Dennis Hopper - RIP

Dennis Hopper (l )  Peter Fonda (r) Movie Sill from Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper died a couple of weeks ago from cancer.  He was 74.  The first time I saw Dennis Hopper was while watching the movie he directed and acted in, Easy Rider.  Even though many liked Peter Fonda's character, I always understood and related to Hopper's character better.  Hopper was  a great photographer and artist in multiple genres.  Maybe his broad creation and appreciation for art is one of the reasons I am saddened by his passing.

Hopper was not a perfect man.  He had drug and alcohol addictions, anger problems, was micro-managerial over artistic vision, was obstinate, opinionated, and an egotist.  He  burned bridges and almost destroyed his career multiple times in multiple ways.  Through it all, he lived his life with a need to escape being ordinary.  His path may not have always been true, fruitful, or even that good artistically, but he was willing to reinvent himself and go about his life in another direction.  I respect that brave sense of self-renewal.

"Drugs can work for you, but at one point you work for them." - Dennis Hopper

Paul Newman - Dennis Hopper

Hopper attended the Actor's Studio with all the other great method actors of his time.  It is amazing how I can watch a movie staring him or other *Actor's Studio alumni and see a depth to their craft that many current movie stars lack.  Hopper had this depth of talent as well.  Whether he was playing a biker seeking freedom in Easy Rider, an avenging, homicidal bomb-making ex-cop (Speed), or a stoned reporter in Vietnam (Apocalypse Now), he always had a unique edge and depth that made you want to learn more about his character. 

Much of Hopper's early acting craft came from working with James Dean on Rebel without a Cause.  In a 1990 interview** with Hopper, he shared that Dean told him with acting, "Do things.  Don't act like you are having a drink, have a drink.  Don't indicate, react.  If in the part you are supposed to open the door and someone is there with a gun, react to the gun like you didn't know it was there.  The moment is the reality.  Never anticipate what the next moment will hold."

"Photography is not like painting," Henri Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever. " -Wikipedia (emphasis by me)

As a photographer, Hopper appreciated Henri Cartier Bresson's concept of the Decisive Moment. Look at Hopper's photo, Biker Couple.  In that one instant, he captured all the youth and disillusionment in those two and their relationship.   When watching his acting, you can tell that he was living as that character at that moment.  In each moment, his character "... never anticpate(d) what the next moment (would) hold."

Biker Couple - 1961 Dennis Hopper

This is a key element of both his and my art.  The moment is the reality, even if we are creating it.  We create and capture the decisive moment when we trip the camera's shutter.  Life went on before that moment and continued after, but something made us need to capture that moment.

I've written before about the fermata, a controlled pause in music,  In photography, all that is important is  what is photographed in that fraction of a second.  Nothing else matters except what we saw and knew to be the defining or decisive moment we just captured.

Dennis Hopper understood the value of the moment, whether in a role, painting, or photo.  In many ways he lived his life that way too.  The moment was where he lived.  Thanks for sharing it with us.




Great quote from Easy Rider that summed up the whole point of the movie.

"It's not who you boys are or what you look like, it's what you represent that scares these people." George, played by Jack Nicholson - Easy Rider

Below are a few references, photo essays, video clips, and deeper reads.    I recommend them all.
Slate/Magnum Photos

Retracing Early Rider  after 40 Years
* Karl Malden, Steve McQueen, Beatrice Arthur, Rod Steiger, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Anne Bancroft, and many more. 
** Fresh Air interviews with Dennis Hopper from 1990 and 1996

One important note about these videos from Easy Rider.  Hopper was one of the first directors to use complete contemporary songs as a part of the movie and then match the scene cuts to the music.  He attributes this style to what he saw on TV commercials.  Maybe this was a forefather to music videos?  Hopper thought so.


The Weight - Easy Rider 

Easy Rider - Born to be Wild Opening Credits.