‘The Bikeriders’ movie review: Hit the road with Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy

A still from ‘The Bikeriders’ 

There is something about motorcycles that calls to our primeval roots. That thrum of the engine, the leathers worn soft with use, the flash of chrome and the roar of exhaust, all start this answering beat in the darkest, deepest spaces of our souls. 

And then there is the whole nostalgia thing going on, with the movies, the black-and-white photographs, the curling cigarette smoke, and the sullen stare all bringing to mind rebels without a pause. From Marlon Brando’s The Wild One to Easy Rider, the motorcycle has been fetishised in Hollywood. In Hindi cinema too, a motorcycle is often used for the hero’s introduction scene. Remember Amitabh Bachchan on the Yamaha in Muqaddar ka Sikandar, or Aamir Khan and Rani Mukherjee burning up the tires and screen in Ghulam? 

While the movies glamourise all kinds of motor vehicles, there is a knowingness to Jeff Nichols The Bikeriders. Starting with Kathy (Jodie Comer) saying Johnny (Tom Hardy) created the Vandals, a motorcycle club in Chicago, after watching Marlon Brando’s Johnny reply to Mildred’s “what are you rebelling against” with “What you got?” in The Wild One.

Based on photographer/documentarian Danny Lyon’s eponymous book, The Bikeriders tells of how the Vandals started off as a club of misfits who liked to ride in the ‘60s in America, and as it grew bigger, moved away from Johnny’s ideals to become a criminal enterprise.  

The movie is told from Kathy’s perspective in a series of interviews to Lyon (Mike Faist). She went from outsider to biker babe and out again as the Vandals morphed into an unrecognisable beast. Apart from being the story of the Vandals, The Bikeriders is also the story of America from the Flower Power of the ‘60s, to the disillusion of the ‘70s. As the traumatised soldiers returned from Vietnam, pot gave way to the harder stuff, just as knives and fists were replaced by guns. 

Kathy’s entry into the Vandals, is with her first sight of the beautiful Benny (Austin Butler) and the two are married five weeks later. After a point, when Kathy wants to give up living on the road, Benny must choose between the motorcycle, Kathy and Johnny. 

The homoerotic sub-text is very much there, in the almost-kiss between Johnny and Benny, and Kathy’s acknowledgement of both her and Johnny loving Benny. Nicols’ gritty, grungy approach makes for a fascinating study of the lives and times of a sub-culture. Some of Lyons breathtakingly beautiful original photographs are used with the end-credits and one can see Nichols has recreated the photographs in some of his frames.  

Butler is luminescent, while Hardy plays against type as the elder statesman and Comer with the wings at the corner of her eyes, makes for a lovely chronicler. The Bikeriders is a wonderful trip down memory lane (where you can tell yourself you could have been a contender). Now all that comes to mind when you think of the two-wheeled tempters is food delivery, which while not being as romantic as Brando or Jack Nicholson, still gets you piping hot samosa in the rain!

 The Bikeriders is currently running in theatres