After the huge success of Easy Rider (1969), director Dennis Hopper could have made any movie he wanted.
Sadly he did just that, and the resulting fiasco is one of the all-time classics of pretentiously incomprehensible cinema.
Outlining the hippy antics of a film crew in Peru aiming to shoot a western, Hopper uses movie-making as a metaphor for imperialism in this mess of over-indulgent allegory and mind-numbing ranting.
When the director quits after the death of a stuntman, the locals start acting out the violent script for real and pretending to film themselves with fake cameras made of sticks.
The opening credits appear 30 minutes into the film, and numerous cameos from the likes of Peter Fonda, Michelle Phillips, Russ Tamblyn and Kris Kristofferson (here making his movie debut) help perk the flagging interest.
Kansas
Dennis Hopper
Maria
Stella Garcia
Director
Samuel Fuller
Thomas Mercado
Daniel Ades
Priest
Tomas Milian
Neville
Don Gordon
Mrs Anderson
Julie Adams
Sheriff
Peter Fonda
Minstrel Wrangler
Kris Kristofferson
Minister’s son
Henry Jaglom
Banker’s daughter
Michelle Phillips
Billy
Dean Stockwell
Member of Billy’s gang
Russ Tamblyn
Director
Dennis Hopper