All language subtitles for Along for the Ride-2016

[solemn instrumental music
playing]

All right. It looks like
we're good to go in here.
You ready?

[Satya]
Very few relationships in
Hollywood last 47 years,

the amount of time that
Dennis and I spent together.

That is
professional relationships,
artistic relationships,

marital relationships.

You name it.

Hollywood is the destroyer
of relationships.

I was loyal to him
just like--

He would object to it,
but Cheech & Chong,

or Abbott and Costello.

And he was always
loyal to me,

even even when I put
my foot in my mouth.

And I appreciate the legacy
that Dennis left me.

and left all of us.

He did everything well,

like most geniuses do.

I'm Satya De La Manitou.

For decades I was
Dennis Hopper's
right hand man,

aka, el hombre indivisible.

[guitar music playing]

[phone line ringing]

It's Satya.

I can't wait to see you.

I'm coming to New Mexico
the first week

of September
and we're making a film.

Love you to participate.

It won't be the same
if you don't.

You know, now that
I'm trying to remember,

how did we meet?

Oh, yeah.

I think it was
New Year's Eve, 1970.

-The Star Seed.
-[Satya] Right.

[David] We had an acid party
every New Year's Eve,

-and we were all there.
-[Satya] There you go.

Stars fell and all that.

[David] There's this guy
out there, little--

Not a little guy,
but real skinny guy,

eyes spinning,
with a fifth of tequila.

-Right. Right.
-Dancing.

I said, "Who is that?"
"That's Satya."

Next thing I knew
you were part of the family.

You went over...
How many countries did you
go to with him?

A lot of countries
we went to.

I remember you guys
coming back dead tired and
telling horror stories.

Horror stories of every place
was like fucked up somehow.

[laughing]

Dennis,
like most celebrities,

never answered his
own phone,

never picked up
his own mail,

never took care of his
own correspondence.

That was left for me to do.

That's why I have
so many of these boxes

that say "Dennis Hopper"
in my possession.

Like, let's see what
this is.

This is...

Winkleman Film Production.

"Dear Dennis..."

This is a German company
in Dortmund.

What's this?

Uh...

True Romance.

This is the original,

sent to Dennis by True Romance
Productions Tony Scott.

This hasn't been opened
in many a moon.

[chuckles]

A blast from the past.

This is the soundtrack album
from a documentary

called The American Dreamer.

This album is from
the Cocaine Cowboy days.

Back in Taos.

If you'll notice, he's got
an automatic weapon,

which was really necessary
at the time,

because the natives were
very combative.

This is the Dennis Hopper
that I knew,

that I first came
to become friends with.

Before we go any further,

I'd like it known that
I'm only a minor character

in my own life story.

I was in school, adrift.

I took a course called
"Classical Antiquity."

Dr. Markoff, my professor,
handed out the syllabus,

and I said, "Dr. Markoff,

I'm not getting anything
out of this course.

He said,
"Have you read Tolstoy?"

I said...

"I tried,

but I could barely get through
the first 50 pages of
War and Peace.

It was too voluminous
for me, Professor."

He said, "That's not the book
I was gonna recommend
to you."

I said, "Please, what is it?"

He said, "There's another book,
What Is Art?"

A light bulb went off
in my head.

He touched on
the critical word,

"art."

That's what I was
interested in.

I immediately went to
the Guggenheim Library.

After reading the book,

I can distill its essence
into one sentence.

"Art is the effect of
transmission of experience."

I found my way
to New Buffalo,

New Mexico's oldest commune.

There was a radiant image
in front of me.

A woman so beautiful
I had to obtain her.

I had to cherish her.

Well, the house went up,
and so did my life.

That was the path
the yellow brick road led to.

[country song playing]

One day,
this monster truck approached.

Who's in it? A bunch of
Hollywood types, led by...

the artist that was to become
my lifelong friend,
Dennis Hopper.

Dennis jumped out
and said,

"Boy, we'd love
to shoot here."

And I said,
"What do you got there?"

And he said,
"I got a psychedelic here."

I said, "Let me see that."

And he handed me the jar,

and I disappeared
with the acid.

Later, he confronted me
and said,

"What happened
to the acid?"

I said, "I gave it out
to all the other communers."

And he said, "Well, that was
the right thing to do."

And...

And it was.

It takes courage
to be original.

And for their originality,

these films
have been nominated

for Best Story and Screenplay.

Easy Rider.

[man] Story and screenplay
by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper,

and Terry Southern.

[Satya] Dennis Hopper
directed, starred,

and wrote
the highest grossing

independent feature
of all time.

Dennis affected world culture.

The star, the writer,
the director...

Everything he could be,
he was and he is.

[speaks indistinctly]

Dennis Hopper.

[audience applauding]

[Dennis]
I wouldn't take direction.

But anyway,
I was blacklisted,

and I had to sit in a chair
and make a decision

whether I was gonna keep
getting drunk at parties,

and telling people how I
was gonna make the great film
for 15 years,

or whether I was gonna
really sit in the chair

and really get it together
and try to figure it out.

If I ever got out
of the chair,

you know,
could I make a movie?

[Satya] Let me put this
into context for you.

He could walk into any
studio executive's office

in a rarefied position,

where every green lighter
was anxious

to be in his favor
and work with him,

and his passion project
was The Last Movie.

[Danny]
Dennis was very well versed

in World Cinema.

So, you know, when I'd mention
Godard, or Rene,

or Luis Bunuel in particular,

you know, Jean Renoir,
I mean, he knew
all these filmmakers.

[host] How were you difficult
in the old days?

Did you do marvelous
difficult things?

Which area do you
want to get into?

[host] The funniest.

[all laughing]

[Mike] Everybody else
was following him,

you know, and the studios
were following him.

I mean, he was, you know,

the first one to
really break through.

I mean, before Spielberg,

before, you know,
George Lucas.

You know, pretty much
at the same time as Francis,

But Francis didn't break
through until Godfather.

Dennis made an impression
on me.

I thought Dennis Hopper
is not some hippie.

He's somebody who's...

This is another level.

This is another
level of artistry.

He and I would always
see each other
through different friends.

And he said, "I want you
to be my agent."

So I represented
him and Peter.

And I started to get
the smell of

packaging movies
and producing them.

We went to dinner,
or lunch actually,

to Dr. Jules Stein's house.

And there was a group
of people there,

and Dr. Stein said,
"You see these two boys?

They made
$30 million for Columbia,

why aren't they at
Universal?"

Let's put it this way.

We did a picture
at Universal next.

[David]
The Big Black Tower
everybody refers to,

was in fact rather terrifying
in the 1960s.

What was that Vice President
in charge of that program?

Oh, the--

-Big jock.
-At Universal?

-[David] Yeah.
-[Satya] Uh...

[David] Ned Tanen.

[Danny] Ned Tanen had a way
of hunching over
behind his desk.

He was on the 14th floor,
by the way,
of the Black Tower,

in the office adjoining
Lew Wasserman,

which gives you an indication
of how powerful he was.

Apparently Dr. Stein spoke
to Ned Tanen and said,

"One of the first people
you should bring in
is Dennis Hopper,

'cause he has a new project."

So Ned took a meeting
with Dennis Hopper,

and he said, "I have a great
script by Stewart Stern."

We know Stewart Stern, he was
the author of
Rebel Without a Cause.

It was a really interesting,
fresh movie.

It was really good.

I had other studios that
wanted to make The Last Movie.

And I made the deal there.

And not only did I
get a final cut,

but I also got him
the New York
and LA opening.

We had done so well
with Easy Rider,

that everybody was wanting
to do anything for us.

So I said, "Where are you
gonna shoot?" He said, "Peru."

I said, "Well, that's great.

You know, we have a budget
of a million dollars."

He said, "Oh, we can
make this for three quarters
of a million."

[Paul]
We got down there.

And across the street is
this shop with all these
pictures on it

of tourist places to go.

We walk in there and
Dennis is with his usual
thing, and he goes,

"I wanna see this place."

That happened to be Chinchero.

And Dennis fell in love
with the place.

[David]
Nothing was there, really.

You know,
there'd never been a major
motion picture down there,

so it was shipping...

We were 75 people.

All this equipment to Lima,

and over the mountains
into Cusco,
and arranging for this.

[Russ] It was kind of funny.

