Apart from the great look of the film and the immediate immersion for the viewer into the late 1960’s biker culture of the American midwest, ‘The Bikeriders’ also offers insight into masculine insecurities and strengths and in the process, becomes yet another favorite Jeff Nichols work of seventh art.
Immediately, from the first frame of The Bikeriders, I knew I was in for the ride, pardon the pun, of my cinematic life. From the very first shot featuring Austin Butler’s back as he’s sitting at a bar, with the words “VANDALS CHICAGO” emblazoned on a denim vest worn over a leather jacket, this was fashionista paradise for me. Then, once that first scene was over with all that entailed, there were jackets with patches of all kinds, vintage Harleys, old American cars and women’s updos to fill the pages of every fashion magazine for the next twelve months.
But the great thing about Jeff Nichols’ work is that — once the beauty of his trusted DoP Adam Stone’s mastery is taken in, the ambiance created by Nichols with the help of his production designer Chad Keith, and his art director Matthew Gatlin, along with Adam Willis’ set decoration observed, and said costumes above by Erin Benach are properly lusted over — at the heart of The Bikeriders is a wonderfully human story.
Simply told, The Bikeriders is the story of a love triangle, but one involving an unusual trio, as Nichols confirmed during a chat after the film, at a special screening in central London, moderated brilliantly by Wendy Mitchell. This time, it is not two men lusting over a woman, rather two friends and a wife, with one of those men, Johnny “in love” with another Benny — but not in that way. I mean, given the choice, which man would not choose to hang out with other men? A friend once explained that if it wasn’t for sex and having kids, men would never choose to be around women, enjoying the company of their peers instead. I agreed then, and now after watching The Bikeriders, even more. The Bikeriders is also a tale of a time gone by, which is an idea that remains with the viewer, growing stronger by the hour after watching the film, filling one with nostalgia.
Photo by Antje Pauly, used with permission
Benny is very appropriately played by the soulfully hunky Austin Butler, whom Nichols confirmed is as cool and handsome in person as he appears on the big screen. “If he was here,” he said during the Q&A after the film in which he was joined by his producer Sarah Green, “the temperature of this room would change.” The camera loves Butler and we understand the pull Johnny, played by the equally magnetic in a completely different way Tom Hardy, feels towards him. In one scene, towards the end of the film, they are shot side by side in the dark, as Johnny whispers in Benny’s ear, and it is a moment as romantic as any love scene I’ve watched in cinema, lately.
The story is inspired by a 1967 book of the same name by American photojournalist Danny Lyon, which captured the culture of bikers in the midwest. Images from the book are featured during the end credits and I urge you sit in your seat to see them. Lyon’s book was republished in the early 2000’s which is when Nichols admitted to having come across a copy. That’s when the initial idea for the film was born. Though he revisited it over the years, it was in 2018 when actor Michael Shannon — another constant collaborator of the filmmaker who has a cameo role as the quirky Zipco in this film as well — called him out on the idea, that the film finally came to be. Incidentally, Shannon has been in all six of Nichols’ films, and their first collaboration was in 2004, shortly after the filmmaker had found the book, and first started talking about the idea.
Filmmaker Jeff Nichols at the gala London premiere of ‘The Bikeriders’
“We were making a video for my brother’s band in 2018, we were at a bar and I started telling the story again and Mike was like ‘stop telling that f***ing story, you’re never going to make that movie, Nichols!’ and he was wrong,” Nichols confirmed.
In another candid moment during the chat, the director and writer also talked about the importance of telling the story of The Bikeriders from Kathy’s point of view. Kathy, played by award-winning Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer. And when he did, he played an audio file from Lyon’s original interviews with the real woman behind the beautifully written character. It felt emotional to hear her voice, so surreally far from the time and place, in that late Sixties midwestern America that no longer exists.
It was important for Nichols, who was inspired by the interviews within Lyon’s book in penning his own characters for The Bikeriders, to tell the story from Kathy’s POV, as she sees things in a very different way, perhaps more nuanced, being an outsider to the culture. When she falls in love, at first with Benny then with the bikes and the bikers themselves, we also follow her on that journey, and find ourselves more deeply invested in the story. If any filmmaker alive today knows how to portray unlikely love on the big screen it is Nichols. From Mud, to Midnight Special and culminating in Loving, he’s the god of uncommon romance, yet of a kind of love that he manages to explain to his audience without words or fanfare, or even manipulations — almost in a sort of magic experiment that is transmitted directly from the screen to our hearts.
Finally, there could be pages and pages devoted to The Bikeriders, but how boring would that be to read, when watching the film proves so much more satisfying. I’ll just leave you with the idea of masculinity, as explained by Nichols himself on Friday night. “You can’t make a motorcycle movie without talking about masculinity,” Nichols admitted. “The truth is, I think there’s a tension in masculinity, I dealt with it in a lot of my films, and there is a lot about masculinity that’s bullshit, and we know it’s bullshit. But there is a lot about it that is true and honest and attractive and there is a tension there — I feel it myself and Kathy certainly feels it, and I think that’s why she’s the lens with which the story needed to be told.”
He continued “Kathy understands what is wrong with these guys… she is also attracted by it. There is this pull in masculinity, and to deny it is also to be dishonest — the truth is, what the film is really about is identity, and identity is another word for purpose and right now we’re looking for identity more than any other time, maybe because everyone is trying to be a movie star on their phones and everything else and we’re trying to find a specific identity for ourselves that has nothing to do with being masculine,” Nichols then concluded, “and because we are social creatures a lot of us find that identity in a group and the more unique that group is, the more unique your identity is.”
The Bikeriders was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on December 1, 2023, by 20th Century Studios. It is now releasing worldwide on June 21st, 2024.
All images courtesy of the BFI London Film Festival, used with permission.