Elvis is now a biker. In Jeff Nichols' film The Bikeriders, Austin Butler plays Benny, one of the leaders of the Vandals, a biker gang that marauded through the Midwest in the '60s and early '70s. The movie's based on Danny Lyons' book of the same name. Throughout the film, Danny (Mike Faist) interviews Benny's wife Kathy (Jodie Comer) for insights into the peculiar lifestyle of the biker gang.
Biker movies was a popular sub-genre in the '50s and especially the '60s. Brando's role in The Wild Ones (1953) is referenced early in The Bikeriders; it inspired Johnny (Tom Hardy) to found the club or gang. Some of the other titles include The Wild Angels (1966) with Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern, Hell's Angels on Wheels (1967) with Jack Nicholson, Cycle Savages (1969) with Dern again, Angels Unchained (1970) with Don Stroud and Electra Glide in Blue (1973) with Robert Blake. Easy Rider is seen on the marquee of a theater late in the film.
Biker movies are like Westerns in that a gang rides into town, scares the local folks and tries to take over. Rapes, drugs and Nazi signifiers show up in most biker movies. Iron crosses are worn by several Vandals.
While Johnny's a violence-prone family man, Benny's a brooder who pursues and quickly marries Kathy. She goes along with the lifestyle of being someone's "old lady," but also stakes her claim to Benny when times get tough. After he takes a bad beating, Benny's torn between revenge and getting out.
As the years pass by, the club grows, expanding to other cities with members Johnny doesn't know. This will come back to haunt him.
Kathy describes the changes in the members from "beer drinkers to pot smokers":
"Half of them come back from Vietnam, they're the pot smokers. They do other stuff too, harder stuff."
A few joints are passed, a lot of beer is imbibed and cigarettes are chain smoked.
This is what you would call a contemporary biker film, somewhat toned down from the raucous B-movies of yore.
When Johnny tells Benny he wants to pass the leadership to him, Benny says, "I don't want nothing from nobody," and splits.
By the time a challenger takes over the club, Benny and Kathy have moved on to normal, boring lives in Florida.
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