Film The Bikeriders recreates heyday of 1960s motorcycle clubs

LONDON — Actors Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy immersed themselves in 1960s American motorcycle culture for their new film The Bikeriders.

The drama’s writer and director Jeff Nichols was inspired to make the movie after becoming obsessed with photojournalist Danny Lyon’s photography and oral history of 1960s Midwestern biker subculture.

The Bikeriders recounts the rise of the Vandals, a fictional Chicago motorcycle club, and its evolution from a family-oriented outfit to a band of outlaws.

The story of the club and its colorful members is told through the eyes of Ms. Comer’s Kathy, who narrates her first encounter and relationship with the wild and mysterious Benny, played by Mr. Butler, and the club’s founder Johnny (Mr. Hardy).

Experienced motorcyclists Mr. Butler and Mr. Hardy did their own riding in the movie but operating vintage motorcycles from the era was a novelty for both.

“We had months beforehand to get used to the particular motorcycles we were riding because new bikes are very different from these old bikes,” said Mr. Butler at the film’s premiere in London on Tuesday.

“There was an orientation with the bikes so you understood that they’re a piece of machinery that will do what it wants, when it wants. They were difficult to operate when they wanted to be,” added Mr. Hardy.

All of the motorcycles used in the movie were period-correct, said Mr. Nichols, but staying committed to authenticity while shooting the riding scenes was a challenge, he said.

“It was incredibly scary because the truth is, there’s no way to entirely make a human being without a helmet on, riding at speed on a 60-year-old motorcycle safe, in a pack, no less,” he said.

Arkansas-born Mr. Nichols, 45, whose previous films include Loving and Mud, said the subjects of Lyon’s work were at the heart of the movie.

“Danny had a beautiful gift for getting people to open up and talk about themselves, people that maybe a lot of people don’t want to talk to, maybe people that some people don’t feel need to be talked to,” he said. “And I really wasn’t obsessed with motorcycle culture, I was obsessed with the people that Danny recorded in 1965.”

The Bikeriders begins its global cinematic rollout on June 19. The MTRCB has rated the film R16. — Reuters