the success of "Easy Rider" he embarked on "The Last Movie" and Lawrence Schiller and L M Kit Carson took it on themselves to film him at work although, except for one scene, little actual work appeared to be done. What this documentary tells us is that Hopper was a mostly talentless hack with ideas way above his station, (he sure as hell was no Orson Welles though he himself seemed to think he might be), and with a ridiculously high interest in sex, or at least in talking about it.

Whether or not Schiller and Carson knew they were doing Hopper no favors is hard to tell. Personally, I got the impression they thought they were recording the thoughts of a genius which might say more about them than it does about Hopper. What remains is a picture of an ego run riot though, on hindsight, giving Hopper and his co-conspirators 90 minutes out of my life seems a trifle generous on my part. Still, there are some great Gene Clark songs on the soundtrack.

Calling this a documentary gives the whole genre a bad name. So overwhelming was the success of Easy Rider that they thought it was enough for a feature film to send out a camera team to follow Denis Hopper around for a few days and record his incoherent and rather boring ramblings. No script, no idea, no plan, nothing to say at all. I kinda liked him up until now but here her comes across a vain and self centered nitwit. It makes you really happy that those hippie days are over.

One of the many low points in this home movie is, when beard stroking and chain smoking Hopper muses on the fact that he rather gives good head then f*** a beautiful woman and you sense that he is quite pleased with himself for being such a modern man. Sadly enough he destroys the overall effect when he asked his female sidekick if she considers this weird, and instead of letting her reply cuts her short and rambles on about himself being a Lesbian. So much for his respect towards women. I wish I could quote some of Hopper's platitudes to prove how boring and silly they are but as they are all so unmemorable, I can't recall any. Did I mention the horrible soundtrack? Kinda drawing by numbers Hippie Folk Music that makes you wanna smash the acoustic guitar over the singers head after the first few lines. Did I mention the nudity? Well if you have any desire to witness you hippie parents pretending to have fun with a threesome snog feast in the bathtub, you gonna have a field day here. Anyone else, stay clear.

The American Dreamer (1971)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Who doesn't love Dennis Hopper? He was certainly one of the most interesting actors of his generation and after EASY RIDER he pretty much had an open pass to make whatever he wanted. That film turned out to be THE LAST MOVIE and its critical and financial hardships pretty much ended Hopper's rising directing career. This documentary was filmed as he was editing that movie.

A few days before watching this, I sat down with THE LAST MOVIE for the first time and I stated that Hopper, a known alcoholic and drug user, must have been on some pretty good stuff while shooting the movie. After seeing this I'm really not so sure. It's clear that he's high on something but at the same time he speaks fairly well and he certainly has no problem getting his thoughts out on screen. It makes you wonder why THE LAST MOVIE turned out so bad but that isn't really covered here.

What this documentary is basically doing is shining a spotlight on Hopper who was still on a wave of success after EASY RIDER. I think it was rather fascinating seeing him here because at the time all of this was shot no one had the slightest idea that the film in question would turn out so poorly. What is on display here is simply the actor talking about a variety of subjects including life, movies, why people should be forced to watch movies they don't want to and the same that Orson Wells can't get enough people to want to watch his movies.

There's also a lot of sexual talk throughout the picture including some images of Hopper in a bathtub with a couple ladies. At one point Hopper refers to himself as a lesbian and explains why. There's a lot of frank discussion on sex, nudity on the screen and so much more. Obviously Hopper was a fan of sex as that takes up a great deal of the running time.

Bought the LP soundtrack 30 years ago & recently bought the DVD to see where the music fit - some tracks are missing on the video. Dennis' ego trip(s) are normal for the 1970s. We all had a bit of telling the government what we were not going to do. Like the late-1960s, the early 1970s fostered the remnants of the 60's revolution into the 1970s "ME" generation. Someone like Hopper could affect so many, as did Tom Laughlin, in the "Billy Jack" series. Hopper was a man of his time & you either liked what he had to say or not. I chose middle ground, thus not getting into the decadence of the message, but not being complacent with what was going on during that period. "The American Dreamer" was one man's version of what he wanted to do with his life at that time. He (& I) have grown up.

This documentary film about Dennis Hopper really impressed me back in 1971, when I saw it at U. of Penn. It was released on college campuses per Hopper's wishes as part of a plan to change film distribution patterns which, alas, failed, and I haven't heard of it being revived since. The premise was to show Hopper at his Taos, New Mexico headquarters editing his epic "The Last Movie". Along the way his pal and documentarist L.M. (Kit) Carson revealed a lot about Dennis, including his fondness for dallying with young groupies, occasionally right-wing views mixed in with a generally liberal philosophy (particularly regarding gun ownership), etc. The most fascinating segments show clips from "The Last Movie" and Hopper in the editing room musing over the filmmaking process. Later, when the finished "The Last Movie" was released and flopped miserably, thereby curtailing Hopper's budding career as a director (see "Easy Rider"), this documentary took on added meaning in revealing those excesses that contributed to his Wellesian implosion.