Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Easy Rider 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 27, 2019

Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" (1969) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures UK. The only bonus features on the release are Charles Kisleyak's documentary "Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage" and a vintage audio commentary by Dennis Hopper. In English, with multiple optional subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

*In the United States, Easy Rider has had multiple releases. In 2009, Sony Pictures produced this release, and then a year later Criterion included the film in the America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set.

Easy Rider is the definitive counter-culture film. The loud statement that announced the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. A true legend. It is also a hilarious, sad, and incredibly revealing film about America a lot of Americans did not know existed.

Captain America (Peter Fonda, Spirits of the Dead) and Billy (Dennis Hopper, The Last Days of Frankie the Fly), two bikers from Los Angeles, travel to Mardi Gras. Their trip is financed by a cocaine deal that has made them quite a bit of money. Neither Captain America nor Billy, however, uses hard drugs. They prefer marijuana. As they travel across America the two encounter hippies, various rednecks, and eventually a wacky lawyer (Jack Nicholson, Prizzi's Honor) with some great information about the best whorehouse in the union.

Easy Rider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and encoded with HEVC/H.265, Easy Rider arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures UK.

Sony Pictures restored Easy Rider in 4K more than a decade ago and this 4K Blu-ray release is sourced from the same restored master that the studio used to produce this release in 2009. The exact same master was then licensed to Criterion and used to produce the America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set. I did some direct comparisons between this release and the Blu-ray from the box set. I also upscaled the Blu-ray to 4K and then did another round of comparisons. Here are my impressions:

The restoration looks terrific on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray and there are large chunks of the film that are practically indistinguishable on these releases. The best example is the trippy segment at the very end of the film where density fluctuations are used for stylistic purposes, but many close-ups look similar as well. When the 1080p content is upscaled to 4K, it becomes awfully difficult to spot stronger delineation and/or depth. Now, I always pay attention to the density levels because on a larger screen this is the area that usually produces meaningful improvements. The 4K Blu-ray does offer such improvements, but you should expect better smaller nuances rather than an overall meaningful bump in quality. For example, I specifically took screencapture #5 because this is one particular segment where the improved definition and color nuances clearly produce superior visuals. Interestingly, on my system it is usually even darker content that looks significantly 'tighter' and begins to reveal additional nuances that are struggling to emerge in 1080p. I don't believe that you need to have a very large screen to notice the difference, but I would say that the bigger your screen is, the more such areas you are likely to notice. Colors look slightly better saturated, but if you compare the Blu-ray and the 4K Blu-ray it becomes quite clear that careful work was done to provide an all-around solid and nicely balanced color values that look great in 1080p and with HDR in native 4K. All in all, if you pick up the 4K Blu-ray you should expect to see minor but in many cases meaningful improvements that should become more prominent as the size of your screen increases.

Easy Rider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The following audio tracks are available: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit), French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, and Russian: Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish subtitles are included as well.

I viewed the film with the lossless Mono track, which is a replica of the existing restored audio files. The only difference worth pointing out is that is presented as a Dual Mono, while on release from the Criterion box set it is a LPCM 1.0. There are no technical anomalies.

Easy Rider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this vintage audio commentary with Dennis Hopper has appeared on various other home video releases of Easy Rider.

• Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage (1999) - this archival documentary focuses on the cultural importance of Easy Rider and its impact on the evolution of American Cinema. It features clips from interviews with Dennis Hopper, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, Seymor Cassel, Peter Fonda, etc. The documentary was produced by Charles Kisleyak.

Easy Rider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My guess is that it is only a matter of time before Sony Pictures releases Easy Rider on 4K Blu-ray in North America as well. Should you upgrade if you already have the film on Blu-ray? Yes, especially if you have a bigger system or project. Seen in its native resolution, the 4K restoration of Easy Rider looks quite spectacular. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.