Biker Movies and Books

[Gooch]

Somebody here mentioned a book or movie review thread. Another thread on another board was about where everyone was from. Jogged a few of them retired brain cells together and I was reminded of this...I'll sticky it for a day or 2 and if you want to review a book or movie (recovery or motorcycle related hopefully)..we'll see where it goes..

Theres a B movie called "Masters of Menace" that spoofs motorcycle gangs.

An all star cast in the genre of animal house or a national lampoon style feature..

In one scene this gal is askin a guy about the lifestyle. She remarks on his tattoo and says.. "so what do you guys do all the time? Ride around on your Harleys, drinking, getting in fights, and getting new tattoos?" The guy answers her back and says "yeah, pretty much." and pulls up his sleeve to reveal a tat, and continues.."like this one, it's where I'm from, North Kadota, but the guy screwed it up its suppoesd to be South Kadota, ... then he does a double take and says KADOTA????"

Theres a bunch of great insider quotes me and my boyz used to toss back and forth at each other..


I figure anyone who rides and has a sense of humor ought to see this one.

[tramp]

i dug ride with the wind. dunno who was in it, but it was about a washed up flat tracker and a kid. good flick and a great XR scooter.

the other all time groovy movie , run angel run, which was a book too, and a full story in life magazine . so it must have cultural value.

[best]

Originally Posted by Gooch

In one scene this gal is askin a guy about the lifestyle. She remarks on his tattoo and says.. "so what do you guys do all the time? Ride around on your Harleys, drinking, getting in fights, and getting new tattoos?" The guy answers her back and says "yeah, pretty much." and pulls up his sleeve to reveal a tat, and continues.."like this one, it's where I'm from, North Kadota, but the guy screwed it up its suppoesd to be South Kadota, ... then he does a double take and says KADOTA????"

Theres a bunch of great insider quotes me and my boyz used to toss back and forth at each other..


I figure anyone who rides and has a sense of humor ought to see this one.

hahaha As I was reading I wasn't sure if you were doing the type Os till the last sentence *LOL*

In another light, comercials take bikes down both streets. Some give bikers a good image, others...well you know the drill
My At It Tude of old would have me thinking and maybe saying... well if that is what they think of us...may as well not make liers out of them.

It is all fun and games till someone pokes an eye out or as would be said today...till you get the ticket and it adds surcharges to your insurance *LOL*

[Gooch]

Originally Posted by best

It is all fun and games till someone pokes an eye out or as would be said today...till you get the ticket and it adds surcharges to your insurance *LOL*

Ouch! you had to go there. lol ... My agent called yesterday afternoon and between the accident 35 mos ago, and a speeding ticket. the policy came in at $205 over the quote.

"through our inability to accept personal responsibilities ( i.e. watching the speed limit and relaxing the throttle grip a little...) we were actually creating our own problems."

I may just have to drop the full coverage down to limited..then wait and see if they can find me a better deal next month.

[BillJ]

Among the worst biker movies ever:
Lone Hero w/ Lou Diamond Phillips - think of every negative stereotype you've ever hated hearing about bikers. Lou manages to touch on them all. I lost all respect for him after seeing this film!
Chrome Soldiers w/ Gary Busey - a muddled mess of a movie about honor and vengeance, I think. With Busey in the lead it's damned hard to tell.
Outside the Law w/ Charlie Sheen - a cop infiltrates a biker gang, intent on bringing them down. If this had been written as a comedy, a good director might've made a funny movie out of it. Unfortunately, we're expected to believe it's a "truth-based drama."
Stone Cold w/ Brian Bosworth - a cop infiltrates a biker gang, intent on bringing them down. At least this one had some fun, over-the-top stuntwork. Not enough to make up for the pathetic storyline, but better than nothing!

