Katie Walsh | Tribune News Service (TNS)
With Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders” roaring into theaters, the urge to explore the cinematic open road with more motorcycle movies is strong, especially the titles explicitly referenced in Nichols’ film. Inspired by the 1968 book of photos and interviews by Danny Lyon, “The Bikeriders” is an imagining of Midwestern motorcycle culture in the 1960s, from Chicago to Milwaukee to Gary, Indiana.
In the film, the leader of the Vandals, Johnny (played by Tom Hardy) is inspired to start a motorcycle club after watching the iconic Marlon Brando film “The Wild One” on TV. This 1953 film is the original outlaw biker film and the ür-text for the image of the modern biker, with the leather jackets and caps inspiring many a movie that came after it. Based on a short story and news article about a 1947 motorcycle rally in Hollister, California, “The Wild One” was directed by László Benedekt, and made Marlon Brando a star. Rent it on all digital platforms.
“The Bikeriders” also references the iconic 1969 counterculture movie “Easy Rider,” featuring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda as two bikers on the road in the Southwest. Directed by Hopper, the independent film was one of the movies that signified the shift from the studio system to the edgy filmmaking of the New Hollywood in the 1970s. This is a classic — stream it on Showtime or rent it on all digital platforms.
Three years before he appeared in “Easy Rider,” Fonda first became a counterculture and Harley-Davidson icon after starring in Roger Corman’s “The Wild Angels” in 1966. Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd also co-star as Southern California Hells Angels and the women who love them. Rent it via ScreenPix on YouTube, Prime Video, Roku, iTunes, etc.
Butler also cited another Dafoe flick as inspiration, the 1981 movie “The Loveless,” which was both Dafoe’s first film and the first film of director Kathryn Bigelow, who co-directed with future “Twin Peaks” producer Monty Montgomery. “The Loveless” is more of a tone poem, a moody meditation on the aesthetics and style of the biker, with Dafoe as Bigelow’s leather-clad model of motorized masculinity. Stream it on Prime Video, Tubi, Kanopy, or rent it elsewhere.
For something a bit more recent, check out all seven seasons of the FX series “Sons of Anarchy,” about an outlaw motorcycle gang. Created by Kurt Sutter, “Sons of Anarchy” stars Charlie Hunnam in the lead role, along with Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Smits, Drea de Matteo and other memorable character actors in supporting roles. Stream it on Hulu or purchase it on iTunes or Amazon.
(Katie Walsh is the Tribune News Service film critic and co-host of the “Miami Nice” podcast.)
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