Along For The Ride is the wild and suitably idiosyncratic new documentary from Californian artist Nick Ebeling about male friendship - in particular the relationship between Ebeling's cinematic hero, the late Dennis Hopper and his right-hand man, "El Hombre Invisible" Satya de la Manitou - and the often fraught nature of film-making.
With a score by Gemma Thompson of Savages, the core of Along For The Ride lies in stories of de la Manitou's 40-year friendship with Hopper, as related to Ebeling over coffee in various LA diners.
The Jim Morrison bearded, poncho-wearing Ebeling says that he is “a product of the Reagan years, English music, divorced parents, slim pants and analog”; he has also directed videos for the electro-likes of Miss Kittin and Coco Morier and has an ongoing graphic novel/music project entitled Gunwolf.
Along For The Ride is Ebeling’s first full-length feature, inspired in part by The Last Movie, Hopper's 1971 disastrously-received 1971 follow-up to the Oscar-winning hippie road classic Easy Rider.
"The Last Movie changed my life,” says Ebeling. “It’s been a kind of obsession of mine since first finding a VHS copy of it in my later teenage years. It’s probably the main reason that I’m an artist.
"At the top of his game after Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper changed the Hollywood studio system forever, opening doors for everyone. I’ve always felt the film was a masterpiece, but never understood why he remained dormant as a filmmaker for a number of years afterwards.
"A few years ago I met Satya, who dedicated his life to working for Dennis because of The Last Movie. He's maybe the one person on Earth who loves the film more than me. I wanted to help tell this story.”
Along For The Ride - which made its debut at the Venice Film festival this summer and premieres in the US in the New Year - features contributions from a dazzling cast of contributors speaking to the rich variety of Hopper’s life, among them Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, whose 2006 Gorillaz song “Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head” featured a Hopper narration.
Also present are the world’s leading architect Frank Gehry, designer of three condos for Hopper’s extraordinary Venice Beach compound, as well as artists Ed Ruscha and Julian Schnabel and dealer extraordinaire Tony Shafrazi (Hopper, who died in 2010, was a painter, photographer and sculptor who amassed one of the world’s greatest contemporary art collections).
Naturally there are contributions from the movie world, including Reservoir Dog Michael Madsen, fellow Hollywood hell-raiser Dean Stockwell (he moved with Hopper to Taos, New Mexico in the late Seventies for protracted and gargantuan mind-altering expeditions) and David Lynch, director of Blue Velvet, in which Hopper portrayed the supremely creepy amyl-nitrate inhaling gangster Frank Booth.
Blue Velvet’s release in the Eighties revived Hopper’s career after the critical pasting he had received for The Last Movie a decade-and-a-half previously.
Now Ebeling’s Along For The Ride provides vital insights not only in to the background and making of that misunderstood film but also its complex creator.
Learn more about Nick Ebeling
