The Bikeriders
Came out; 2023
Time; 1 hour 56 Minutes
Watched: Peacock
Rated: R for language throughout, violence, some drug use and brief sexuality
IMDB Rating; 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter 80%
Popcorn Meter 75%
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring.
Austin Butler as Benny
Jodie Comer as Kathy
Tom Hardy as Johnny
Michael Shannon as Zipco
Mike Faist as Danny
Boyd Holbrook as Cal
Damon Herriman as Brucie
Beau Knapp as Wahoo
Story Line.
THE BIKERIDERS captures a rebellious time in America when the culture and people were changing. After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club
Thoughts:
I was bored to death during the movie. It was literally so slow and just hard to watch.
I found the acting to be good, the characters well written for a biker gang. I didn't really understand the whole plot, was it the story of the starting of a biker gang or the story of Benny & Kathy or both!
Maybe it just wasn't my type of movie since the ratings were all really good, I'm not sure but this is one I won't go out of my way to watch again.
CAUTION; Spoiler Alert
In 1965, Kathy Bauer meets Benny Cross, a hotheaded member of the Chicago-based Vandals Motorcycle Club and marries him just five weeks later. Photography student Danny Lyon travels with and interviews the Vandals. He learns from Kathy that the founder, Johnny Davis, was supposedly inspired to create the club after watching Marlon Brando in The Wild One. Johnny's leadership is challenged when he rebuffs a Vandal's suggestion that new chapters be allowed to form. They engage in a fistfight which Johnny wins. He reestablishes his authority but grants permission to expand the club anyway. New chapters begin to form across the Midwest.
In 1969, Benny is attacked by two men in a bar for wearing his colors. His foot is nearly severed by a shovel during the altercation. Johnny forces the owner to provide the names of the men and orders the Vandals to burn down the bar. While Benny is recovering from surgery, Johnny pressures him to come to a motorcycle rally before he is fully healed, to Kathy's objection. Johnny offers Benny leadership of the club when he steps down, but Benny rejects it.
A 20-year-old delinquent known as "the Kid" asks Johnny to allow him and his motorcycle club to join the Vandals. Johnny initially dismisses them but decides to test the Kid by allowing only him to join. When he expresses his willingness to abandon his friends, Johnny rejects him. The Kid attacks Johnny with a knife, who beats him and warns him not to come back.
In 1975, Lyon interviews Kathy about the fate of the Vandals. She explains that Johnny became despondent after the death of his lieutenant Brucie in a vehicular accident, and the club grew increasingly violent after drug-addicted Vietnam War veterans joined the ranks. At a party, longtime member Cockroach is beaten by new members when he drunkenly expresses a desire to leave the club to become a motorcycle police officer. Kathy is nearly gang-raped while Benny is busy taking Cockroach to the hospital and is narrowly rescued by Johnny. Furious that Benny wasn't at the party to protect her, she demands Benny quit the Vandals. Instead, he leaves her for several days. To allow Cockroach to safely leave the club, Johnny takes Benny to stage a break-in at his house, where they shoot him non-fatally in the leg. Perturbed by the increasing violence of the club and again rejecting Johnny's offer of leadership, Benny quits and leaves Chicago for parts unknown.
The Kid, now a member of the Vandals Milwaukee chapter, challenges Johnny to a knife fight for leadership, only to shoot and kill him. Kathy explains to Lyon that after the Kid took over the Vandals, they became a large criminal gang involved in drug trafficking and murder. The older members either fell in line, left to obtain legitimate jobs, or died.
Benny, upon learning of Johnny's death, returns home and breaks down. He and Kathy relocate to Florida, where Benny works as a mechanic at his cousin's garage and has stopped riding motorcycles. Kathy tells Lyon that they are happy, and Benny doesn't miss the biker lifestyle. She looks out the window at Benny, who smiles as the sounds of motorcycles are heard.
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