Because of his realistic portrayal, Hollywood stood up and took notice of the young actor, leading to auditions all around town. After graduating high school, Hopper moved to Los Angeles and began performing at the Pasadena Playhouse, while making his television debut as an epileptic on an episode of "Medic" (NBC, 1954-56). Nonetheless, he earned a scholarship to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, where he delved into the plays of William Shakespeare, among other works. Not an engaged student by any stretch, Hopper did excel in the drama department and debate at Helix High School in La Mesa, where he was dubbed "most likely to succeed," despite being on the verge of flunking out. Finally reaching sobriety in the early 1980s, Hopper re-emerged as a sober, hard-working, middle-aged character actor who made a stunning comeback with standout performances in "Blue Velvet" (1986), "Rivers Edge" (1987) and "True Romance" (1993), all of which transformed the once-reckless rebel into a well-respected veteran of the silver screen.īorn on in Dodge City, KS, Hopper was raised on a farm by his father, Jay Millard, a World War II veteran who moved the family to San Diego, CA in 1950, where he managed a post office, while Hopper's mother, Marjorie Mae, became a lifeguard instructor. But his subsequent descent into self-indulgence, drugs and alcohol derailed his career yet again and served as a lively cautionary tale about the excesses of 1970s Hollywood. When he returned to Los Angeles after a stint making television in New York, Hopper scored a critical and commercial success as the director, writer and one of the stars of "Easy Rider" (1969), perhaps one of the most culturally impactful film ever made. Following his screen debut alongside the original Hollywood bad boy, mentor James Dean, in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), Hopper nearly shot his career in the foot because of his penchant for being difficult on set. In 2015, The American Dreamer was restored in 2K and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Etiquette Pictures.Once relishing in his image as a drug-addled rebel of the 1960s counterculture, Dennis Hopper overcame years of substance abuse and a string of mediocre films to cement his reputation as one of Hollywood's most prolific and unpredictable actors. In a retrospective assessment, Steven Heller of The Atlantic wrote: "The final cut of The American Dreamer represents a highly-constructed group effort that pushes the limits of documentary." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, writing that the film "tries to be countercultural but the weirdest thing on show is gun obsession." He concluded that it "has archival value as a study of Hopper and a footnote to the American new wave." Home media On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88%, based on eight reviews. It did not receive a wide theatrical release. The American Dreamer was screened at film festivals and on college campuses around the same time as the release of The Last Movie. The film was thought to be lost for over 30 years, until it was rediscovered, remastered, and released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2016 by Etiquette Pictures. The American Dreamer was never released theatrically, though it was screened at film festivals and on college campuses. It follows Dennis Hopper at his home and studio during the post-production of the film The Last Movie, which he directed and starred in. The American Dreamer is a 1971 American documentary film directed by L.
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