Building on the examples of The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, which marked the beginning of a sea change in American cinema towards the end of the 1960s, Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider was the film that definitively marked the birth of what became known as the New Hollywood. With its realistic depiction of drug use—including one particularly famous scene in a New Orleans cemetery, where the characters trip on LSD—the film appealed directly to younger audiences who shared its defiant attitude towards the increasingly conservative country they were living in. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Hopper's anti-authoritarian debut returns fully restored to the big screen in conjunction with ACMI's Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood exhibition.

The Australian, 4 January 2010