“Ain’t you supposed to be takin’ pictures?”

Story: 1960s Chicago was a time of big change. Not the least of which was the rising motorcycle gang scene. Let’s take a ride with the Vandals, a Chicago club that slowly turned into a gang as the years went by…and the OG members made room for new, younger, more criminally bent, members.

Genre I’d put it in: Subculture Docu-dramas
Release Date: 2024
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Based on a book of photos by Danny Lyon

Gotta say: I remember learning about motorcycle gangs back in undergrad. I was a double major in Criminology and Health Education (which obviously led me to film stuff), and learning about how biker gangs really started with WWII vets looking for ways to get back to themselves after combat.

Adapting a book to a film is often a difficult task. The genres have different approaches to getting their stories across, and the book (that often deals with creating images in a reader’s mind) versus film (where “show, don’t tell” is typically the rule of the day) can be a jarring one. However, with Bikeriders, director Jeff Nichols crafts a film not from a story per se, but from a book of photographs. Does the visual book lend to an easily translatable adaptation? Well, yes and no.

I didn’t exactly care about individual characters here, but I cared about what was happening to the gang in general. Director views the original Vandals as more of a single entity, which gives viewers a feeling of being an invested part of the crew, rather than someone watching these people’s lives. Performances by the cast flesh out these characters, letting facial expressions and body postures speak volumes.

Jodie Comer does most of the heavy lifting here, as Kathy, the wife of Vandals member Benny. It’s her that Mike Faist’s Danny Lyon comes to for interviews, and to catch up with in 1973, as Lyon left the group in ’67. Comer’s matter-of-fact Kathy paints a warts-and-all picture of the gang, from the tales she’d heard about the early days, to meeting Benny. And, of course, to the Vandals’ ultimate shift into a 1% club. (Though the gang wears 1%er patches from the jump, which echoes the “outlaw” vibes of motorcycle gangs/clubs in the 1960s.)

Austin Butler plays Benny, aka The Pretty One. He’s mostly there in name only, or on the periphery even though Jodie is still with him for much of the film. “I mean it can’t be love, it must be stupidity.” Butler and Tom Hardy (as head Vandal Johnny) get the most screen time in the film, at least with fleshing out their characters. But there are two gang members I need to shout out. First, Nichols’ fave Michael Shannon as Zipco, a guy who feels like the living embodiment of crazier than a shithouse rat. It’s like Nichols just told Shannon to show up and go nuts. Given the two’s working relationship, I’d put money on that. Second, Norman Reedus as Funny Sonny, a biker from a California gang who’s come to Chicago. Reedus is barely recognizable with his crazy wiggity-wig and fake rotten baby teeth. But he digs in, and his goofy smile seems part character, part actual enjoyment. Okay okay; I loved Boyd Holbrook’s engine-nut Cal, but I’m a sucker for a guy with a cool earring.

The film is very, very white, but that’s due to Lyon’s view of one particular gang in the subculture. (Basic info says that outlaw gangs tend to form along racial lines. The Vandals in the film are a white gang.) There are quick peeks at Hispanic and African-American clubs in “picnic” scenes, but no more than that. It’s nice to see that Nichols touches on other clubs, even though the focus is on the Vandals. I’d love a documentary on various mid-century biker gangs. Documentarians? Get on that, please.

Bikeriders doesn’t get too deep into what makes an outlaw gang so worrisome to the normies, but we do get scenes during parties and picnics where things go, shall we say, awry. It’s a nod to who and what these guys are/can be, just when we’ve all started to get all gushy-hearted about the gang. There are no punches pulled, and you’ll feel icky a time or two. Ditto when a biker gets hazed for wearing his colors (aka his gang patches) when he’s out solo. The world can be a wild place, and this story had me understanding why some might want to group together for a kind of brotherhood of protection.

Bikeriders is like the photo book it’s based on; a look at these folks, getting close but not really knowing them. Letting us all have a look, and letting us see the good, the bad, and the bloody. A brief ride-along that’ll leave you with more knowledge than you had, and a bittersweet taste as the credits roll.

#Protip: Jason Momoa and daughter Lola, hit the premiere of this film…on a motorcycle. Now that’s cool.