Play It Again Sam!

 Eastern Australia has had one of the wettest spring periods in years in 2005 making motorcycle riding a little problematical on any wet Sunday. The alternative is – Go to the Movies! Of course you don’t need to see a motorcycle movie but there have been more than a few – which do you remember? For most of us that’s easy – as in Easy Rider staring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.  

For me, the first movie with a featured bike was Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean released in 1962.  For many, the film is compelling because of its story not only of man-against-the-odds but also many against the bureaucracy – or at the crass level those incredible blue eyes of Peter O’Toole!  As one reviewer put it “Those 1963 Oscar contenders never stood a chance”.  At four hours long, it also starred Anthony Quinn and Alec Guiness for the full block-buster effect.  But for the fanatical rider it’s that bike, the Brough Superior SS100 that gets you - the only bike in the world at the time that came with a guarantee certificate that it would go at least100 miles per hour. So TE Lawrence owned not one but seven of George’s machines, only to meet his death on one in 1935 – as depicted in the movie when he crashes into a farm cart at full speed. One of TE Lawrence’s surviving machines has been magnificently restored and is available for sale today for 2 million UK pounds – surely the most expensive motorcycle in the world – if someone is prepared to front with the ready cash. 

The second movie that made an impact on me was Stone released in 1972 and depicting a bunch of Australian bikies joined by a new-comer whose surname is Stone played by Ken Shorter, plus his posh girlfriend actress Helen Morse (of Picnic at Hanging Rock).  The movie engendered the free world of the seventies mixed with the dark side of an assassination and was a huge hit in Australia but not elsewhere. It was effectively a pre-cursor to the Mad Max series, which also featured various motorcycles. The equivalent from the US was the Terminator series featuring the Governor of California, Arne Schwarzenegger. 

The third best known of course is Easy Rider  released in 1969 starring Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and of course that amazing Harley-Davidson chopper. The bike was actually a 1200cc 1962 FLS model “Pan Head”, heavily chromed and with a 45 degree raked and 12 inch extended set of front forks. Peter Fonda said it took him days to get over the aching arms earnt from riding the thing.  The story is the lets-go-see-America saga, created after the two of them sell some drugs after a trip to south America and buy the “Captain America” bike. You feel the freedom of the road, and finally the senseless death of two very ordinary individuals in the end.  Two actual bikes were made for the film, and one destroyed in its making. The second was stolen and never recovered, so probably exists as a bunch of parts traveling around the US under someone’s unknowing rear. A replica was built in 1999 at great expense and can be seen at the Otis Chandler Vintage Museum in the US. 

Some bike movies were more popular in the USA than here due to them referring to some real event. The most famous of these is The Wild One which followed on from Jean Cocteau’s death-men movie Orpheus from 1950 and The Wild Angels as the first full feature covering motorcycle gangs – the Hells Angels – commencing with the archetypal opening shot of the open highway, with bikes coming towards you then heading away (to freedom?) – a scene replicated in The Wild One. Another from the same era but more focused on the people rather than the bikes is Kenneth Anger’s classic Scorpio Rising from 1963. 

Laslo Benedek produced The Wild One in 1954 and gave real meaning to many regular Americans about the perceived menace of motorcyclists.  The film was based on a real but poorly reported event at the small town Hollister, California where a rally was held on July 4, 1947 following the return of many men from the Second World War.  Life Magazine reported the drunken debauchery of the rally as the bikers apparently terrorized the town – all of that made up, including a photo of a tough guy on a Harley surrounded by bottles – and he wasn’t even a rider! The film features Marlon Brando as Johnny with his girlfriend Kathy, who is seduced on the back of the bike, but is more famous for the theme of youth rebellion typified in the response to a question put to Johnny – 

“What are you rebelling against?” to which he replies “What have you got?”  

For the bike-afiles who expect that he is riding a Harley – it’s actually a Triumph twin. Brando is also seen biking later as a fleeing German Officer in The Young Lions (1958). 

Bikes make a brief feature in a number of war films and other “action” movies. Another favourite of mine is Top Gun directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGuiness released in 1986. This smash-hit film features a number of great highlights including some superb aerial combat over the Indian Ocean with Russian MIGs up against the F15s of the US Navy, but also some clever scene setters such as Cruise’s flight handle, “Maverick” and others for his mates and colleagues “Goose” and “Ice Man”. Of course it features some popular songs, sex and action plus the line that epitomizes the genre “I feel the need, the need for speed!” Naturally Cruise is also seen racing a jet aircraft down the landing strip on a Japanese crotch rocket of a bike.

 If you prefer more recent movies of the action genre with drugs, bank robberies and lots of bullets, flames and bike chases, then try Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man starring Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson produced by Jere Henshaw in 1991. Its got it all, but really is a B grade move. Better is Mission Impossible II featuring Tom Cruise as the freezingly cool Ethan Hunt again, and some excellent bike chases, it was released in 2000 to all the James Bond-type fans who found Mission Impossible I a little too complicated! MI II has some great bike riding – trust me! 

Of course, this is where the BMW features- in 1997 Pierce Brosnan made his second James Bond 007 Licensed to Kill movie and it’s a cracker – one of the best Bonds in the decade and appropriately titled Tomorrow Never Dies.  For the Bond freaks, its movie number 17 of the 20 made so far. The BMW roundel is featured on both as cars and bikes. The bike is ridden by Bond of course, plus his female Partner this time (as distinct from “love interest”), Wai Lin played by Michelle Yeoh who almost out-Bonds Bond.  They are chased by a helicopter over roof tops – and if you want to know more then rent the movie, but if you have never seen a Bond film this would be a great one to start upon! 

So where should we go from here with bike movies? As I explored the reference books and websites for this article, I realized there are hundreds. For the racer/GS person, try that absolute classic On Any Sunday by Bruce Brown from 1971. Or for real dirt bike action you can’t go past the Crusty Demons series such as CD Nine Lives available from any good bike shop. 

For something with a more feminine feel, how about Alice Stone’s She Lives to Ride (from 1994), Girl on a Motorcycle  staring Marianne Faithfull (and originally titled Naked Girl Under Leather if that’s your thing) or, if you can find it - Women and Motorcycles.  

For those chasing a shot of their favourite marque you will find them all somewhere – for Norton for example, try the recent road movie, The Motorcycle Diaries starring Gael Garcia Bernal as Che Guevara released in 2004 (though the bikes aren’t featured particularly). 

If you want more USA style, then the classic is Electra Glide in Blue starring Robert Blake or Born to Ride a whimsical movie about a young man who tries to impress the Colonel’s daughter and ends up in the army! 

And finally, if you just want all out balls-to-the-wall motorcycle action, chase down Torque a recent release in 2004 – a movie that will surely leave you with no adrenalin left for another!

 Olaf Moon

Please note that I have NOT personally seen every movie in this article – just most of them.