Movie Review : The Bikeriders (2024)
The idea of America as we understand it today is partly based on movies. It’s both a good and a bad idea, since it sets insanely high standards for how life should be (which is the good part), but ignores unromantic real life problems in its proposition (which is the bad part). Two sexy people can’t solve a housing or a drug crisis in two hours. The Bikeriders is an interesting story in that regard because it’s both true and false. It’s basically what happens when a movie inspires something real that inspires another movie.
Based on the 1968 non-fiction book by Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders tells the story of Benny (Austin Butler), a young and brash member of a midwest motorcycle club called the Vandals who falls in love head-over-hells with a young woman named Kathy (Jodie Comer) and marries her five weeks into their relationship. She becomes an unwitting witness to a growing cycle of violence taking over a social club that was formed after their leader Johnny (Tom Hardy) watched The Wild One with Marlon Brando.
The Impossible Romance of the American Badass
What made The Bikeriders interesting is that it’s a movie about who are trying hard to be like movie badasses and end up attractive violent scum that turn their club into a real life badass criminal organization. It really speaks to the fallacious foundations of modern manliness. The abstract promise that becoming a warrior will give you purpose and that your purpose will make your life better. I don’t know the level of truth in The Bikeriders, but even if it was entirely fictional, it’s a solid deconstruction of this romance.
They are two key characters here. Benny, who perfectly embodies the idea of the carefree biker, but is living an actual romance with a girl who’s trying to make a normal person out of him and Johnny, who’s romantic idea has launched him into a spiral of violence and chaos. One is an idea turning into a real human being and the other is a real human being who’s turning into a myth at the cost of his own life. The underlying theme here being: wanting to domineer your fellow man and exist without responsibilities is a death wish.
It’s like trying to be the Highlander, you know? There can be only one. Being king of the mountain implies a hierarchical order that you might not like if the aforementioned king is not you. It even might mean death. I thought The Bikeriders did a great job at illustrating the fallacious nature of this romance but showing a whirling his way up and out of it as his role model is spiraling down towards his own demise. It’s an unsexy observation, but sexy is exactly what The Bikeriders is trying to deconstruct.
But What About Fun, for F*ck’s Sake?
Another idea simply and aptly explored by The Bikeriders is that everything is temporary. You can be sexy and dangerous bikers all you want, but you living a dangerous lifestyle will require you to change and to deal with instability. The death of Johnny’s lieutenant Brucie (Justified’s Dewey Crowe Damon Herriman), depicted in the most unspectacular and unromantic way possible, and its devastating effects on the Vandals explored that idea gracefully. The bunch of badasses get the wind cut off their sails.
I don’t think The Bikeriders necessarily aims at destroying foundational romances, but rather looks to bridge the gap between their seducing vision and a pleasant, albeit a little less exciting reality. It is thoroughly explored through the character of Benny who ends up leaving the outlaw biking world, although feeling nostalgia for it. Such a crude and realist approach perhaps didn’t make for the most alluring movie, but it’s the kind of viewing experience that sneakily lingers afterwards?
*
The Bikeriders’ low key production and understated tone made for a quite refreshing viewing experience. It’s not an emotional experience by any means, but it doesn’t try to be and understands its purpose quite well without drawing outside the lines. It reminded me of the sobriety of early Sam Wiebe’s novels a little bit without the mystery aspect. I probably won’t remember anything about it in three years, but it’s somewhat of a palate cleanser for the infantine excess that’s being shoved down our throats nowadays.
