THE BIKERIDERS, US, 2023. Starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Damon Herriman, Toby Wallace. Directed by Jeff Nichols. Rated M (Violence, mature themes, coarse language and drug use)
From 1965 to 1973, a photojournalist, Danny Lyon, followed a bike club in America’s Midwest. In interviews and photographs, he chronicled characters and events, ultimately publishing a book. This film is based on his book and photos, some of which appear during the final credits.
For audiences who enjoy the adrenaline pumping of motorbike riding, this can be a vroom, VROOM experience. For those interested in masculinity in American Midwest society during the period, this is a macho, macho experience. Which raises many questions. (And, early in the film, the club leader, Johnny, refers to the 1955 Marlon Brando motorcycle movie, The Wild One.)
Lyon’s observations and photos were of a club culture in the late 1960s. They were clubs for men who like riding bikes, with the uniform of jackets and jeans, non-stop smoking, drinking in their club-pub, out riding like a phalanx on the streets and open highways. They were generally working-class men, critical of college-educated men, and rarely at home, with a few groupie women tagging along.
While this is a picture of the men in the club, the perspective of director Nichols is often that of a central female in this story. Her name is Kathy (Comer) in a strong and commanding performance, being interviewed by Lyon in the mid-60s and then after the events in 1973. Most of the action is shown in flashback, her story of what it happened.
At first, Kathy is sheltered and rather naive, meeting a friend in the club’s pub, harassed, wanting to leave until she glimpses Ben a young sandy-haired moustachioed tall biker whom we have seen previously in an opening sequence, sitting at a bar, proud of his club jacket, announcing his club The Vandals, and severely bashed by two large rednecks from another gang. Kathy is smitten and within weeks is married to Ben.
The film is a showpiece for Butler (after Elvis and Dune 2) but while he is visually striking, and a presence, his character seems one-dimensional (perhaps two-dimensional) and he does not make the impact on the audience that he does for Kathy and for the leader of the club, Johnny, who wants Ben to take over (and we are thinking, as if!). And, Tom Hardy, strong actor as he is, is not always persuasive as Johnny, the president of the club, not always quick on the uptake.
The club sometimes seems a local bikie equivalent of a cult with a leader exercising power (violently), his lieutenants loyal, the rest of the club eager to submit, and members from other bikie groups wanting to join The Vandals.
At this stage of the 1960s, these groups were clubs rather than gangs. There was some personal drugtaking but not dealing. There were tough macho attitudes and behaviour towards women (with Kathy targeted a number of times and becoming more desperate until she could not take it any longer) as well as towards men in rival clubs.
The Bikeriders shows the transition from club to gang, drug dealing, killings, the rise of the lawless leaders – and, going back to the 1960s, we can see that the macho attitude leads to masculine supremacy, to white supremacy, to the hate groups of the 21st century.
While Comer and Hardy are British, there are substantial roles for Australians, Herriman as Johnny’s lieutenant and Wallace as the upstart future gang leader. Shannon has appeared in Jeff Nichols films (Take Shelter, Midnight Special) and has some fine cameo speeches here lamenting his not being accepted for Vietnam, and his continued inferiority criticism of Pinkos (those men who are college educated). Not exactly an enjoyable film but a challenge to thinking about clubs, gangs, supremacists, and the domination of males in this kind of society.
Universal
Released 4 July
Emory Cohen as Cockroach, Jodie Comer as Kathy and Austin Butler as Benny in director Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features.
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