The Rolling Stones’ Altamont Free Concert in 1969 is often cited as the end of the peace-and-love, flower power dream of the 1960s. The show was anticipated to be a “Woodstock West.” Instead it resulted in widespread property damage, numerous stolen cars, scores of injuries, a drowning in an irrigation canal, two deaths due to hit-and-run accidents and the murder of Meredith Hunter, who was stabbed to death by the Hells Angels motorcycle gang members that were hired as the concert’s security crew. The chaos of the event shed a light on the dark side of the libertine hippie lifestyle, but also on the violent, criminal subculture of motorcycle gangs.
The new film The Bikeriders is based on Danny Lyon’s 1968 photobook of the same name. Lyon rode, partied with, interviewed and photographed motorcycle clubs in the Midwest from 1963 to 1967.
America’s motorcycle subculture was born after World War II when American pilots returned home and organized riding groups when they found it difficult to transition back into domestic peacetime living. Or at least that’s a romantic legend that gangs like the Hells Angels have spread. It’s that myth that Lyon believed in and even managed to capture on film before he saw the camaraderie found in fraternities of free roving men on motorcycles transformed by racism, hard drugs and violence. The Bikeriders film relates the history of the golden age of motorcycle clubs, beginning with working class racing groups and ending in outlaw orders bent on chaos.
The Bikeriders stars Tom Hardy as Johnny Davis, a Chicago trucker and family man who’s inspired to start a motorcycle racing club after seeing Marlon Brando in The Wild One on television. Hardy’s own performance is Brando-esque, playing Johnny as an inarticulate enigma who values loyalty and isn’t above fisticuffs and knife fighting to defend his place as the leader of the Vandals. Benny Cross (Austin Butler) is a younger member of the group. He’s quiet and known for his poker face cool. He’s fiercely dedicated to Johnny who sees Benny as his natural successor. Benny meets Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer) and woos her by parking his motorcycle outside of her red brick row house and refusing to leave.
In a sense Comer is the star of The Bikeriders — the whole film is framed around Kathy’s interviews with Lyon (Mike Faist). On screen and in voice over, Kathy’s Chicago accent and rapid fire narration are some of the more unforgettable elements of this movie. The Bikeriders doesn’t really have a dramatic plot and Benny’s character is barely a character at all. Instead this picture reads like a documentary — Lyon’s book brought to life and roaring by at 24 frames-per-second. And it mostly works because the acting of the main cast is strong, and they’re supported by greaseball turns from Damon Herriman, Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus. And writer-director Jeff Nichols’ marshaling of costumes, design and — especially — music sets his characters firmly in his thoroughly believable mid-century Midwest.
The Bikeriders is a movie about inarticulate men who express themselves through horsepower and horseplay. It’s a portrait of a silent brotherhood of brooding boomers who find something bigger than jobs and bills and the expectations of polite society in the rush of wheels over roads. In The Wild One, Marlon Brando responds to the question “Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” with the answer “What have you got?” The Bikeriders doesn’t arrive at many answers either. But it’s a ride worth taking.
The Bikeriders is currently in theaters.
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.