I remember that on the...

on the plane going there,
we were all,

you know, rebel actors.

Michelle Phillips,
and Peter Fonda and myself.

And somebody lit up a joint

and started passing it around
on the plane.

And it was a regular
commercial plane.

And then, finally a stewardess
came racing down the aisle,

and said,
"Put that out, you know."

"Are you sure
you don't want some?"

[Paul] We were just amazed
that it was so perfect
for what we wanted to do.

All we had to do was put some
false fronts on a few places

and make it work.

I loved the script.

I'm sorry in many ways
sometimes we didn't
shoot the script in a sense.

We shot what
the script indicated,

but not necessarily
the script.

He was a star from Easy Rider.

You know, he was
getting the magazines.

He had it all.
He had it all.

[Michael]
I was Rolling Stone's first
film critic.

It became clear to me

as I watched the filming
going on,

that this was a work of art
being assembled,

and that almost everybody
involved was aware of that.

It wasn't just like,

touristical filmmaker comes in
to shoot a movie

where it'll be scenic.

It was far deeper than that.

[Stella] Dennis was
the director to work with.

You know, he was directing,
writing, editing.

And he took this film
to heart.

It was his baby.

And that tells you a lot.

I remember the movie
with a lot of love.

Hey, he gave me my
first big chance.

[music playing]

♪ In just six days ♪

♪ The Lord made the world ♪

♪ And while He rested ♪

♪ The Devil made Hell ♪

♪ Once I walked ♪

♪ Out in the sun ♪

We were a little stoned
at times, I must say.

Everybody was dropping.
I mean, it was...

Peru was like a candy store.

Kris Kristofferson wrote
Me and Bobby McGee
on that movie.

[David]
And also, we were inside
the line of the Revolution.

Where we made the film was
the revolutionary Indian
village.

[Satya] Exactly.

So, you know, the CIA
was on our crew.

[laughing]

It was unbelievable.

But, what a beautiful place.

What an incredible
fun time it was.

That place is easy
to turn on,

but Dennis turned
the places on, man.

And you'll find the inner
and the outer,
the bottom to the top there.

[Satya laughing]

Hey, hold it. Cut! Cut!

What the goddamn hell's
the matter with you?

Where the hell have
you been?

I'm sorry, I didn't--

[indistinct clamoring]

Who hired him?

[Sam] And I want it
legitimate and different,

and better than it's ever
been done.

When I squeeze off
a couple of shots at you,

you take it, hit it,
and hit it hard.

I want balls when you die.

All right. Roll 'em.

-[beeping]
-All right.

Action.

[Samantha]
And there's Sam and Dennis
going over a scene.

And even though my father
didn't talk much
about his experience,

he did write about it.

In Sam's words,

"I accepted acting gigs
whenever I could fit 'em
into my schedule.

And Dennis wanted me
to play the part of
a macho film director.

A tongue-in-cheek
parody of myself.

The last movie was about
a film production
in Peru's back country.

They're shooting a Western,
while the natives observe

the movie making process
and wonder.

The script was a sort of
Pirandello approach

to the clash between
two cultures.

Dennis wanted to show
how our sophisticated culture
could backfire."

How would you describe your
working relationship with him
as an actor?

I enjoyed working with him
as an actor.

I thought he was very good.

Dennis was a true maverick.

And it was a wonderful feeling
that you had Dennis with you.

It was not easy because of
the altitude primarily.

It was easy
to work with Dennis.

He was so focused
on The Last Movie.

We all thought, you know,
this is gonna take off.

[Russ]
At the end of the movie,

we went down to Lima.

And everybody was
snorting cocaine.

And we got a call from Dennis.

He calls and he says, "Listen.
I hear, you guys,
don't take any drugs with you,

'cause I hear you're gonna
be stopped and searched

when you get to LA,
when you go through Customs."

So everybody was getting
rid of their cocaine.

They finally ended up pouring
a lot of it down the toilet.

There was this white,
looked like snow,
going down the toilet.

We finally got rid
of everything,
of all the cocaine.

And we got to LA and they
passed everybody right through,

and you could hear,
"Oh, shit!"

He came back to LA--

It sounds like
a gas, though.

Came back to LA,
and Dennis...

Almost the whole cast
was wanted in LA anyway.

We had... Dennis said,
you know, we were moving.

And we moved to Towers
to edit the film,

because he couldn't
do anything in LA.

[music playing]

[Satya] Dennis Hopper exposed
me to personalities,

artists and situations

that heretofore
were inaccessible.

Upon Dennis' return
from Peru

to New Mexico,

he set up an editing room

in Mabel Dodge Luhan House,

which he had
acquired earlier.

The Mabel Dodge House was

the center of
an alternative culture.

The place was
a beehive of activity.

Dennis and I were
running buddies by then.

And we did a lot
of partying.

And the focus of all
the activity was Dennis.

Everybody wanted to have
a beer with Dennis.

Everyone wanted to share
a drink with Dennis.

Everyone wanted to get
loaded with Dennis.

[woman laughing]

This is really the scene
that I... I...

God... man... deserve.

That combined with
all the drinking

and carousing...

I think really impeded
his ability to successfully
edit the film.

Lawrence, you did
The American Dreamer
in New Mexico,

obviously 'cause Dennis
was in Taos cutting
the last movie.

You always
have to follow

in essence where
the greatness is.

And, you know, Dennis was
at his peak at that moment,

coming off of Easy Rider.

[Dennis]
You know what I mean?

I mean, I don't need to have
people make movies about me,

or, like, you know,
any of that.

I mean, it's all gonna be
up there eventually
on the screen

and they can see that movie.

So this is really,
you know...

It's a nice idea, you know?

Whether it's damaging,
or whether it isn't,

it doesn't really
matter to me.

A lot of people were
feeding off him.

They were going
down to, uh...

to New Mexico, and...

the money was coming in.

[man] What's the most
difficult thing
about cutting, Dennis?

Sitting here.

[Satya] He used the barn
for the editing suite.

And Dennis tried to edit
48 hours of footage

into a coherent film.

[Ted] There was no typical
work day.

It was totally up to
the energy of the scene,

the energy of
the people working.

It was a family.

There was no difference.
Everybody had equal say.

It was so loose
it was refreshing.

[Satya]
Back then we had a thing
where we were taking LSD,

DMT, DET...

You name it,
the whole alphabet.

Acronyms were popular.

I had knowledge of LSD,
because of...

Cary Grant had been
a family friend that
had tried to

persuade me to
try LSD.

But I said to Cary,
"I don't think that's for me."

You know how the scuttlebutt
gets going,

and gossip and all that.

And people talking even
out here in LA,

about how Dennis is
out of control.

I didn't see Dennis being
out of control.

I think he was maybe
nervous at the time.

But we had a good time,
went to the shooting range,

and he was happy to do that.

He was into guns
at that time.

I vaguely was.

I remember going, like,
maybe a year before,

going to a party
at George Hermes'

out in Topenga,

and Dennis was there saying
something like,

"God, they gave me
a million dollars
to make this movie."

It's a great movie, actually.

It gave a lot of detail about
who Dennis was, what he was...

At this time of course,
he's a changed person.

That time period in America
things were wild.

Vietnam War, the peak,
and...

The country collapsing,

and he got this
obsession with guns.

These are real guns,
they're not props.

And this is '71.

This is a different Dennis,
different character.

Well, it seems like he kept
the character of Kansas going

for years, with his denims,
his boots...

The same denim jacket
from the last movie.

Yeah. And with him,
it wasn't a joke.

It wasn't a set.

He got passionately involved
with guns at that time,

'cause Taos...

[Satya] Everything was
at your disposal here,

because there was so
few constraints here.

[Todd] It was lawless.

Lawless indeed.

And here was this kind
of freedom

that it's like a place
in time for God.

So you know more about this
than I do, right?

This is Michelle Phillips,

his wife,
of the Mamas and the Papas.

[Tony] I didn't know...
I never met her.

You were around with him
every day, weren't you?

-[Satya] Right.
-So what was nice here,

'cause she was very beautiful.

[Satya] Gorgeous woman.

[Tony] So knowing Dennis,
as crazy as he was,

especially then with all
the guns and shit going on,

that was
a very short marriage,

only two or three days
or something.

