“The Bikeriders” - Film Review
The roar of a gang of motorcycles is a bit like a thunderstorm rolling in. It’s impossible to ignore and there’s something intoxicating about seeing a group of people who have formed a group like that. There’s camaraderie, brotherhood, and community built into the DNA of a biker gang. A place for people with a common interest to come together. Like most endeavors, the group at the focus of The Bikeriders was started with the best of intentions, but it doesn’t take much for the scales to shift and allow what was once an outlet for brotherhood to become a cesspool of violence and toxic masculinity.
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We’re introduced to the world of the Chicago Vandals through the eyes of Kathy (Jodie Comer), a talkative midwestern woman who has no interest in the bikers until her eyes fall upon Benny (Austin Butler). He’s a quiet, but fiercely loyal member of the gang and loves Kathy just as fiercely. He’s one of the younger members, but the group’s leader, Johnny (Tom Hardy), sees him as the future. The Bikeriders is told in fragmented stories, jumping through ten years of the gang’s exploits. The film’s narrator is always Kathy. She’s telling her version of the events, with flair, to a photojournalist (Mike Faist) who spent time taking pictures of the group to publish in a book. It’s this book that The Bikeriders is based on, though the film does change the name of the gang.
The opening of The Bikeriders is frantic, as we’re introduced to this world and these people. Comer’s midwestern voiceover is a perfect means of allowing the viewers of the film to meet these characters in an accessible way. It’s humorous and expertly edited to allow audiences to fall under the spell of joining a bike gang. This is the only point of the movie that really romanticizes the lifestyle. It’s hard not to get swept up when Benny takes Kathy for her first ride on his bike. The wind is in their hair, they’re gliding over the city streets, and then, suddenly, the empty road behind them is filled with the rest of the Vandals. From a solitary bike to a group, it’s a powerful shift to be part of something. To have a jacket covered in patches that shows you’re somebody who has people standing with them.
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The creation of a group like that is the creation of power. As history has shown us, power inevitably corrupts. For all of Johnny’s good intentions and the rules he creates to ensure the smooth running of the club, The Bikeriders shows how easy it is for the group to morph into a space for toxic masculinity to run rampant. Violence becomes a means of expressing intimacy, pride, and power. Johnny doesn’t jump immediately to violence, but as soon as you introduce violence into the essence of a group, it cannot be contained. It will infect everything and everyone.
The timeline of The Bikeriders is hard to follow at times, and the film’s reliance on Kathy’s interviews doesn’t always allow for a smooth transition from one plot point to the next. What remains thrilling is the performances. While Butler and Comer are top-billed, it’s really Comer and Hardy who are tasked with carrying the bulk of the movie. This is no knock to Butler’s acting. His Benny is simply a side character in the odd love triangle between himself, Kathy, and Johnny. Both Kathy and Johnny love Benny, but they disagree on what kind of future Benny should have. Johnny wants him to take over the Vandals and Kathy wants him to move down to Florida and work at a garage. Benny doesn’t know the two most important people in his life are fighting over him. All he knows is loyalty to both.
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Hardy’s career has been built on broody, hulking characters. Some of them are villains, and others just have questionable morals. Johnny falls into the latter category. He’s angry, proud, and does deeply care about the members of the group. He’s also terrified of the monster that he’s created in the Vandals. The group is spiraling beyond his control and he can sense that this is the thing that will kill him. Comer’s Kathy allows her to really shine in the film’s few comedic moments. She has a quick delivery, and her bizarre accent makes it all the funnier. She’s a force in her own right. Far less hulking than Johnny, but equally a force to be reckoned with.
The Bikeriders is Easy Rider by way of Goodfellas. It’s a crime drama mixed with a period piece of a time not too unlike our own. A time when people were searching for a deeper meaning through community and where violence is brewing in many corners of the world. The Bikeriders is authentic and ugly, a snapshot of an America that is feeling all-too-relevant again.
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