Editing Easy Rider (section)

===Post-production===
Despite being filmed in the first half of 1968, roughly between [[New Orleans Mardi Gras|Mardi Gras]] and the assassination of [[Robert F. Kennedy]], with production starting on February 22,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/this_day_in_indie_history/P100/ |title=This Day in Indie History |magazine=MovieMaker |access-date=2011-01-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907224851/http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/this_day_in_indie_history/P100/ |archive-date=2012-09-07 }}</ref> the film did not have a U.S. [[premiere]] until July 1969, after having won an award at the [[Cannes film festival]] in May. The delay was partially due to a protracted editing process. Inspired by ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]],'' one of Hopper's proposed cuts was 220 minutes long, including extensive use of the "[[Flashforward|flash-forward]]" narrative device, wherein scenes from later in the movie are inserted into the current scene.<ref name=Kiselyak/> Only one flash-forward survives in the final edit: when Wyatt in the New Orleans brothel has a premonition of the final scene. At the request of [[Bob Rafelson]] and [[Bert Schneider]], [[Henry Jaglom]] was brought in to edit the film into its current form, while Schneider purchased a trip to Taos for Hopper so he wouldn't interfere with the recut. Upon seeing the final cut, Hopper was originally displeased, saying that his movie was "turned into a TV show," but he eventually accepted, claiming that Jaglom had crafted the film the way Hopper had originally intended. Despite the large part he played in shaping the film, Jaglom only received credit as an "Editorial Consultant."<ref name=biskind/>

It is unclear what the exact running time of original rough cut of the movie was: four hours, four and a half hours, or five hours.<ref name=Kiselyak/> In 1992, the film's producers, Schneider and Rafelson, sued Columbia Pictures over missing negatives, edit footage and damaged prints, holding them negligent concerning these assets. Some of the scenes which were in the original cut but were deleted are:<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Birnbaum |first=Jane |url=http://www.ew.com/article/1992/05/15/easy-rider-controversy |title=The ''Easy Rider'' controversy |magazine=EW.com |date=1992-05-15 |access-date=2015-10-14}}</ref>
* The original opening showing Wyatt and Billy performing in a Los Angeles stunt show (their real jobs)
* Wyatt and Billy being ripped off by the promoter
* Wyatt and Billy getting in a biker fight
* Wyatt and Billy picking up women at a drive-in
* Wyatt and Billy cruising to and escaping from Mexico to score the cocaine they sell
* An elaborate police and helicopter chase that took place at the beginning after the dope deal with police chasing Wyatt and Billy over mountains and across the Mexican border
* The road trip out of L.A. edited to the full length of [[Steppenwolf (band)|Steppenwolf]]'s "[[Born to Be Wild]]" with billboards along the way offering wry commentary
* Wyatt and Billy being pulled over by a cop while riding their motorcycles across a highway
* Wyatt and Billy encountering a black motorcycle gang
* Ten additional minutes for the volatile café scene in Louisiana where George deftly keeps the peace
* Wyatt and Billy checking into a hotel before going over to Madam Tinkertoy's
* An extended and much longer Madam Tinkertoy sequence
* Extended versions of all the campfire scenes, including the enigmatic finale in which Wyatt says, "We blew it, Billy."

''Easy Rider'''s style—the jump cuts, time shifts, flash forwards, flashbacks, jerky hand-held cameras, fractured narrative and improvised acting—can be seen as a cinematic translation of the [[psychedelic experience]]. [[Peter Biskind]], author of ''[[Easy Riders, Raging Bulls]]'' wrote, "LSD did create a frame of mind that fractured experience and that LSD experience had an effect on films like ''Easy Rider''."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.laweekly.com/1998-07-09/news/the-trip/full/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206221527/http://www.laweekly.com/1998-07-09/news/the-trip/full/ |archive-date=6 December 2013 |title=The Trip |last=Whalen |first=John |website=[[LA Weekly]] |date=1 July 1998 |access-date=2014-01-13}}</ref>