-[Satya] World record.
It's in the Guinness Book.
-It is.

What really gets me into is
like thinking that I'm at
a cocktail party

and now it's time to
talk about art.

-[laughter]
-Yeah, really.

You know, he had his ways
of looking at the world,

and it was very broad.

And I always wondered
how he could be

in the movie business

and be so ingrained into
the world of art.

His relationship to art
was real.

Most actors,
most movie people,

they might have
a collection...

But it's more than
a collection,

it's engaged with
the artist.

They admire him,

because of where
he was coming from.

The fact that he was
one of the first
people to buy

Andy Warhol painting
was remarkable.

One of them was The Kiss,

which is one of the greatest
things Andy did.

To appreciate something
is one thing.

To be the first one
to buy it,

to have it, to hang it,

recognize it
over and over again,
is something else.

And to know and to
follow it passionately...

Did you talk to
Danny Selznick? David...

"I love you, man."

That's what Dennis used to say
to me all the time.

"I love you, man."

I'm sure this could be the basis
for a comedy sometime.

Danny Selznick going from
Universal City to
Taos, New Mexico,

and Dennis greeted me
warmly and he said

we're gonna go down to
the local movie theater.

He showed me a very, very
rough cut of The Last Movie.

And it had absolutely
extraordinary footage.

It more than fulfilled

the potential of
Stewart Stern's screenplay.

I think it was at
the New York Film Festival

that I discovered El Topo.

And I said there's this is
an amazing movie
called El Topo.

He said, "My God,
it sounds surrealist."

He immediately arranged
to meet Alejandro Jodorowsky,

and the rest is now history.

[Satya] Alejandro had
a cut of it for him.

And everybody seemed
to have their version

of what it was.

But you know as
well as I do,

in the final analysis,

Dennis is releasing
the cut that he wants,

no matter who intercedes
in his behalf.

One day, Dennis said to me,

"Let's go down
to the theater.

I wanna show you
my unexpurgated version
of The Last Movie."

After about 15 hours,

he said to me,
"You wanna wrap it up now?"

I said, "Are you kidding?

This stuff is dynamite, Dennis.

I didn't know
you had it in you.

And that stuff
of the outer planet.
Show me more.

Lazlo and you have created
a brilliant film here.

And it's a feast
for the eyes."

The most noteworthy,
to me, in the film,

was the tracking shot

that Laszlo Kovacs did,

and Dennis has no dialog in.

In that, he acts
with his eyes,

like most great actors do.

Anybody that appreciates
fine artistry

can understand

the brilliance of his acting.

He suffers.

Then I realized...

this guy that
made Easy Rider,

a film that I enjoyed

and I thought
was groundbreaking,

but not a work
of genius.

But this film,

this film was sensational.

I decided to make a firm
commitment to help the man.

[man] What's gonna happen
if The Last Movie

is not accepted
as Easy Rider was?

[Dennis] What's gonna
happen to me?

Nothing's gonna happen to me.

Because like you know, I...

I was sleeping on a mattress
when I edited Easy Rider,

and I can sleep on
a mattress again.
I have friends.

Just photographs upon
photographs, man.

That's all that's
gonna be left.

I'm only gonna be ashes.

If I'm that.

If I'm lucky enough
to be ashes.

[Tony] One of the best things
about Dennis Hopper

was not his movies,
it was the pictures he took.

His photos were incredible.

Photography was the thing
that he had the biggest impact.

What I learned from him,
time and time and time again,

that James Dean is where
he got it from.

James Dean was
a great photographer.

James Dean was
the only person allowed

on any set that
he went to,

to actually take pictures.

He affected me
as much as Lee Strasberg.

Finally after Jimmy died,
I went to New York and
studied with Strasberg,

who's a teacher that
he studied with, that...

From watching him work
and the two pictures,

where we spent...

We spent
eight months together.

You know? And then he died.

So this is 55 from Giant.

And Jimmy's looking at this
while Dennis admiringly...

He's got a bull whip
around his neck.

So Dennis wrote this
to me with a 96, yeah.

"To Tony, my best friend."

I just wish I was here
next to them.

I guess I am,
in spirit.

[Satya]
James Dean, immortal actor,

made three films.

Dennis Hopper was fortunate
enough to be in two of them.

If James Dean put his key
in the door of rebellion,

Dennis Hopper kicked it in.

My original thing was
to take it to Cannes.

To forget about the rest of
this and just go to Cannes.

And then I got talked into
an April opening.

You know, an Easter opening.

[Satya]
This was the editing room.

This is where his film
was assembled,

disassembled, re-assembled.

This is where he put together
his greatest work.

The editing became laborious
and very difficult.

He got a lot of pressure
from Universal Pictures.

Nick Ray came in to try to
give him advice about editing.

It was much longer
than Universal Pictures

-could handle.
-Right.

[laughing]

-That's an understatement.
-Yeah.

He was over... over...

what should one say...

intellectualizing every
single scene.

[Gruskoff] He just didn't have
a beginning,
middle and end.

You know, I said,
"But I think it
could be better."

I always went back to
Stewart Stern's script.

I said, "This is something
we fell in love with,

this story. And this is not
that story really anymore.

My next trip to Taos, he said,
"Let's just go
directly to the cutting room."

And all the shelves
were empty.

And I said, "Dennis,
where's the film?"

He said, "Well, I'm keeping
the film where I'm keeping
the film.

Universal's not gonna
interfere with this.

I said, "Universal's not
gonna interfere with it,

because we gave you
final cut, Dennis."

[Dennis] I do believe that
a man who doesn't
protect himself

is really a fool.

[Mike] You know, it's like
an old man trying to

understand what
the teenager is doing.

Because, one, he's not
gonna tell you what
he's thinking.

And if he does,
you won't understand it.

[audience applauding]

Glad to have you
with us.

I'm so glad to be here.

June and I were out...

We drove up to Taos,
one day, New Mexico,

looked for you,
never did see you.

Well, he'd come to
my studio

and this painting was
up on the wall

and he would
break into this,

recitation of
Rudyard Kipling's poem.

And it's called If.

"If" is a middle word--

We have a special
spot for you.

Dennis Hopper,
ladies and gentlemen.

[applause]

I think he learned early on
to put gusto in just about

everything he did,
no matter what.

One of the most intense
individuals I've ever met.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

"If you can meet
with Triumph and Disaster,

and you just treat these
two impostors just the same..."

[Lawrence]
It was very antagonistic.

They had a release
date scheduled, you know.

They have stockholders,
you know.

-They're responsible.
-Yeah.

And they needed to start
to prepare
for that release.

So we were very worried.

And Dennis took the film
to the Venice Film Festival.

This film became
Dennis' jewel.

It not only won CIDALC
at the Venice Film Festival,

but Dennis became
only the second American
since Buster Keaton

to win the grand prize
at the Venice Film festival.

[Stella]
Cameras were shooting
all the time,

and he loved the attention.

The film was very
well accepted.

It was overwhelming.

[Danny] And Dennis came back
smiling to Universal studios

and said, "Well, I have
a prize from Venice."

We had a screening.

In walked about
15 people in gray suits.

Not a word.

Sat down in unison,
not a word.

At the end of the picture,
got up in unison, not a word.

That was it.

[Danny] I said, "Dennis, it's
quite extraordinary, but,

you must delete
that last shot."

I said, "You're playing
Pirandello games now,

and it destroys the whole
purity of the picture."

He said, "Danny, remember
I have final cut."

[Stella]
After the screening,

the first person he went
up to was my husband, Don,

and he asked him,
"What do you think, Don?

What d you think
about the film?

And Don said, "I hope they
understand it."

Him dying, getting up,
dying, getting up.

He got tired of dying
apparently.

He wouldn't die
in The Last Movie.

And they really wanted him
to die, man.

What's up with that?

[Gruskoff]
Next thing we got
from Lew Wasserman

is we gotta change,
gotta redo the picture.

We gotta recut and
do all of this...

which we said no.

He defied Lew Wasserman.

You know, but...

You know, it's a privilege
to have final cut.

And you have to know
how you're gonna use it.

I mean, I remember him
pounding a table saying,

"He must die!"

And there was a lot of
screaming in the halls.

And holy shit, you know,
this is like...

[Danny] You see
the hilarious footage

in which I'm walking
on the Universal lot
with Dennis.

