The Bikeriders Review

Based on a book by photographer Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders is an exploration of biker culture in the ‘60s and ‘70s and shows the rise and fall of The Vandals.

Danny Lyon (Mike Faist) is a photojournalist who interviews members of The Vandals biker gang from 1965 to 1973. His main interviewee is Kathy (Jodie Comer), the wife of a young member of the gang, Benny Bauer (Austin Butler) and she tells how the gang was founded by Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy) and rapidly grew across the Midwest.

The Bikeriders was a film that did well at the festival circuit. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was selected for other major festivals like the London Film Festival. It was seen as a potential awards contender, but its release date was pushed back because of the 2023 SAG strike, and lost its original distributor 20^th Century Studios. Focus Pictures and Universal Studios ended up picking up the film for the US and International distribution respectively.

The Bikeriders was advertised as a crime/gangster film and reviews by the New York Post and GQ Magazine compared it to the Scorsese classic. It did seem like The Bikeriders was going to start like Goodfellas because of the flashforward, the heavy use of narration, and Comer’s Kathy was channelling Lorraine Bracco’s Karen Hill. The film also had a rise-fall narrative that would fit in a Scorsese gangster film. However, The Bikeriders was not a gangster film since it was more of a sociological case study.

The film made a point that the members of The Vandals were working-class men. They had jobs like being a trucker, mechanic, or electrician, and many of them had families. They were a community of men who were looking for a sense of togetherness and belonging. Many of the men were misfits and outsiders, like Brucie (Damon Herriman), who stated that his parents didn’t understand why he loved motorcycles, and Zipco (Michael Shannon) said he wanted to serve in Vietnam but was rejected by the army. This was a macho, anti-authority group that viewed suburban men as ‘pinko.’ They didn’t even need to be communist to be called a ‘pinko.’

The Vandals’ expansion led to more misfits joining the gang. However, this took the gang in a darker direction. They went from being a close-knit group of men with a shared passion to being affected by issues of the day through its new members. The gang became an intersection of drug culture and the Vietnam War with many new members traumatised by their experiences. The gang enjoyed partying, drinking, and having a shared interest, they didn’t start as a criminal organisation, but they also had a dark side. Johnny had a rigid view of loyalty that affected The Vandals and the community. Johnny was like Gary Oldman’s character in the British TV film The Firm when during the week he was an estate agent with a young family, and at the weekend he was leading a firm of football hooligans.

If The Bikeriders had kept its original release date it would have come out at a similar time to The Iron Claw. Those films would make great companion pierces with each other since they were both films which were historical dramas set in middle America that looked at the negative aspects of a masculine subculture and were made by directors who had strong repetitions as indie filmmakers. Jodie Comer’s role was similar to Lily James’ character in the wrestling film since they were both playing spouses who were trying to get their husbands out of a toxic environment.

An unfortunate aspect of The Bikeriders was it reminded me of The Simpsons. Johnny came up with the idea of setting up a biker gang after watching a film from the ‘50s. I thought of this scene from the episode “Take My Wife, Sleaze.” It was unintentional on the part of the filmmakers, but The Simpsons episode lingered in the back of my mind.

The Bikeriders had a fantastic cast. Austin Butler has talent on the up because of his roles in Elvis and Dune: Part Two and he was good in The Bikeriders as a young, determined hothead. Comer gave the film a feminine presence as the only major female in the film who had to stand up for herself in an era that was openly sexist and chauvinistic. It was great to see Hardy back in a film beyond the Venom series and he had a presence as the gang leader. He grumbled his way through the film which Hardy is so good at.

The supporting cast was filled with respected character actors and some recognisable faces. Michael Shannon was hardly a surprise because he had worked with Jeff Nichols before and he’s great at playing an edgy character who could rage at any moment. Herriman as Brucie was notable since he was a decent moderate man and tried to act as the voice of reason in the gang. The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus was notable as a Californian biker who looked like he walked off the set of Easy Rider.

The Bikeriders was a solid drama that looked at subculture and showed why people were drawn to it. Don’t expect a biker gangster film since it was a character-driven story with some big themes about manhood.