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The Bikeriders, starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy
Trailer: Focus Features

The Bikeriders
Directed by Jeff Nichols
Rated R
Rode 21 June 2024
#TheBikeriders

The Bikeriders is an effective, evocative look at unsettled masculinity in a society that’s left the men with nowhere to go.

Burning Down the Bar

"How did we get here?"

It’s a question occasionally asked on roadtrips.

It’s a question commonly – even frequently – asked at key moments in any given person’s life journey.

The Bikeriders tees up a lot of thoughts about that classic existentialist question, life and all the different paths – both beaten and paved – taken by all the different walks of life.

In particular, it looks at the innate desire to have a sense of belonging. Also, the need to have "something to do." Sometimes that "something" is the wrong thing.

In Benny’s case, that wrong thing is refusing to take off his denim jacket – reflecting his biker club affiliation – at a dive bar. But for Benny, that’s simply one wrong in a life filled with some of the worst choices imaginable. Benny’s not a bad person, necessarily, but he has traveled down the wrong path. Thankfully, Benny met Kathy at a biker party. Thankfully for Benny because she becomes something of a steadfast rock for him (they marry five weeks after meeting). Thankfully for audiences because that party introduces Benny, Kathy and a whole sordid cast of characters, some more likable than others.

And that colorful cast of characters is fleshed out by a fantastic ensemble cast. Austin Butler – who skyrocketed to the A-list with his Oscar-nominated starring role in Elvis – is Benny. Jodie Comer – Tony winner for Killing Eve – is Kathy. They’re accompanied by Tom Hardy – Oscar nominee for The Revenant – who’s possibly the best actor on Earth when it comes to quiet rage that looks oh so very good. And Michael Shannon – a favorite of director/screenwriter Jeff Nichols – has a relatively small role as a Latvian club member.

There are so many others, including Mike Faist (from Challengers and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story) as a photojournalist traveling with a biker club called the Vandals in the 1960s and early ‘70s, documenting their lives through photographs and interviews. Competing with the Vandals are other aptly named clubs. Rogues. Dead Devils. Renegades. Of course, out in California, Hells Angels led the pack back in the 1940s and were no doubt a long-distance influence.

I Feel Free

Here’s the kicker: Faist’s character, Danny, is "inspired by" a real-life guy, Danny Lyon, who wrote the non-fiction book of the same title upon which this movie is based. Lyon’s original photos accompany the end credit title cards. Throughout the movie, Nichols – perhaps best known for directing Matthew McConaughey in Mud – elegantly replicates some of the environments and poses captured by Lyon.

It’s 1965-1973. A particularly tumultuous time in America. At one point – toward the movie’s end – what had transpired is recast through a rose-tinted hue when it’s referred to as the "Golden Age of Bikeriders." All those brawls, stabbings, misdemeanors and felonies. Golden.

That’s all a matter of relativity.

Ushering an end to that golden era were the Vietnam War and a wide swath of differences between the founders of the club and its newest members. Old versus young. Beer drinkers versus pot smokers. Leniency versus rules. Family versus gang. OCD versus PTSD.

Kathy makes a funny (and smart) observation – one of many – to Danny when she notes the Vandals was started by a bunch of guys who couldn’t follow society’s rules and then they immediately established rules around the club’s membership.

One such rule would appear to be: The first rule of bike club is no one ever leaves bike club. Leave your friends in the lurch because you’re accepted and they’re not? That’s a "gotcha." That is not acceptable behavior for a member.

The general, staid public is flummoxed by the biker club, which rather quickly shifts gears into something more in semblance of a "gang" than a "club." The Vandals start to instill a sense of rebellion in others, as when a random guy smashes a headlight on a car when the driver honks at him for standing in the street and blocking traffic.

At the same time, Kathy observes the Vandals are afraid to be by themselves and they never, ever take off their colors. As a result, when they’re on their own, they always get in trouble. There may be safety in numbers, but that safety comes with a multiplicity of taxes.

Fists or Knives?

Taken merely on the surface, The Bikeriders is a snapshot in time.

But its value extends beyond that reflection and the incredible cast lighting it up.

One of Kathy’s last comments as she gets Danny caught up on the intervening years between their interviews regards how everything started to change. There was a murder. Even if the death stems from an in-club "fists or knives" duel, it’s a murder.

That murder led to a changing of the guard within the Vandals clubhouse. And that club subsequently escalated its descent into toxic gang activities. The members were no longer merely hoodlums and rebels. The Vandals moved from vandalism into gambling and more heinous crimes, including prostitution and more murder. From there, the gangs spread around the country started to attack each other.

Those base needs for belonging and having something to do were fed innocently enough when the Vandals formed. But they also planted seeds. Johnny needed somebody for succession planning and Benny refused; he didn’t want the responsibility or the commitment. Those seeds then yielded a different crop of members, all still seeking those same base needs today. And maybe in this post-pandemic, social media-fueled world, those needs are even greater and still being fed with the bad seeds planted back in the 1960s.

• Review originally published at MovieHabit.com.