We wanted to make a few
changes if I could
persuade him.

And I want you to
be able to--

I still, like, you know...
I still wanna keep the...

keep the economy of...

They said if you can't
persuade him, forget it.

So I was trying to persuade him,
we're walking on the lawn,

trying to use my friendship
with him.

And he was continuously sayin',

"Yeah, man.
I love you, man, but no."

The problem was he
didn't wanna do it their way.

They're giving job security.

Yeah, but I can't stand
their ego trips.

Well, I cut it
and I directed Bob Wise,

and I selected it and I...
I... I...

[Danny] Then finally he said,
"We'll open it in one movie
theater in New York, Danny,

because we'll see what
the critics say.

And if it doesn't work
in New York,

we'll trash it."

New York was significant
because Nick Ray was there.

And he was a great influence.

We were in this one booth,

and I look over,
"Are we ready?"

and Nick is shooting up
his girlfriend.

And I look over to Dennis,

and Dennis
just took a hit of something

and he goes back
in his seat and he's...

And at that point it was
just so theatrical.

[Gruskoff]
You know, he's very talented,

but he had a disease
at that time.

And the disease was
self destruction.

This tells the story
of making a movie

and how the Hollywood,
the old classical world
of movie making,

myth making world
entering a private

village world of culture
rips it apart.

And after it leaves,
it goes through veins,

goes to the, sort of,
a destructive force.

Ruins the village,
ruins their lives.

And this myth stays behind.

And so he's showing, really,

the skeleton of the movie,
not the movie itself.

And so, it was too shocking
for the world to see.

But it's basically
an underground movie.

[Satya] The film never
really was a success.

And then he wasn't
allowed to direct anymore.

This really hurt him.

I think he went into
a downward spiral
at that point.

And his drinking

became even more heavy.

He suffered.

He suffered greatly
for this.

It was a crushing blow
to Dennis.

And this room became
a ghost room.

In that he had completely
abandoned the place,
intact,

and a cloud of dust descended
on the slingbacks
and the movie overs,

and the whole room
became a macabre

remnant of Dennis'
artistic battle

with the suits
in Hollywood.

[thunder rumbling]

[David] It was rough
working for those guys.

And then they
shelved the movie.

Well, he made a habit
of getting blackballed.

Well, he was blackballed
for 24 years in this country

out of his career.

After The Last Movie,
he was 50.

It's sort of like Muhammad Ali
wasn't allowed to prize fight--

Isn't it a drag?

[Satya] And that's
one of the reasons
he suffered so much

when he got ostracized
and blackballed

after The Last Movie.

Because he internalized
all that.

But also, you know,
when Dennis hit the canvas,

he only went down
on one knee.

One of the reasons,

and the most important reason

Julie, that I worked
for Dennis
all these years,

especially during
the dark parts

was that The Last Movie,
to me, was the most

shattering cinematic
experience
I ever had.

You couldn't
keep him down.

All that drinking
and drug abuse,

it wouldn't let him work.

He sat there and he was
trying to get a job
all the time.

It was The Last Movie.

We were all dropped
out in the mountains.

Dennis has the curse of
being a really great actor.

"Fading into desert highway."

I think we've seen that before.

Here's a photo
of Jerry Jeff Walker.

We played poker
all the time.

And Dennis raised him
three ounces.

[Carpio] Well, you know,
when I met Dennis...

The first time I met Dennis
I was a really young man.

That's right.

And it was so funny, 'cause

they were filming
Easy Rider here

in Taos Pueblo.

And I was just a young kid,
sitting over there,

watching the filming, and...

And you know, my father was
the tribal interpreter
for our village,

and fought for
48,000 acres of land.

And Dennis went over
there to

put a little support
towards our Pueblo

and the battle for Blue Lake.

And I got to know Dennis
as a brother.

Actually, I don't know if you
were there at the time,

but we were
at Bill Gerson's house.

And there was Dean Stockwell

and Rusty Hamlin.

I actually talked them
into cutting themselves

and being blood brothers.

I remember meeting him
many years ago.

But I don't remember
the first time I met him.

Do you remember?

Was it in the cutting room
of The Last Movie?

It might have been...
My memory now is getting old.

It wasn't so hot to start with.

[laughing]

But yeah, this is the place
we all lived together.

And we had
such good times here.

We'd hole in with all
the beautiful ladies of Taos.

Yeah, well, it's a wonderful
place that we, you know...

Wow, the place looks a lot
different, doesn't it?

[greeting in foreign language]

What do you remember
about Dennis?

Well, Dennis, I met him
when I was young.

Yes. You were what, 15?

Yeah. 15 or 16.
Around there, 17.

I met him here.

When he was moving here,
I met him.

He was a good man.
Quite a good man.

You know, Satya, John here
and the family live here.

And this is their home.

And it's something
that's really beautiful
what Dennis did

is just to leave the place,
you know, and move on.

And there's
this whole property.

He would sit up there
in the mornings and,

like I said, he would look at
the sacred mountain
and let the sun come up.

But it's really
a wonderful place.

And you know,
it's been...

God, over 40 years
since I've sat up there.

And I'm gonna take a look
up there, okay?

-[Satya] Yeah.
-Why don't you talk to John.

-[Satya] John.
-[John] Yeah.

What do you think about
going inside, John?

So this is where Dennis was,
Satya, you know.

[Satya] That's right.

It's really a beautiful place.

And he would stand here
and go...

[imitating machine gun firing]

And this was the place, man,
the Tony House.

He had a big, huge
television right there.

His bed was right here.

Bed was right there.

And the remote was
where I hid it.

It's probably still
there, man.

[all laugh]

[Carpio] You know, the smoke
was better in the '70s.

It was. Everything was
better back then.

Here we are, my friend.

You know,
you're supposed to roll it.

And it's all too thin.
What's this New York joint?

Jesus Christ.

Too thin for you.

Don't take two hits.

[Satya]
Years ago, we were in
trash truck with Dennis.

That was Dennis'
vehicle.

-Yeah?
-Right.

-He referred to it
as that.
-He did.

And everybody else
did, too.

We went to a club.

It looked like trash.

Club north of town
called Las Compadres.

Dennis, Dean Stockwell
and myself were returning

to Dennis' lovely Tony House

in the Taos Reservation.

And just as we passed
this establishment,

known back then
as Los Compadres,

Dennis said, "I need a drink.

Let's stop."

I said, "Dennis, this is
not a good idea.

It's a locals only joint."

We entered right there
from that door.

That door that's blocked by
all this beautiful mission
furniture.

The bar was populated by
a bunch of hard nosed locals

who weren't happy
to see us.

There was booths around here,

some pretty young Latinas
sitting in 'em.

The place was huge.

The band was playing
over there.

We were ignored
by the bartender for
eight or nine minutes.

While we were waiting,

Dennis and Dean were
sizing up the place,

and they both spotted
a beautiful young
dark haired Latina.

Dean said, "I think
I'll dance with her."

If you recall,
you and he

ad trouble finding
dance partners.

Right. So we danced together.

Right. Right.

Both of us
holding a pistol.

Right. And that's when
they called the man.

However, how I remember it,

the bartender's eyes popped
out of his head

when he noticed Dennis'
.357 Magnum.

He went to the telephone,
which was right behind the bar,

and called the State Police.

So Dennis said,
"I can't give you my gun.

That's a .357 Magnum."

And the cop got pissed.

And Dean and I urged
him to give him the gun.

He handed him the gun,

the trooper emptied
the magazine

and gave him back the gun,
but kept the bullets.

Dennis said, "Those are
custom made dumdum bullets."

They're made to expand
upon impact.

Oh, man.
The cops were boiling.

So finally, I said,

"Dennis, quit while
you're ahead.

They gave you the gun back,

I'll buy you some bullets.

Don't worry, let's get out
of here."

After the cop allowed
us to leave,

Dennis jumps in the truck
puts it in gear,

proceeds to rip the whole
side of the police car.

And I said, "Oh, my God!

Look what you did, Dennis!"

And he said, "All we have
to do is get the Indian land."

And he kept telling us
to point out the window
at something.

Point out the window,
right.

Divert their attention.

That's what it was.

It wasn't until Monday morning

that the police came

to the house
to get Dennis.