Among the best:
Easy Rider w/ Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper - the classic ground-breaker that hooked an entire generation on choppers and road trips!
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man w/ Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke - not to be taken seriously, this is a comic-book action adventure, a space-age Western, with great lines and terrific shoot-'em-up scenes.
Streets of Fire w/ Michael Pare, Amy Madigan, Rick Moranis and Willem Dafoe - another kitschy "Western"; this one set in a grimy, post-industrial city. It features great early-'80s pop music, genuine ratted-out Harleys, and Willem Dafoe as the bad-ass biker you love to hate.
Roadside Prophets w/ John Doe and Adam Horovitz - it takes the classic search for self, which was at the center of Easy Rider, and gives it a gigantic tweak! Funny and smart, and be on the lookout for cameos by Timothy Leary, Arlo Guthrie, John Cusack and David Carradine.
Mask w/ Cher and Sam Elliott - shows bikers as caring, loving human beings who happen to enjoy riding motorcycles and raising hell. Not perfect, but a lot better than The Return of the Black Rock Rebels or Running Cool.

[best]

Outside the Law w/ Charlie Sheen
I had seen that movie. It is said that the story line was based on reality but as with the way Hollywood does things...the truth gets changed to add drama.
I think the fight sene when Sheen beat on his fellow FBI agent was a bit more drama then reality as I watched it. Maybe it was the only real truth in the whole movie *LOL*

ahhh Mask I liked that movie. Didn't like seeing the misuse of substance by all but did see hope as the movie went on. I would call that a classic with a message.

[fuster]

SBK puts out World Superbike and Grand Prix three hour (each) videos every year. I love to watch them. The world's best riders doing the ultimate races on the world's greatest bikes, on the world's greatest motorcycle tracks. And of course, the world's most beautiful women at the races. Nothing like watching Valentino Rossi doing 180-200 mph down the front straight in Spain or some other exotic country.

Love the speed. :boat

[shadowrider]

There was a documentary that showed a bunch of footage with Steve McQueen on a bike...I think it is called "On Any Sunday" or something like that. It basically showed some of the history of riding and racing - made by a biker...pretty enjoyable flic that shows bikers in a good light

[BillJ]

That was On Any Sunday, and it's still a pretty good flick, even after all these years. I saw it on TCM a month or so ago.

So far as movies about recovery go, among the best are:
Days of Wine and Roses w/ Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick - the classic, with a pretty realistic view of AA. The DT scenes were a little much for me, but the rest was spot on!
When A Man Loves A Woman w/ Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan - romantic (like me :blink ) and a pretty good depiction of recovery as a process, and not always an easy, happily-ever-after one!
Clean and Sober w/ Michael Keaton - although I never could understand why this coke-head kept ending up in AA meetings, it dealt fairly with recovery and loss.
Drunks w/ Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Parker Posey, et al - probably my favorite, this follows members of a modern-day AA group through their daily trials and tribulations. Good story-telling!
My Name Is Bill W. w/ James Woods and James Garner - a bio-pic of AA's co-founder. My only disappointment was that it didn't delve into AA as it is today, with increasing numbers of women, young people, racial and religious minorities, etcetera. Would've been a good way to carry the message a little further. Otherwise, pretty good all around.
8 Million Ways To Die w/ Jeff Bridges, Andy Garcia and Rosanna Arquette - a murder mystery with a program twist. If you've read Lawrence Block's "Matt Scudder" series, you'll recognize the title, but not the story. Hollywood (and Oliver Stone, who wrote the screenplay) changed almost everything else! Still a great suspense flick, though!
If you haven't read Block's series, you should, but I'd recommend starting with the earliest novels, and working your way forward to the current release. Great reads, every one!
The Morning After w/ Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges - an alcoholic woman wakes up next to a dead man. The scene that really got me was right at the end, and no, I won't spoil it for ya!
Jesus' Son w/ Billy Crudup and Dennis Hopper - except that I preferred alcohol to heroin, Jesus' Son tells my story, so it's a personal fave.

There are others, but these are my picks.

