lost gem
"hopper is the best"
Details
Sold Out / OOP
Please note: Etiquette Pictures releases are being discontinued. We will sell out the remaining stock that we have on hand and we will not repress further units.
The wild, unexpected success of Easy Rider ushered in what is now seen as one of the most significant turning points in film history, making pathologically rebellious Dennis Hopper an unlikely King Of Hollywood for a day. Hopper's follow-up work, The Last Movie, a deeply personal, but ultimately disastrous, meditation on the meaning of cinema, found Hopper drifting further and further into foolishness. Captured by co-directors Lawrence Schiller and L.M. Kit Carson, The American Dreamer is a multi-faceted document of the life and mind of one of the 20th century's great cinematic voices at the peak of his artistic and commercial success. Shifting between being an insightful document of a complex artist in the midst of his creative process and a self-reflective exploration and explosion of verite filmmaking tropes, The American Dreamer is a mesmerizing journey into the private world of one of Hollywood's most hypnotic directors/stars. Fortuitously timed, fantastically made, and virtually unseen, The American Dreamer is the great '70s film documentary you always wished existed.
Etiquette Pictures, in partnership with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, brings this forgotten masterpiece to home video for the very first time in a new, director approved 2k restoration, painstakingly reconstructed from four 16mm prints housed in the Walker Art Center's Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Major support to preserve, digitize, and present this film and the entire Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.
directed by: L.M. Kit Carson, Lawrence Schiller
starring: Dennis Hopper
1971 / 81 min / Color / 1.33:1
Additional info:
- Blu-ray/DVD Combo | Region Free | 1.33:1 OAR
- Restored in 2k from multiple 16mm prints
- All extras on both Blu-ray and DVD
- "Fighting Against the Wind" - 30min making-of featurette
- "A Long Way Home" - 7min preservation featurette
- Extensive Photograph Gallery
- 16pg Booklet Essay by Chris Poggiali
- Reversible artwork
- English SDH subtitles
Overall rating: 4.8461537 / 5 from 13 reviews.
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Summary topics
Review topics: ["documentary","features","capsule","film","expectations"].
Review highlights
Reviews
Hopper is the master of cool
"Great documentary with excellent features about an interesting moment in film history. How jealous I am of the life Hopper led. I went and found his grave a few years ago and it was like a pilgrimage. He was the American dreamer and an American original. Nowhere else would you find a Dennis Hopper. Great service like always from Vinegar Syndrome!"
Excellent time capsule!
"This was a very interesting documentary about the iconic Dennis Hopper. It is a great little time capsule of a very specific time in his career. I found it to be quite revealing and fascinating."
Great docu for Hoper fans
"This is a great documentary, exceptionally well done. But, its scope is limited pretty much to fans of Dennis Hopper. Hopper is a toon and a half, which is great fun and of great interest and makes for a boffo film. Special Features on the disc are intriguing and worth a watch, too."
Essential
"An essential document on an essential figure."
miss you etiquette
"When VS announced the Etiquette sublabel back in the day it was cause celebrae! Sadly the wallets of most didn't agree and it went by the wayside. Thankfully these still exist and float around. This "documentary" perfectly encapsulates why Hopper is one of the most vital and shit-kicker-annoying of all american artists. Required viewing and the restoration is beautiful."
Interesting glimpse into life with Dennis Hopper
"I saw Hopper's Mad Dog Morgan and its extras recently and this one paints a more vivid picture of his oddities. He comes off as a real contradiction. A hippie interested in love and art who's also a paranoid gun nut. A quasi-intellectual who comes out against reading. It's basically just hanging out with him as he waxes poetic at his mini commune. There's enough nudity to keep the exploitation crowd happy, treading the line between art and more commercial work. It's too bad the campus cinema isn't really a thing anymore. Boutique labels kind of fill that void though. An interesting flick and the only release from the short-lived Etiquette Pictures I didn't have."
Hooper BTS
"A amazing look into the life of Dennis Hopper, the man behind so many iconic roles. The documentary is truly a must watch for any Hopper fan."
A must-have for Hop-heads
"So glad VS 'found' more, my original copy disappeared when a friend borrowed it"
Excellent documentary
"Great documentary on the making of The Last Movie."