Dennis was upstairs
in the cupboard...

with his AK47.

The Police Chief
knocked on the door.

He said, "I have a warrant
for Dennis Hopper's arrest.
Is he here?"

I said, "You're welcome to
come in and look for yourself.

Come right in, Officer.

Yeah, the police
wouldn't come in.

They were afraid
of Dennis.

They knew
they were outgunned.

[telephone ringing]

During the various sparse
periods in Dennis'
employment history,

he was made an offer

by some obscure

people at the end of the world

south Atlantic
Melbourne, Australia.

There was not even
a film industry in that
country at the time.

And besides, Dennis didn't
have any other offers.

Dennis was on our list.

We'd seen Easy Rider.

We didn't know
he'd been blacklisted
basically.

We had no idea.

But we rang up his agent
and we said,

"Is Dennis Hopper available?"

Well, is he available?

The guy's face just
came through the telephone.

"He's available,
he's available!"

Anyway, so we went to LA,
and we flew to

Taos and we met you.

I remember that and I remember
beautiful women wafting
in and out...

the house.

[Satya] Those were the days.

[Philippe] We didn't realize
the seriousness
of the whole situation.

Dennis said that he
had told Lew Wasserman,

who was God in Hollywood
at the time,
to get fucked.

Which was the brief version.
We flew back to Hollywood,

where Martin Sheen
wanted to do it,
they all wanted to do it.

And I called
Martin Sheen's agent

and said, "We're going with
Dennis Hopper."

And he said, "Well,
you'll never work
in this town again."

And I said, "Well,
I've never worked
in this town.

It doesn't make
any difference."

[Satya laughs]

"We're going with Dennis."

[man] Wham, bam,
right on the money.

[Dennis] I remember
Satya, my assistant and I,
arriving,

because I wanted to come
a couple of weeks early

so nobody could fool me
about Australia.

I'd have a head start
on everybody.

[Satya] My role as Dennis'
right hand man
evolved organically.

He liked having a pal

that was a like minded
individual.

Wait a minute.

He's fired, man.

Hey, off the set.

[Satya] It was one
of those things
that endeared me to Dennis,

because he got to trust me
more and more and more
and more.

And give me more
and more latitude

and longitude to exercise
his will.

It was dawn
in the Australian bush,

which is beautiful anyway.

The sun was coming up
and Dennis and I
were walking down

to the location.

And Dennis
suddenly grabbed me.
He said,

"Hey, man.
Isn't this fantastic?

We're making a movie!"

I've come for opium.

[Satya] Dennis was
Mad Dog Morgan personified.

The method actor
in him demanded

that he go to the extremes
that Mad Dog Morgan did.

Clapboard, take six.
Bang, clang, powder puff.
Action.

Some of which were to drink
a quarter of rum every day.

Other was to...
go on adventures.

[Philippe]
And I was concerned

about Dennis' drinking.

No one can do this
and live.

Dennis is a method actor.

A real method actor.

That means that he
totally immerses himself,

subjugates his
whole personality

to the part that he's playing.

Good beer down here
in Australia.

And so I said to Jeremy,

"Listen, this guy might
just drop dead next week.

We gotta do
something about it."

And he's, "What are we
gonna do?"

"I got an idea.

We're gonna cast
his face in plastic."

Oh, I remember.

"So when he
drops dead tomorrow,
we'll have the mask."

This is the paranoia.
Talking about the paranoia.

"So we'll have his mask
and I can do long shots

of the stuntman riding,

and in the death scene in
the end we can use the mask."

And Jeremy says,
"Yeah, he's gonna drop dead.

Our careers are gonna
be over.

God, yeah, get the mask done."

So then Dennis
comes up to me.

He says, "Hey, man.
What's this mask thing
for my face?" to me.

I said, "Look,
I had this idea, Dennis.

You're riding along
on your horse,

you look up, you see
you own face against the sky,

and it blows up."

And Dennis goes,
"Far out, man.

That's far out, man.

Really far out.
Great."

And he walks off set.

At the end of the shoot
we're finished,

you know, and, "Dennis,
you've been fantastic."

Which he was.
"Just incredible performance."

Which it was.

"Thank you so much."

He says, "Wait a minute.

We haven't shot the scene
where I'm on the horse,

I see my face and
it blows up."

So we shoot that.

And Dennis again...
"Thank you, Dennis."

He says, "Wait a minute.

There's no death scene
at the end."

And this is where I think
Dennis is a great actor.

I say to him,
"We've got the mask.

We've put that on a...

That's a...
That's a dead... you're dead.

You're dead.
We've got the mask.
You're dead."

"Wait a minute, man.

No one plays me dead.

I play me dead."

That's the great
actor speaking.

Oh, I'll never forget that.

You're absolutely right
about that.

"No one plays me dead."

You know, you and I both
worked as right hand men

assisted in AD camps.

You were known as
the left-hand man
of Francis Coppola.

[Dingman]
Later when I'd be in

a social situation,
Dennis would say,

"Tony got me through
Apocalypse."

-Exactly.
-Which I kind of helped.

-Right.
-It's like that.

But what I knew was that

you had gotten him through
all the New Mexico wars.

You... All that.

[Dingman] It was the big
Kurt's compound scene,

which as you know, he was
a vital part, the photographer.

We were told Dennis
is gonna be arriving.

He sent his bags
up to the room.

We repaired to the bar,
and he met all the guys.

All the stuntmen,
all the special effects men,

all the other actors.

And it was solid
from there on end.

[Francis] It's nice, because
this is the moment
when Chief dies,

and he looks up and
he sees this harlequin figure

waving all the people away.

He's like...
essentially Dennis Hopper.

[indistinct]

[siren blaring]

I'm in America!

Dennis Hopper
being a method actor

really revered Marlon Brando.

There's only love and hate.
You either love somebody,
or you hate 'em.

[Satya] Marlon refused to
be in the same room with him.

He only allowed him to
be off camera
at the back of the room.

Didn't you read...
Francis read some of
his stuff back?

-[Dingman] His lines?
-[Satya] Yeah.

[Dingman]
I think it was somebody.
Somebody read his lines.

[Satya] One of the ADs,
or something like that.

Like, there was an AD,
uh, Larry Frankle.

He thought Dennis
was out of it.

-Didn't he?
-They all did.

[Satya] Did he every tell you
anything about the figary?

[Dingman] They were
an indigenous natives
of the Philippines.

They understood
our pecking order.

They could read
who Dennis was.

They knew he had
strong mojo.

And they made him
a medicine man.

For them,
he was a witch doctor.

So even they understood
what was going on.

[Satya]
It was pretty good. Yeah.

And Dennis was very
proud of that.

[Dingman] There was one
famous incident.

There was this weird guy
that came from Hong Kong,

with a Russian accent.

And he claimed he
was a banker.

Turned out he was
a banker.

Owned a bank.
But we didn't believe it.

And Dennis became convinced
that he was an assassin.

And so, we were up in the room,
drinking and what not,

and we had a big spear
from the indigenous Indians

and Dennis picked up
the spear,

and he looked like he was
gonna throw it at the guy,

and he turned around
and he threw it in
the opposite direction.

The spear went
down the hallway,

made a turn, made a turn,
and came right back and

went right over
the guy's head
and stuck in the wall.

-He turned around--
-Wow.

He said, "This is for you,"
and then he threw it that way
and it came around...

The guy was scared.
He left.

Boomerang.

It's that little
mojo of Dennis. Yeah.

You see, Dennis was regarded

as a problem.

As a notorious disrupter,
here in America.

But in Europe, he was regarded
as a creative genius.

Dennis couldn't roam
the Champs-Elysees

without a tsunami
of paparazzi

overcoming him.

I recall one time,

when we were trying
to get a cab,

thirty photographers
came out of nowhere,

and no cab would
stop for us.

I'd never seen
anything like that.

The character of Tom Ripley

was offered to
John Cassavetes,

but he suggested that
Dennis Hopper would make
a much better Tom Ripley.

And Dennis got the role.

How do you
say that in German?
I'd love to hear it.

[speaking Russian]

[repeats Russian]

Yeah.

Well, Sam taught me a lot.

And a scene that I
had with them,

I was saying,

as Dennis Hopper walked
on the west side highway

in the...

You better watch
your step, cowboy.