Got a question about one I've seen in Whitehorse Press' catalog. It's called Me & Will, and the description intrigues me. It sez:
Two blonde hard-bodies with a penchant for substance abuse meet in rehab to discover a shared passion for the film Easy Rider. So begins their Harley odyssey to find Peter Fonda’s long-lost chopper. While surfing the asphalt under a big western sky, each woman searches for the essence of personal freedom and must come to terms with the answers that are revealed.

Fresh from the Sundance Film Channel, Me and Will has garnered recognition for filmmakers Melissa Behr and Sherrie Rose, who wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this low-budget flick. Co-starring Patrick Dempsey and Seymour Cassell, with cameos by Traci Lourdes, Keanu Reaves, and his band Dogstar.
Anyone here seen this? What did you think of it?

[mackat]

hmmm
me & will huh? sounds cool
All time for me was Easy Rider.
Iron horse used to publish some great haiku & other poems as well as decent prose- it fell down [in my opinion] few yrs back and its current incarnation does nuthin 4 me.
bukowski is still my fav. drunk poet. i know I know-he's unrepentant .
Wrote my own biker/guru novel a while back [yep , it took recovery to get it DONE]have had some chapters published as short stories , got big review, so i admit to bias as to my fav lit author!!
working on poem/short story collection .
From a past love: "Art is so much more expressive than cocaine...isn't it just!"
mackat

[tramp]

cool, drunk poets and recovery flicks.
my favorite poet was richard brautigan. such a shame that he chose a bottle and a .44 .
on any sunday is a great glimpse at the past that takes me back to watching my uncles run hill climbs and flat track.
easyrider, hmmm. that one means so many things to so many people, to me it is all about blowing it.
trading in my hours for a hand full of dimes, but if i am a sell out at least i have alot of company, lol. does it count if you only sell a little of your soul?

drunk flicks, i have to say ironweed was the best i ever saw. a pull no punches look at a group of alchoholics and the consequences . like easyrider, its one of those flicks that you just wont get if you haven't been there. damn we are a bunch of siskel&ebert idjits aint we?

[Gooch]

syklists and eegberts? :LMAO

[mackat]

Noyes livingston put this in iron horse- don't knoiw if he wrote it:
My love for machinery
is a kinesthetic thing
I think

until I see a couple
walking and talking
then I know it's just
sour grapes

[Dutch]

Biker Movies:
A Girl on A Motorcycle is a good one. Believe or not I like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's the only movie I've seen were all the riders ride in the rain.
Masters of Menance was a funny one.

I've been buying the stunt videos lately... The one stunt video that takes the cake is the Ghost Rider Video from Sweden. Turbo charged Hayabusa pulling wheelys at over 200mph, in traffic, I don't know what to make of this video is it good, insane, bad, or even real?

Biker Books: Against The Wind by Ron Ayers, The Restoration of Vintage and Thoughbred Motorcycles by Jeff Clew, Hell's Angel by Sonny Barger, and Sportbike Performance Handbook by Kevin Cameron. These are the ones I'll read over and over again.

[best]

Originally Posted by Gooch

syklists and eegberts? :LMAO

Yup but now it is Eggbert and Roeper. The skinny guy died a few years back. 1999
More proof that seconds at the dinner table can be good for you.

[best]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Biker Movies:

I've been buying the stunt videos lately... The one stunt video that takes the cake is the Ghost Rider Video from Sweden. Turbo charged Hayabusa pulling wheelys at over 200mph, in traffic, I don't know what to make of this video is it good, insane, bad, or even real?

Driving to endanger are the American stunt guys. The kid started out from Massachusetts. The name of his group and films came from what the MA state troopers would write on his tickets here. Driving To Endanger

[best]

Originally Posted by Gooch

Ouch! you had to go there. lol ... My agent called yesterday afternoon and between the accident 35 mos ago, and a speeding ticket. the policy came in at $205 over the quote.

"through our inability to accept personal responsibilities ( i.e. watching the speed limit and relaxing the throttle grip a little...) we were actually creating our own problems."

I may just have to drop the full coverage down to limited..then wait and see if they can find me a better deal next month.

