CALLERI: ‘The Bikeriders’ fictionalizes the legacy of a motorcycle gang (2024)

The 1960s and 1970s were the glory decades for movies in which a motorcycle probably should have been credited as a member of the cast.

Building on the success of “The Wild One” from 1953, which stars Marlon Brando as the discontented biker Johnny Strabler, Hollywood-based studios and independent producers soon filled theaters with patrons eager to react to the adventures and troubles of motorcycle riders, especially those who were members of gangs. American moviegoers were fascinated with bikers, who were considered, if not out-and-out rebels, at least the manifestation of the ethos of the freedom of the road.

In addition to “The Wild One,” five other invaluable films in which motorcycles are essential to the storytelling include “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Wild Angels” (1966), “Easy Rider” (1969), “Little Fauss and Big Halsy” (1970), and “Electra Glide In Blue” (1973).

The road machines and their riders are so iconic that a comprehensive list highlighting movies in which motorcycles are prominent would contain hundreds of titles. Even legendary silent comedians Buster Keaton, with “Sherlock Jr” (1924), and Charlie Chaplin, with “Mabel At The Wheel” (1914), knew the value of depicting motorized cycles.

It isn’t underestimating cultural reality to write that motorcycle gang members held sway over the public’s imagination. Throughout the latter half of the Sixties, photojournalist Danny Lyon, now 82, began creating photography books suitable for coffee tables about the American experience. His first volume was a 1968 study of outlaw motorcyclists he titled “The Bikeriders.” Lyon spent years photographing, traveling with, and sharing the lifestyle of bikers in the American midwest, including the controversial members of the Chicago chapter of the Outlaws motorcycle club.

Lyon ranks with writer Hunter S. Thompson as an essential chronicler of the mythology of American motorcycle gangs. Thompson spent a year with the Hell’s Angels for his own 1967 book, which is now titled “Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga.” Before riding with the Outlaws, and taking what would be praised as important and historical photographs, Lyon asked Thompson for advice. He was told that he “should get the hell out of that club unless it’s absolutely necessary for photo action.”

The new film, “The Bikeriders,” which is playing in theaters, depicts the lives of the Vandals MC, which is a fictionalized version of the Outlaws. The movie starts out promising. It presents a sense of the danger that exists for motorcycle gang members in places where they are not welcome, including Benny, a member of the Vandals, who seems to be drifting through life without any specific goals. He likes to get drunk and fight. The reverse is also acceptable to him. He’s willing to fight, and then get drunk.

Benny is played by Austin Butler with all the James Dean swagger he can muster, but it isn’t enough to make us ignore the fact that his character, while essential, is weakly written, and mostly needs to look good in a leather jacket. Worse, he disappears from the story for a while after being injured in a fight.

The Vandals are led by Johnny, who formed the gang as a motorcycle racing club, but then societal rejection of bikers made him angry, and the Vandals became rough around the edges. When confronted with making decisions one would call negative, Johnny’s only question is: “fists or knives.” He’s played by Tom Hardy with different vocal inflections depending on the scene. For a brief period, he even sounds a bit like Brando

Hardy’s Johnny began the Vandals because of what seems to be the only genuine influence in his life: the movie “The Wild One.” In the film we’re watching, the Brando picture plays on a television as a backdrop to Vandal Johnny’s home life, which isn’t sketched out by writer-director Jeff Nichols as well as it should be. His favorite scene? When Brando’s Johnny meets Kathie, he asks her to a dance. Kathie politely turns him down, although she is intrigued by his brooding personality. Then Mildred, another local gal, asks him: ”What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” He replies: “Whaddaya got?”

Unfortunately, nothing in “The Bikeriders” achieves the jolting excitement of that exchange of dialogue. What we get is a hit-and-miss melodrama in which bikers drink, fight, reminisce about the past, worry about rival gang members (Milwaukee seems to be the main breeding ground), and ride their motorcycles. Director Nichols seems to be under the impression that no one in the audience has ever seen dozens of bikers rumbling down a highway. The riding scenes are overly familiar. Nothing is presented in a new way.

The major problem with the film is the framing device Nichols has chosen to tell his not particularly energetic story. He uses a character based on the real-life Danny Lyons to provide information to the audience by actually interviewing a woman called Kathy (Jodie Comer). In “The Bikeriders,” these scenes run throughout the film and serve to break up the already lightweight story into unmanageable chunks of bland dialogue. It doesn’t help that actor Mike Faist, as Lyons, lacks a core edginess. He holds a microphone and takes pictures. Each bland scene in which he pops up becomes unintentionally funnier. Kathy and Benny get married, but like so much of the material in the movie, we drift in and out of their relationship.

Except for Michael Shannon as Zipco, a California biker visiting Chicago, the acting throughout is ultimately insufficient. Nichols needed to pay more attention to vocal tones. In fact, the main characters are underdeveloped and the cast members are underused. From a production standpoint, the film looks good, but in terms of menacing drama, nothing leaps off the screen. When something bold and truly destructive does happen near the end of the picture, it’s too little, too late.

In “The Bikeriders,” cliches abound. Yes, the saga is supposedly rooted in truth, but are we really supposed to believe this crop of motorcyclists was the focus of so much attention or were considered dangerous? How many picnics can one gang go to? Yes, picnics.

You realize that Nichols truly appreciates motorcycle gang members, their legends, and their mythology. He has absorbed their potentially ominous culture with a zealot’s heart. However, he backed himself into a corner. He couldn’t really depict the Vandals as thugs. As marauders. As society’s enemies. He didn’t want to hurt the ones he loves.

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