-What was your impression
of him at that time?
-Of Dennis?

A very, uh...

artistic and
very suffering...

Like I could feel he was
a very sensitive.

He had a Van Gogh quality.

He did.

-Uh, he did. I felt it.
-There's no doubt.

[Dennis]
Every director's different.

I think Wenders is probably

the best director maybe
I've ever worked with,

as far as just being
sympathetic to the actor.

We had already shot
for about a week,

and then Dennis arrived,

barely got sober,

and Bruno, that was
his first movie.

He was as well prepared
as a man can be.

And then came this man
called Dennis Hopper,

who did not read the script,

who did not know
his lines.

But when we were shooting,

was right on, and damn good,
and Bruno saw that.

And on the second day
of shooting,

Dennis again improvised
the heck out of the scene

and Bruno got lost
with his lines,

and with his character.

And he stared at Dennis,

and then,
in the middle of the shot,

put his fist into
Dennis' face.

And Dennis,

like a lightning,

hit him with an upper cut,
and hit him on the chin.

I mean, immediately.

And Bruno was
on the floor,

and Dennis was over him.

And they were rolling around
and there was blood.

And the costumes were done.

And it was the end of
the day, because...

they were in no more
shape to shoot.

And in the morning,
they came together
to the location,

drunk as hell,

in no condition to shoot.

But they came arm in arm.

And from then on,
they were the best of friends.

And I don't know what I
would have done if they
hadn't fought it out.

I don't know.

[Satya] Everybody had
a great feeling about it,

because Win was so sensitive,
and the acting was really good.

Dennis, in particular,
I think wanted to show

Wim, 'cause he believed
in him,

that he was one of the
best actors alive.

At one point in the film,

Dennis was called
to improvise,

and he took the SX-70
Polaroid camera,

and kept shooting selfies.

Selfies while he was on
the pool table,

with the green felt background.

And he kept snapping them

in this sequence.

It became riveting,
the way he

used this prop.

[camera shutter snaps]

One of the props that
Win Wenders introduced
into The American Friend

was the pornographer's
vehicle.

It was the coolest car
you've ever seen.

A Mercedes ambulance.

"Dennis, help me out.
Give me the money
so I can buy this car."

He said, "No way."

I said, "You don't know
a bargain when you see it."

Because that car was the best
vehicle I ever had.

The German standards for
emergency vehicles
were very strict.

And I could make
a K-turn

in the same radius
as a Volkswagen.

Came in handy,
especially when--

How long did you
keep that car for?

For a million miles.

[laughs]

The celebrities and
millionaires that I
hung out with

always got free clothes.

And I thought to myself,
"How can I...

compete with these guys

without spending
thousands of dollars?"

The only way
I figured out was

accessories.

And we went to a disco,

and we were
hanging out and...

digging the crowd.

A beautiful young woman
came over to me and said,

"I'm nuts about
that embroidered vest
you have on.

Where can I get one?"

And I said,
"Come with me, young lady,

and you'll have all the vests
you'll ever need."

One of the few times
he was jealous of me.

He wasn't a jealous type.

In the '70s,
we were jamming, partying...

Probably our work suffered.

But when I could see Dennis
going over the edge,

I'd just lean over and say,

"Maintain, man."

In the early 80s, Dennis was
afforded the opportunity
to direct a film

called Out of the Blue.

[Linda] Actually,
I met him in the elevator.

Or by the elevator
at the hotel.

-[Satya] In Vancouver?
-[Linda] Uh-huh.

And he told me he was
taking over being a director.

'cause I think we already
shot four weeks

into the movie with Leonard.

And then Dennis came
into the picture, and...

we started working together.

I mentioned when we started,

that Out of the Blue
seemed to me to be

a film of its time.

The punk generation.

In between Easy Rider and
Out of the Blue,

had you kind of assimilated
what was going on,

in the various changes
in fashion and style
and music?

I mean, how did you come
to feel about punk at that time?

I just saw it
written on the walls,

and I was listening to it
on the radio.

You hadn't decided
on the title at that time,
but you were--

I heard that
on the radio, too.

Neil's an old friend of mine.
I went...

Wow, that's the picture, man.

I can't use
Dead But Not Forgotten.

This is the story about
Johnny Rotten.
Thank you, Neil.

You worked with very
prominent directors,

like Terrence Malick,
David Fincher,

Philip Kaufman...

Terrific directors.

How would you compare
Dennis' directing
with their styles?

[Linda] He was more
on the wild side. [laughs]

Was he willing to
take chances?

Yes.

And I got to
really admire Linda.

So I found out that
Linda played drums,

and played a little guitar.

And I said, "Put drums and
guitar in the room."

I never really knew
who Sid Vicious was.

Or Johnny Rotten
for that matter.

But Elvis, I knew Elvis.

Everybody left me.

My father left me.

Johnny Rotten left me.

Sid Vicious left me.

And now you, the King,
has to leave me.

And here's Don Gordon
with Dennis Hopper.

Wow.
One of his best buddies.

And this is Raymond Burr.

He played my shrink.

He told me he owned
an island in Fiji.

Mmm-hmm.

And I could go down there
any time I want.

But I never did. [laughs]

Well, it can't be as
remote as this part.

[Linda laughs]

You look very elegant here.

[Linda]
That's Cannes Film Festival.

You know, the movie
showed in France,

and was hugely
successful there.

Had over a million admissions.

Dennis hadn't directed anything
since The Last Movie.

Here was the guy who had
had the greatest success

of the '60s,
with Easy Rider.

And yet, here it was,
getting no distribution
in the US.

I decided that we had to
distribute Out of the Blue.

And by "we",
I mean me.

...say I don't write.
It's true.

But I didn't really want you
to see me in here like this,
you know.

This is where I've been for
the last five years, you know.

[John] I was just
enthralled by it.

I thought of all the movies
that I've seen

in the tone of distribution,

this is the best.

People have to see this movie.

I remember a quote from
one of the European reviewers,

that it's
a shocked complacency.

The Village Voice
did a full article.

New York Times did
a great article.

And the LA Weekly said it was
the finest American movie

in a very, very, very
long time.

[Jack]
♪ Hey, my, my ♪

This is Little Jacky Nicholson.

I wanna recommend a movie
that I'm not in.

Dennis Hopper's movie
Out of the Blue.

First of all,
I've never endorsed anything.

Even of my own.

But this would do

in the '80s exactly what
Easy Rider did

to kind of make the transition
from the '60s to the '70s.

It may piss them off,

but if a masterpiece
comes along,

people should see it.

Okay, man!
Okay, all right, all right.

[woman] Oh, God.
What a...

You see this?

I'm a motherfucking asshole.
You know that?

I did five fucking years,
you know, in prison.

And there were a lot of other
kids in there besides yourself.

Now, am I gonna have to meet
every fucking asshole
like you man?

Look. I'm an asshole.
You see this?

You see this?

But I'm not a motherfucking
dumb asshole!

There's enough here
for two drinks.

Dennis Hopper, like most
big stars,

had a great ego.

But I never saw him exhibit
so much humility

as when he was offered

the opportunity to direct.

And he became humble.

[Linda] Mmm-hmm.

[Satya] And I saw him reach
a new plateau in his life

where he realized he may
not get many more chances
like this.

And he assumed a...

very humble position.

And, you know,
it's really helped me

understand him better
and respect him more.

-That movie was so powerful.
-So dramatic.

That was the best white trash
drama I've ever seen.

And you know, he did that
just before he went to
the nut house, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

He was right at the peak
of his ability
to transform himself.

Dennis had told me,

"I'm gonna pull a stunt
to promote

Out of the Blue."

We had the TCP take
care of business.

[man] The guy's a little bit
wasted, but he knows
what he's doing.

I'm confident.

[woman]
What's gonna happen?

He's a real
technological genius,

Dennis Hopper.

[man] He's really gonna do it?

You'll find out when
he blows himself up.

When he backs up
and this stuff's live.

And a two way radio will
set off that dynamite
right now,

so let's just be cool
for a minute here.

I said, "Dennis,
you are not Houdini."

I told him, "I'm washing
my hands off it.

I'm not having anything
to do with it."

[loud explosion]

[announcer] Dennis Hopper,
ladies and gentlemen.

[people cheering]

Hey, man. Whoo!

Whoo!

