Here is the Mardi Gras sequence from 1969’s Easy Rider. Featuring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Karen Black, and Toni Basil walking through the streets of New Orleans, this scene was actually filmed during Mardi Gras. Those are real Mardi Gras floats and real Mardi Gras participants staring at the camera. That’s an actual citizen of New Orleans with whom Dennis Hopper appears to have nearly gotten into a fight. Personally, I relate to Toni Basil in this scene. She is having a good time no matter what!
I just love how Toni Basil can’t help but dance, no matter what.
Ever since Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was first released in 2009, people have debated the symbolism of the iguanas on the coffee table. Are they just a sign that Nicolas Cage’s bad lieutenant is totally high or do they have a deeper meaning? Myself, I’m not even going to try to guess. All I know is that the lieutenant eventually came to appreciate their presence.
For today’s scene that I love, here is the Mardi Gras sequence from 1969’s Easy Rider. Featuring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Karen Black, and Toni Basil walking through the streets of New Orleans, this scene was actually filmed during Mardi Gras. Those are real Mardi Gras floats and real Mardi Gras participants staring at the camera. That’s an actual citizen of New Orleans with whom Dennis Hopper appears to have nearly gotten into a fight. Personally, I relate to Toni Basil in this scene. She is having a good time no matter what!
I just love how Toni Basil can’t help but dance, no matter what.
If you can’t get down to New Orleans today (because maybe you have a sprained ankle like me), fear not! Mardi Gras has been immortalized in a number of films. In fact, some have theorized that the whole reason 1969’s Easy Rider was filmed was because Dennis Hopper wanted to go to New Orleans.
The Mardi Gras sequence occurs towards the end of Easy Rider. After a long and eventful journey, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) reach New Orleans and experience Mardi Gras with two women that they met at a brothel (Karen Black and Toni Basil). However, the Mardi Gras scenes were actually amongst the first to be shot and Hopper actually filmed several hours of documentary footage of New Orleans’s most famous party. If you watch the footage, you can see bystanders looking directly at the camera. They were not extras hired for the film. They were people on the street who became a part of one of the most important indie films in the history of American cinema. These scenes were shot guerilla style, without permits or, by most reports, any advanced planning.
Hopper also filmed Fonda having an actual bad acid trip. For obvious reasons, Fonda was not happy about being filmed in that condition but he did say, in later interviews, that Hopper made the right decision to include the footage in the film.
For the record, I relate to Toni Basil in this film. She’s having fun and dancing no matter what.
Today is not only the 1st of March. It’s not only Texas Independence Day. It’s not only Zack Snyder’s birthday. It’s not only the day of Texas primaries. It’s not only the day when the State of the Union address is scheduled to be given (yawn!). It’s also Mardi Gras!
What a busy day!
For today’s scene that I love, here is the Mardi Gras/Cemetery sequence from 1969’s Easy Rider. Featuring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Karen Black, and Toni Basil walking through the streets of New Orleans, this scene was actually filmed during Mardi Gras. Those are real Mardi Gras floats and real Mardi Gras participants staring at the camera. That’s an actual citizen of New Orleans with whom Dennis Hopper appears to have nearly gotten into a fight. And, in the cemetery scene, that was real acid that Peter Fonda took.
Here is today’s scene. The scene is age-restricted so you’ll actually have to click on “watch on YouTube” to see it.
If you don’t want to click on “watch on YouTube,” here is a shorter version that just features the parade without the admittedly disturbing cemetery stuff.
I like how Toni Basil can’t help but dance, no matter what.
Through the Shattered Lens 