The above lyrics are played while both Wyatt and Billy begin their road journey in search for adventure right after Wyatt throws away his wrist-watch, which one reviewer described as “a literal and symbolic flourish that shows his new-found freedom and rejection of time constraints in modern society.”[1] The song serves as the introduction to the film, a film that Roger Ebert says is absent of a story.[2] However, the film’s soundtrack along with its images, themes, and the viewer’s interpretation, does tell a story, a story which gives today’s viewers a glimpse of what life was like at the end of the 60s. It must be noted that the events that are captured, or created, in films, are enough to speak for themselves (Benton, p. 14). This is because other than the film’s script, the music and the camera are also the film’s narrators. Thus, Steppenwolf’s “Born to be wild” reads more like, “Once upon a time in the late 60s, two bored teenagers on their motorcycles set out on a journey looking for adventure.”

The irony of the film’s introduction is that Wyatt’s and Billy’s journey for adventure is anything but adventurous. Adventure in the song, “Born to be Wild” is a synonym for freedom. The theme of freedom in the film is open-ended in that the film explores its meaning but without ever defining it. Is freedom the ability to not be discriminated against? If so, the road to freedom has hit its first speed bump—the motel scene where both Wyatt and Billy are denied service because of their looks.

The exploration of freedom is bracketed by the Motel scene and the woods scene where Billy and George (a lawyer he meets along the way), contemplate the question of freedom. In the latter scene, Billy and George engage each other about individual freedom, a conversation that references back to the Motel scene where Wyatt and Billy are discriminated against. The following is the exchange,

George: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.
Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened. Hey, we can’t even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or somethin’. They’re scared, man.
George: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.
George: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.
Billy: Well, it don’t make ‘em runnin’ scared.
George: No, it makes ‘em dangerous.[3]

The exchange, I believe, is a summary of the whole film.

The theme of freedom is juxtaposed with the social setting of the 60s. Given the breaking news stories of the 60s such as the Vietnam War, segregation in the south, and social movements like the hippies, the civil rights movement, etc, freedom is then depicted in the film as a hotly pursued end but one that from the vantage point of the 60s seemed unattainable. From the lack of freedom of finding a motel to their encounter with racist men in the Texas Café, the search of freedom is never attained. Even in the wide open road they were traveling on, an image of freedom in the film, freedom was far from their grasp. The road to freedom became a road of death, an antithesis to the song “Born to be Wild.”

The use of drugs, marijuana and acid, other than getting the actors and directors high, plays a significant role in the film. Drugs are anti-freedom by the mere fact that drugs provide escapism from reality while enslaving you to the fantasy that it creates. The acid tripping in the cemetery and then Wyatt’s proclamation; “We blew it” symbolizes the high and the sobering up. It is like the acid trip was the ultimate experience of freedom but then a huge letdown, the kind that is felt after a high has gone.

Christians in America should notice the stark contrast between the American versions of freedom and the freedom found in Christ. If not, perhaps a look at what freedom meant in the mind of the Biblical authors can help. Freedom demotes previous enslavement to someone or something. H. Schlier, in looking at the political connotation of freedom in the Greek world, asserts that, “freedom means self-disposing in independence of others.”^[4] In other words, to be free was to be autonomous even from political rule. He goes on noting that freedom on the Hellenistic world was more philosophical than political. Freedom is not just freedom from political power, but freedom is to be under natural law. That is to say that one has to look from within rather than from external things outside human nature. One has to look inside in search of human passions, desires, and feelings (like the fear of death) that are self-dominating, and seek freedom from such things.

Christians may find the political freedom of the Greek world and the philosophical freedom of the Hellenistic world inadequate in light of certain Biblical passages. For instance, the command to submit to state authority (Rom. 13) and Paul’s words in Romans 7 about the law of sin found inside of him which from Paul’s vantage point was impossible to escape from. Therefore Christian freedom is something other.

What about freedom defined under Christian theological categories such as the sovereignty of God and free will? Can Christians generate a true definition of freedom under such tensions? I find that such discussions are helpful but in the long run reduce freedom into a purely abstract concept. However, the words of Christ in John 8:31-42 does a better job than today’s theologians. In light of Christ’s words, Christians should be readily able to talk about a different kind of freedom that the writers of Easy Rider were unable to script—freedom from sin.

Wyatt and Billy were unable to truly be free because of the sin that they never were freed from. As Americans who lived their teen age years through the 60s, freedom was a lot on their mind. True, modern society tends to make mechanical slaves out of humans and Wyatt and Billy sought to get from behind its yoke. They wanted to be able to eat at any café in America and stay the night at any motel. Unfortunately, even in sweet land of liberty freedom does not always ring. In John 8:31-42, Jesus speaks about freedom from sin. Concerning this type of freedom, Jesus says, “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (vs.36).

Paul in both Romans 6 and 8 gives a lot of attention to freedom from sin even mentioning creation’s freedom from sin and corruption. What we can learn about freedom is that while it is not an abstract theological figuration, nevertheless it is theological, it is transcending. The writers and directors of Easy Rider indeed pointed out freedom’s transcending nature by the means of the religious use of drugs. Those seeking freedom through the use of weed and acid even commune around them similar to how Christians commune at the Lord’s Supper. However, the former communion is contemplates freedom, while the latter communion celebrates freedom, a freedom only found in Christ.

While I do acknowledge such parallels, my aim is to take film analysis away from the typical Christian parallelization of film and into other areas of criticism and interpretation yet informed by the world of the Bible, a world that takes readers beyond just redemption and into other relevant themes of life.

I look forward to sharing my gaze and thinking of film with you. Oh, what I mean by ‘gaze’ is the film’s dominant power over viewers,  namely the power of captivating your attention. In many ways film is a magnet for your eyes.