I wanna tell you one thing.

That ain't no joke, boys.

What did I tell you
when he got back? He...

He was triumphant.

Not triumphant in my eyes.

I thought he was
going more and more

off the rails.

That's when I knew
I couldn't

really intercede
on his behalf anymore.

I used to be somebody else.

I used to be somebody

more interesting than
I am now.

[Satya] I realized that
he needed

professional custodial help.

His drinking
and alcoholism had

gotten to the point where

I couldn't help him
anymore.

Nor could any of those
surrounding him,

his family or friends.

No mail yet.

Cocaine problems are
the topic of the program.

I brought to Dennis' attention
a piece by Dr. Sidney Cohen

from the Drug Abuse and
Alcoholism Newsletter, 1982.

I got him in the ambulance.

We were driving down
Olympic Boulevard.

And I tell him, "Dennis,
I'm doing you a favor."

He said to me,
"What are you doing?"

I said, "I'm taking you
to rehab."

He goes, "Oh, no. You're not."

I said, "Yes, you are."

And he said, "I told you,

I'm not going to rehab."

I said, "Dennis, you'll either
die or be in prison soon."

He laughed at me.

And he said, "I'm getting
out of the ambulance."

I said, "Go ahead."

And I shifted it to second,
went about 75.

He didn't jump out of the car.

I said,
"You won't jump out.

You don't wanna mess up
that pretty boy face
of yours, do you?

And sure enough,
he didn't.

We got to, uh,

New Beginnings.

And the guys with the white
suits were ready for him.

He went in.

Reluctantly,
but he did go in.

Several hours later,
I was home in bed,

I got a phone call
in the middle of the night.

When the shifts had changed
at the hospital,

and they said...

"Are you the person that
was in charge of the intake

of Dennis Hopper,
one of our residents here?

I said, "Yes."

They said, "Well,
you better get down here,

'cause he is losing it.

He is speaking in tongues."

So I jumped in my ambulance,

drove down there.

Dennis was on triple lock.

That is,
to get into the facility

that he was being
attended to,

you had to go through
three glass doors.

The security was
very tight.

I could see
through the glass door,
Dennis was against the wall,

moving his hands
against the wall,

almost trying to
feel something.

And he was yelling
some stuff,

which was barely intelligible

beyond those doors.

When I finally got in there,
I realized what it was.

He was saying,
"Satya, Satya!"

But the new shift, they didn't
realize who Satya was.

That being me.

And they thought
he was talking gibberish.

Well, he thought that
the guys in the white suits

had plastered me
into the wall.

That is...

the dimension of his...

problem.

The DTs had taken over.

Dennis was really
in big trouble.

I gently put my hand
on his shoulder,

and said, "Dennis, it's okay.
I'm here.

I'm here, Dennis."

And he turned and saw me...

Smiled...

And then...

His attendants came in,
gave him some Valium,

put him to sleep.

I just gotta relax
for a second.

[solemn music playing]

When Dennis made his return
from his darkest times,

that was about--

[Russ] That's when he
came over here a lot.

[Satya] Yeah, that's what
I was gonna--

[Russ] And he was
walking on the beach.

That was a pretty...

That was
a pretty dark time,

and he was very quiet then.

[Satya] He was
very fragile then.

[Russ] Very fragile.

That's when he moved.

When he found that
place in Venice

that he moved into.

I must have been
in this alley
a few thousand times.

This is the alley
where Dennis

bought the first Frank Gehry
house here in Venice.

Well, the house was
very important in his...

rejuvenation.

because that was right
when he got into rehab.

And I brought his
entire collection from
Taos, New Mexico.

I didn't really know he was
paying attention to me,

until one day,

he gave me a catalog
of his,

which said something like,

"You're the greatest ever,"
or something.

Something so bloody flattering

that I looked at it
and I thought,

"He'd been looking at
what I'd been doing, I guess."

And it was really
over the top.

I think it was the first time
I ever got
a compliment like that.

[Fred] Let me
tell you a story.

I was working for
Dino DeLorenzo,

so I was executive in charge
of production at the studio.

Dino came to me and said,

"I wanna make this
movie with David Lynch."

I called David in,
we sat down, we talked.

He said, "I want Dennis
to star in the movie."

I said, "Okay.
You think he can do it?"

And he says, "I want
Dean Stockwell as best buddy."

His character, Frank Booth
was out there, you know.

You got the oxygen thing
he's taking on.

Just totally set up
for Dennis to go crazy with.

It's funny when
we were rehearsing

on the live set there,

and Dennis disappeared
for a while.

I think he went to the john.

And he comes out
with this light bulb thing.

The screen thing you use
for a microphone.

He comes out with that
and hands it to me,
and I used it.

[Dennis] You know,
when I'm hired as an actor,

I come to work
as an actor.

And contrary to what
anybody might

have thought about
how I would behave.

My personal life
I was difficult.

But, uh...

But it never interfered
with my work.

It interfered with people
giving me jobs,

because my mood swings
were like tremendous.

Like, I'd go from
one thing to another,

but you know,
what's so funny is
none of the people here

have ever worked
with me before.

Dennis and David Lynch
working together.

How would you
characterize the way

they worked together?

How did Dennis and
Jack Nicholson work together

on Easy Rider?

Famously.

That's the word. Famously.

[Lynch] You know,
life is strange.

There's a thing called fate.

And this was all about fate.

There's a lot of things
you can do,

you know, with an actor.

You can talk till
the cows come home.

But if they
don't have it inside,

it doesn't ever really resonate
100% honest.

Dennis was Frank.

He knew all about Frank.

He was absolutely perfect.

[laughter]

[gunshots ringing]

[Lynch] Action.
Tampa 133, take three.
Mark.

[woman] Frank does not
like himself.

And wasn't he the greatest?

[Lynch] Action.

Speak to me, fucker.

[speaking indistinctly]

[indistinct dialog]

It's a bullet straight
from my gun, fucker.

[Lynch] When Dennis
was watching

Dorothy on the stage
singing Blue Velvet,

he... he started crying.

And that was really beautiful.

Yeah.

[Fred]
As far as I'm concerned,

he was not dead
in Hollywood.

He was just sleeping.

And we had to wake him up.

The little bit that I
was able to help,

David Lynch was
able to help,

He woke up.

He woke up and he flew higher
and faster and wider

than ever before
and anybody since then.

When you start
counting actors on your

ten fingers,

Dennis is in one of ten.

Dennis was no longer
a pariah in Hollywood.

[operatic music]

Okay, let's see what
we got here.

Oh, this is, uh...

a daily racing form.

Can't be without that.

Most people
don't realize that

a lot of the alternative
musicians and artists

were really big fans
of Dennis Hopper.

Including Morrissey,
the lead singer
from The Smiths.

They chose one of
Dennis' photographs

of the biker couple

for the cover to their album
Best of The Smiths.

He reached a new
plateau in his career

with the portrayal of
Frank Booth.

The buzz in Hollywood
was that

Dennis Hopper was back
better than ever.

And this made him
bankable once again.

So Dennis Hopper got offered
to direct Colors.

Nobody knew more about
gangs than Dennis,

'cause they were right
in his backyard.

In his own alley.

[Paul]
Sean and Bob Duvall
loved him.

Loved the work
that he did.

Loved the way he worked.

It was an amazing film
for its period

and its time
in the examination
of what it did.

You know, that was
his re-entry so to speak.

Well, I have a big hit.

I think it was a big
financial success

called Colors.

It was number one
in the nation, so...

That's successful.

[laughing]

The great thing with Dennis
was he sold the absurd...

side of life...

and found it humorous
at all points.

He said to me about the script,
he said,

"Ha! Yeah, man.
Script, man.

Fuck a script.
It's just a fucking
blueprint, man.

That ain't a movie."

I said, "Yeah, you're right.

Karl Marx.

Jesus Christ.

Peter Fonda.

And the sun in God's mouth
is an artist by the name
of Lyn Faulks.

These are things out
of the '60s.

This is a box,
a drawing by a man...

This is Conor who is
my favorite filmmaker.

Experimental filmmaker.

He made small,
short films.

This is Julian Schnabel.

[Julian]
Brilliant. He was just...

It's great to get the ball
back in your court.

