Dennis Hopper and Satya de la Manitou in a still from ‘Along for the Ride’
After the recent revelations in Hollywood, it’s no longer difficult for us to comprehend that a man’s career can be made or broken in the blink of an eye. But more than a year ago, when I first watched Nick Ebeling’s beautiful cinematic homage to Dennis Hopper titled ‘Along for the Ride’, I found the actor and director’s demise, following the production of his ominously named film, almost incredible. In fact, the idea that a single work of art, in Hopper’s case ‘The Last Movie’ which he shot in Peru and edited in Taos, would cause a mega star — at a time when Hopper was riding high on the success of ‘Easy Rider’ — to lose his stardom status seemed like the plot of a hard-to-believe science fiction film. And yet, it was true.
Now, in retrospect, I realize how true indeed.
Just as we’ll never know how many Tarantinos, M. Night Shyamalans and even films like ‘Carol’, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘Philomena’ will never be because the producer who believed in them is wiped off the map by the recent rediscovery that Oh-my-God! Hollywood has a casting couch problem, so I wonder what Hopper would have been capable of making, after ‘The Last Movie’. Had his final edit been different — more linear as it was at first before someone else interfered — had he behaved in a more “acceptable way” during filming, then would we today have more Hopper masterpieces to remember him by? Films that described a whole generation going through a period of adjustment... Films that could have helped us move forward.
We’ll never know.
One thing is certain though, and that’s the existence of this wonderful new documentary by Nick Ebeling, with the charismatic presence on camera of Satya de la Manitou, Hopper’s right hand man for nearly half a century, the man who witnessed it all and knows it all. And in this case, he’s telling.
‘Along for the Ride’ combines magical behind the scenes images from ‘The Last Movie’ with insightful commentaries from well-known personalities whom Ebeling calls “co-conspirators” of Hopper’s — people like Wim Wenders, Dean Stockwell, David Lynch and Julian Schnabel — and turns it into a trip down a sort of psychedelic memory lane along with de la Manitou. All wrapped up neatly into the perfect film about the legend that is Dennis Hopper thanks to an original score by Gemma Thompson of the critically acclaimed band Savages.
The film opens in NYC, at the Metrograph on November 3rd, and in Los Angeles on December 8th, before a promised rollout across the U.S. of A. to come. Hopper would be proud to be once again the stuff legends are made of and that his film is now slated to become a cult classic, thanks to Ebeling’s efforts.
For an original interview with Ebeling and Satya de la Manitou from the 2016 Venice Film Festival, check out my piece here. And watch a sneak peak at the trailer of ‘Along for the Ride’ below.