Age Difference

'It was a crappy film,' he said after we finished watching.

'It was a wonderful film,' I said.

It was the third time I'd seen it, his second. We both saw it when it came out, in 1969 (though not together; we didn't know each other then). I've appreciated it more each time.

'What did you think was so wonderful about it?' he asked.

'Why did you think it was crappy?' I asked.

I said it was the scenery, the music, the commentary on that era.

He said he conceded all that but he supposed it offended his sense of morals.

(I was only upset because this showing was cut to omit the crucial disclosure of a certain robbery. How could they do that?)

Ah well, he was 40 when it first came out; I was 30. It makes a difference. I knew people like those portrayed — well, like them in some respects. And that film was what made me fall in love with Harley Davidsons. Now you know what I'm talking about, don't you? Yes, Easy Rider.

It's been a long, long time, but in the scene where Captain America tells the young lawyer, 'Hold it in your lungs longer', I was surprised by a momentary wish.

It's also a bit of a shock to realise I have middle-aged friends who were mere infants back then, and perhaps won't know what I'm talking about. Let alone the young ones who weren't even born.

Looking it up afterwards on Google to check some details, I learn that Dennis Hopper has, only an hour ago, received a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in a ceremony where he was surounded by close friends including Jack Nicholson. He is 73 and he has terminal cancer.