The fact that I
lit up this cigarette

reminded me of Dennis

smoking that Chesterfield

in that scene between Chris
and him in True Romance.

I have that Chesterfield now.

[Mark]
He was somebody
who as an icon.

An American icon already.

And so, he totally was
able to

wrap himself around
being an artist
and being a painter.

It wasn't like Jack Lord

or one of these guys that,
you know,

they went off and they
did sunsets in the backyard.

Dennis did paintings
that had

real gravitas to 'em.

And I think he was
a pioneer.

He's rare. He came back
from Lew Wasserman.

He came back and started
his career over again.

[Ed]
He sort of re-invented

this three letter word M-A-N.

And nobody said "man"
like Dennis Hopper.

Wow, man. Look at that.

That's dramatic, man.

Look at that.

[Satya] In fact, one time
when he was talking
to his wife,

he said, "Hey, man.,
don't do that."

And I said,
"That's your wife.

'Man' is masculine.

How could you refer to her
as man?

That's because you're
habituated in a way in
saying that, Dennis."

[Dennis] Easy Rider was really
the first independent film.

I thought of the bike
as the United States.

I thought of it as
a beautiful chrome machine

with all the money
in the gas tank.

I also thought of us
as a criminal society

that we love our outlaws.

That's when Dennis Hopper
knocked my socks off

in that talk.

[Satya] Right. He was
waxing poetic that evening.

The world is your sound stage.
Go do it.

That's the message I got
out of France,

and that's what I did.

And I realized that,
you know,

you could take this guy
to Harvard and give
a lecture, right?

Which I wouldn't have
thought of before.

I remember being
a little...

unsure what to expect
when we were waiting
for him to arrive

at the studio.

Because it was
Dennis Hopper of course.

[Damon]
We had this kind of sort of
strange little story,

that we wanted told
on Demon Days.

And he seemed
really up for it.

We asked him if he'd
come and perform with us

at the Apollo in Harlem.

Which was, I still think,
one of the best things

I've been involved with.

While we were working
on this book...

Eighteen-and-a-half years
of work it took.

I had all the photos.

Toni Basil, Teri Garr
Bruce Conner in the bathtub.

Famous pictures.
Anyway...

So these are all pictures
that Dennis Hopper took,

which are among the greatest
pictures of the '60s.

[Satya] That's Clazton's wife.

Yeah. I mean, look at the...

It's that
Rudi Gernreich outfit, right?

Beautiful style.

The Metropolitan Museum ended
up using this shot for example.

[Satya] Dennis was like

a precious gem.

And a gem needs
to be polished

to attain its true brilliance.

I wanna make
a person to person call.

[telephone ringing]

Hello? Who's this?

Oh, I'm asking
who's calling.

Satya?

Tell him I'm busy.

Yeah. Tell him I'm doing
an interview
about Dennis Hopper.

All right. Thanks.

I had started talking to
him about writing.

And he read some of
my writing.

And then he ended up
writing the foreword
for this book for me.

He actually wrote...

The foreward to it is
very, very complimentary.

I wrote this poem
about him...

[reading poem]

"Waiting for me to come
out of the men's room...

I walked past the bar

and I saw Dennis
standing outside

leaning against the wall
at the bottom of the stairs

with his arms folded.
He was wearing sunglasses.

I kept walking, because,
you know,
I just wanted to get to it.

But, you know,
for that second, I...

I thought of Dennis and

exactly what I was
looking at, all the years,

all the things,

all the people,
all the ideas,

all the good, all the bad,
all the happiness,

all the movies, all the time,
all the found,

all the lost,
all the rain,

all the pleasure,
all the art,

all the booze,
all the blow,

all the love,
all the hate,

all the horror,
all the kids, all the ass,

all the money,
all the pages, all the words,

all the walls,
all the everything,

all the sunglasses,

at the bottom of the stairs,
right there, right then

was for sure the most
beautiful sight
I had that day."

Well, he was sure...

He kept it right up,
didn't he?

I mean,
what I was amazed at

was the film that Dennis
did, Elegy.

With Kingsley.

Ben Kingsley, yeah.

Dennis dies in the film.

It's the last thing he did
up there in Vancouver.

Is that the last thing
that he did?

No, the Palermo project
in Sicily was.

Oh.

And he played
Death in that.

I'm tired of having
to play the bad guy.

I'm gentle and tender.

People see me
as cruel.

I'm the opening.

I'm the connecting door,
not the dead end.

[sighs heavily]

I'm the only way out.

So nice to see you
again, Satya.

It's been a while.

It wasn't since the...

Wenders film that
we worked together.

The Palermo project.

Yeah. That was when...
When was that? That was...

2008, right?

They all... The numbers just
squish together to me.

Yeah.

I don't remember numbers.

When I shaved his head,

I saw him, like, looking into
the makeup mirror,

and he got really
very quiet.

He got very intense.

[Satya] Well, he was
evolving into his character

as he sat in your chair,

in your hands.

You saw the transformation.

[Barbara] Yeah, I could
really see that in his eyes.

[Satya] And very dramatic
with a character actor
like Dennis.

This was his last performance

in a feature film.

I'll always
remember Dennis

confiding in me
and saying,

"Which one of us is
gonna go first?"

[both laughing]

And just like
you said earlier,

the guy was so strong,

so powerful,

such a dynamic,
creative force,

that I never really thought
that he would go.

Right.
You kinda didn't believe it.

Right.

He came here,

I would say a month
before he died.

And he was
obviously in pain.

And he wanted a tour of
the office, look at stuff.

Which was...
And I knew he was dying.

And...

It was very touching for me
that he did that.

And the last time
I saw Dennis Hopper,

was on Hollywood Boulevard,

when he was getting a star
at the Walk of Fame.

The limousine pulls up,

and I happened to be
right where that
limousine pulled up.

The door opens,
and there's Dennis.

He looked at me and
he said,
"Fred, where's Satya?"

[Dennis]
Everyone here today that...

that I've invited and
obviously some that
I haven't invited...

[laughter]

Have enriched my life
tremendously.

[people clapping]

I'd like to thank
my friend

Satya De La Manitou for
having this dream
for 40 years.

The last time I saw him
and the last words I
heard from him.

I don't know if you knew that.
You didn't know that?

I didn't know that.

Yeah. "Where's Satya?"

[Satya] Thank you, Freddie.

He's the best.

We had good times
making movies, huh?

Yeah.

Maybe he didn't take
care of himself,
I don't know.

I mean, you get multiple
stories about it.

But, um...

But he no doubt
left his mark

on the entire scene.

[Satya]
This is the original script

of Easy Rider.

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper
and Terry Southern.

That was prepared in
the beginning.

Then you see
wonderful photographs.
Look at that.

And there are...
Well, there are...
Let's see.

There are other ones.
You remember when they bike

they go to
the gas station.

So throughout the film
there are a lot of
interesting pictures

which correlate, uh,

to the scenes.

Of course we know it was
one of the greatest movies
of all.

So to see all of that
in preparation

is incredible, you know.

I gotta handle this carefully.

Yeah. That's Dennis
on the floor on the last shot.

Buddy Billy.

End of the movie.
Amazing.

It's something,
isn't it?

Well...

I had some trips
with Dennis, you know.
I mean...

going to New York City is
a whole different experience
with Dennis.

Going to Mexico City.
Whole different--

[Satya] Going to
dinner with him is--

Taking a drive through
the Altiplano

to Chincheros
at 15,000 feet

beneath a 23,000 foot
Sacred Mountain is a trip.

[telephone ringing]

Yeah.

[solemn music playing]

[Satya] And I believe that...

a man like Dennis
comes around

once every 500 years.

The 20th century

had many great men.

But artistically, Dennis
certainly was in the top 10.

See him wasted

in his jacket and his jeans,

wearing yesterday's
misfortune

like a crown.

Once he had a future

full of money, love,
and dreams.

Which you wasted

like they were
going out of style.

[thunder rumbling]

[thunder continues rumbling]

[thunder rumbles]

[thunder continues rumbling]

[Satya] You know,
here in Los Angeles,

there's thousands of Satyas.

That is...

people that work
below the radar,

doing thankless jobs.

Assisting luminaries,

celebrities, artists,

authors, auteurs...

whatever.

All these right hand
men and women,

they just wanna keep
the engine moving.

♪♪

♪♪