Looked at my policy today. I listed my son on it, so they used his numbers and I saved $260 for now. Next year we will be even on numbers. His crashing the car and my numbers coming down with another year gone by.
Last year full was 900. This year it is 1050 minus the 260.
Thought someone said owning a bike cost less? *LOL*

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by best

Driving to endanger are the American stunt guys. The kid started out from Massachusetts. The name of his group and films came from what the MA state troopers would write on his tickets here. Driving To Endanger

I kinda thought that might be how they got their name. There are probably stunt crews in half the States. I think the first video I saw was the Star Boys out of Akron, OH. Quite tame by today's standards.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by BillJ

Days of Wine and Roses w/ Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick
When A Man Loves A Woman w/ Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan
Clean and Sober w/ Michael Keaton
My Name Is Bill W. w/ James Woods and James Garner

I have seen these some time ago while still drinking, making rationalizations that "yea, but that ain't ME!" but thanks for the reminder, I need to see them again! I can only imagine the perspective I would have on them now! And some new titles to check out too!

Great post!

[BillJ]

I'm always on the lookout for good flicks about any of my passions; in particular, motorcycling and sobriety.

For a while, in the late '80s and early '90s, it seemed like every television series had at least one character in recovery - Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues, etcetera - but lately the only ones I'm aware of are ER, and the recently-departed NYPD Blue. Suprisingly, most shows did a pretty realistic job of depicting AA and recovery, leading me to believe that a heck of a lot of people in Hollywood were into sobriety during that time.

Remember the scene in The Player, where Tim Robbins' character is talking to some competitor on his cell-phone? If I remember it correctly, one of 'em (I forget which one) says to the other "I'm on my way to my AA meeting." The other says "Oh, I didn't know you had that problem," and the first one says "Oh, I don't. It's just a great place to network!" That kind of confirmed my theory.

BTW, welcome aboard, Mr. Goodbar!

[focusontoday]

Stone (1974),
the greatest Aussie bikie movie of all time.

Review: "The plot’s simple, if unlikely, enough: A square but tolerant undercover cop named Stone joins the Gravediggers Motorcycle Club in hopes of discovering who’s been killing off its members and begins to go a bit native in the process. What makes this admittedly corny premise sing is director Sandy Harbutt’s handling of the material. From the 500-bike strong funeral procession and Satanic burial service to the club’s seaside fortress and appropriately grungy hangouts Harbutt’s attention to detail and love for the lifestyle are evident throughout. Add to that strong performances, some serious violence, psychedelic camerawork and a killer soundtrack and you’ve got a movie that still kicks major ass to this day. So we encourage you to, as the original posters for the movie said, "take the trip" and check out Stone."

thats if you can find a copy of it.........like hen's teeth....

[kelly2005]

Originally Posted by shadowrider

There was a documentary that showed a bunch of footage with Steve McQueen on a bike...I think it is called "On Any Sunday" or something like that. It basically showed some of the history of riding and racing - made by a biker...pretty enjoyable flic that shows bikers in a good light

I've got to find this.

I <3 Steve McQueen.

Kelly
executivedrugrehab.com

[BillJ]

"On Any Sunday" plays on TCM every now and then. I taped it last time it was on. It's also available on tape or DVD from www.whitehorsepress.com and other sources.

"OAS" is a good all-around look at motorcycling of the era, with emphasis on racing and dirt-biking. Pretty good flick. There was also an "OAS II," which I've not seen, so I don't know if Steve McQueen is in it. That's also available from WhiteHorse.

TCM recently broadcast a biography of Steve McQueen. I taped that, too. Several refernces to his love for motorcycles.

[BillJ]

Originally Posted by focusontoday

Stone (1974),
the greatest Aussie bikie movie of all time.

Never even heard of this one, but it sounds pretty interesting. Always fun to see the different ways bikers are portrayed.

[Gooch]

I'll bet "Stone Cold" with Brian Bosworth, may have been a loose take off on that one.