Easy Rider (1969) Scene Analysis

 This clip from the film Easy Rider conveys how disjointed the constant misuse of drugs and alcohol can make life feel like for the main characters of the film. The Scene starts off with four characters sitting on a pavement outside of an old building, where they are all smoking, drinking and taking drugs. The are placed centre screen sitting down on the floor where the camera is positioned at a low angle so we know that these characters represent a group of people that our viewed as below everyone else in society as they are treated like vermin just trying to survive in the worst way possible and they are literally on the ground.  The clothing they are shown to be wearing is also really darkened dirty making them blend in with the dirty building and street they are sitting by which reinforces this idea that they really are seen as beneath everyone else in society and treated like dirt and society as a whole is just oblivious to them. The fact we don't get any close ups and for an entire minute the shot never cuts and it is very continuous while the camera is shaky and we hear industrial noises shows that there life really isn't glamorous or desirable and they aren't relevant or significant enough to get a closeup shot because society doesn't care about them. Due to those industrial noises we can't even really hear them because once again society doesn't want to know or listen to them and this is due to the fact that at the time the film takes place in the 60s, no one really cared about those in poverty or who suffer with addiction and mental health because in contrast to the way we view it today, back then people viewed it as you own fault and that you were just ignorant. So the fact that the characters who suffer with these issues are presented in this way very much reflects society's views on these topics at the time and is purposefully done so the audience continue to take the preferred reading to continue on these beliefs and align with the directors ideology. After the characters are shown to take a drug the continuity of the shot ends as we begin to see the shot cut to a shot of the building behind them then cutting back to the shot of the four characters again. The industrial diabetic sounds begin to become non-diegetic as it has a rhythm to it making it sound very ire, and we then hear a voiceover of someone praying to god continuing to the ireness of the scene. This also tells us more about the characters as they are hippies traveling through America on a spiritual journey and the mise-en-scene of them taking drugs wearing worn out clothes in a street while we hear a voiceover of someone praying align with the ideologies and semantic codes that we typically associate with hippies and their lifestyle. As the scene continues there are more and more cuts to millisecond long shots of places or the characters in other places like we see one of the characters on a statue for example and random shots of things like the sun and them in gravesites naked which added altogether looks very disjointed and an unpleasing aesthetic. We hear more voices as the clip continues and begin to see shots of the girl praying from the voiceover which adds to this very chaotic and disjointed compilation of shots. A lot of the shots are also tracking and clearly shot with a handheld camera again making it look less smooth and more shaky. OneThis has purposefully been done to show a visual representation to the spectators of the film into what taking drugs is like and the fact it looks very unpleasing and chaotic is done so the audience take the preferred reading which is that using drugs is bad and something we should not be doing and the fact that this scene comes across as if it is in the horror genre reinforces this ideology even more by scaring the audience about the misuse of drugs.