The Bikeriders

The Speakeasy
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Anyone done a film review on this???

So I watched it yesterday. Some nice cinematography; stylish shooting and good acting, but overall… I’m sorry to leave an “it’s ok” cop-out. I never read the photo/documentary book by Danny Lyon (The Bikeriders), so I wasn’t 100% what I’d be getting into… and conversely, I can’t say how much texture has been added or taken away by Jeff Nicholas’s film.
Maybe I’m being too hard on the film here? The narrative follows Kathy (Jodie Comer), her introduction to, and relationship with, the biker gang of Chicago, the Vandals. I enjoyed the acting, Jodie’s work was really good, though strangely Tom Hardy’s voice didn’t feel half as good as his screen presence in my opinion.
The narrative does amble along a timeline of change for the gang too, with a couple of well placed human insights (but I’ll let you choose yours). But that’s it… it is more of a picture book than a well rounded story and maybe that’s the real source of my ambivalence? I would probably enjoy the original book (I did Hunter S Thompson’s Hells Angels), or even a exhibition of the photos, because those were the real photos of real people… but a picture book presented as a film, created by (undoubtedly talented) people who weren’t “there”; who didn’t live in the gritty reality of the situation; whose every move, angle, look and sound is manicured to fit the general public’s acceptable levels of “entertainment”… I feel it’s a weakened facsimile of what I was hoping for, or, not enough creative additions to turn it more into a rounded story!

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Danny Lyon with a unit Trumpet from them times

Danny Lyon
Danny Lyon701×901 115 KB

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Yeah, I watched it a couple of nights ago, didn’t have high expectations and it didn’t exceed them. Only watched it due to Hardy and Comer being in it, both done good work in the past IMO, think this one was for the money, they didn’t have much to work with artistically.
To be honest the media’s preoccupation with “biker gangs” and linking bikes with trouble whenever possible tends to wind me up, so it didn’t really stand a chance with me. :smile:
The “Biker” stereotype tends to stick, much to our detriment.

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I tend to agree. A pity, in my opinion, I really like Tom Hardy (I’m eagerly awaiting a second series of “Taboo”…)

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Ooh , hark at you…!

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image

:joy::joy::joy:

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I watched it in a plane on a recent trip. Decent movie with very good actors. I liked it but not the kind of movie I’d watch a second or more time.

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