My dad received a Bachelor’s degree in History from St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, graduating in 1974. Ironically enough, this weekend he will be returning to campus for the 50^th class reunion.  This Catholic institution of higher learning is small enough that people going back for this celebration will actually remember one another.  I mentioned that the school was Catholic, though that did not factor (as far as I can tell) in his decision to attend the school.  I chose Loyola University Chicago (or rather, it chose me) for my Ph.D. specifically because it is Catholic, but I came to realize that the largest Jesuit university in the country only gives lip service to the Faith.  St. Norbert is a little more serious about God, if only a little.  Still, that does not describe my dad, particularly judging by the numerous stories he likes to tell of his and his friends’ escapades from those days in the early 1970s.  For example, he co-owned a bar in what passes for downtown De Pere.  Now, Catholicism is not a teetotaling religion, so there is nothing wrong with this factoid.  And the majority of the anecdotes he has told me about it seem to be relatively innocent as can be when involving alcohol.  What made him get out of the business after he finished his studies?  Late in his time in De Pere, Al’s Brown Bar, as it was called, began to be frequented by the Outlaws Motorcycle Club (MC).  This is the group on which the Vandals in 2023’s (though just released) The Bikeriders are based.

What also brings The Bikeriders close to home is the accent of main characters like Kathy (Jodie Comer), a resident of the Chicago suburbs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  She is being interviewed by Danny Lyon (Mike Faist), a college student and photographer who is following the Vandals MC and hoping to write a book about them.  It is from Kathy’s perspective that the rise and transformation of this gang is told.  She first becomes involved with them when she meets a friend of hers at a watering hole in Chicago known to be where this particular set of bikers frequent.  She does not like the rough crowd and is about to leave until she sees Benny (Austin Butler).  There is a kind of unspoken magnetism between them and he takes her home, silently intimidating her current boyfriend into leaving.  Five weeks later, they are married.  Benny is basically the second-in-command of the Vandals, and best friend to its leader, Johnny (Tom Hardy).  Johnny had been inspired to form the club by watching Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953).  Johnny brings together other men who have a penchant for motorcycles and thumbing their noses at authority, forming a brotherhood on these ideas.  One can look at Catholic communities in roughly the same light, minus the motorcycles and petty crime.  They even have what a religious order would call a rule, though much less legalistic, which is interesting because they got together because they do not like following rules.  Otherwise, they go on long rides through the vast Illinois farm land, or drink and smoke weed.  For those in it, especially people like Benny, it is the freedom the club gives him that keeps him returning.  It evidently means a lot to him since, in the opening scene of the movie, he is savagely beaten by patrons of another watering hole when he refuses to take off his “colors” (the clothing that marks him as a member of the Vandals).  When Johnny hears of this, the others get together and invade the town where the crime took place, burning down the bar while firefighters and police look on doing nothing.  It is these and other displays of power that begin to attract new recruits. Not all of these people, though, are as willing to ride the line between illegal and legal as do the original Vandals.  Instead, they are more hardened criminals.  This begins to have an effect on the first members.  Seeing a growing inability to control what is going on in the ranks, Johnny feels the time approaching when he will need to step down as leader.  He asks Benny to be the successor, but Benny refuses.  The increasing violence also has Kathy worried, specifically about her husband.  Though Johnny got retribution for Benny being assaulted, Kathy wants her husband to get out of the Vandals.  Benny is not keen on this idea, and the first time Kathy brings it up, he says he is going to leave her in order to keep riding.  The second time comes when the Vandals are at a party, and Benny leaves to take fellow founder Cockroach (Emory Cohen) to the hospital after being jumped by newcomers.  With Benny gone, another couple of fresh faces try to take advantage of Kathy.  She is saved at the last moment by the timely appearance of Johnny.  Though this incident is not enough to convince Benny to give up the lifestyle, Johnny shooting Cockroach in the leg for wanting to quit is what gets Benny to hit the road.  After this, and some other deaths, things fall apart for the Vandals.  The final event that Kathy discusses is Johnny’s death.  It comes at the hands of The Kid (Toby Wallace), a young man Johnny refuses for entry into the Vandals for wanting to do so by abandoning his friends.  The Kid comes in and challenges Johnny, opting for a knife fight, which is how leadership is settled in the club.  Instead, The Kid shows up with a gun, murdering Johnny with it.  The Kid thus takes over the Vandals, turning it into more of a criminal organization.  Upon hearing of Johnny’s demise, Benny returns to Kathy, and they move to Florida to live the rest of their lives.

One can say that the last development in The Bikeriders is another example of how events in the film are close to my life since I relocated to Florida from the same part of Illinois.  A further one is the fact is that it is set in the Chicago area.  I mentioned the accents, which was like listening to my childhood.  There are also many of the towns referenced in the movie that are near to where I was born.  Despite it being filmed in the Cincinnati area, it had the right look as well.  I was even thrilled when they referred to soda as pop, a word that I unfortunately dropped when my family settled to the Sunshine State.  The only thing missing are church steeples, or any other sign of Christianity.  One can make a tangential reference to the fact that most of the original Vandals were married men, more than a few of them with children.  I am guessing that a good portion of these are sacramental, Catholic marriages.  You can accuse me of conjecture here, and you would be right, but I also know the area in which I was born.  Growing up in Winfield, Illinois, I thought everyone was Catholic.  I did not know there were other Christians until my family left to move south.  At the same time, it is understandable, culturally and historically, that Faith is not discussed.  While I would not be surprised if many of these characters, or the real people on which they are based, have family photograph albums with pictures of them getting their First Communion, the movie is also about a time of rebellion.  The Church, like other traditional institutions, were under attack by not only biker gangs, but the counterculture.  There are some hints of the similarities between the two movements, though they go beyond what you see on the screen.  Anyway, some food for thought if you end up seeing this one.

What most interests me as a Catholic reviewer about The Bikeriders is the sense of belonging and camaraderie.  One of the other original members, Zipco (Michael Shannon), sums up what they are looking for when he talks about how he was rejected by the army during the Vietnam War.  He went because he wanted to serve his country, which is a noble feeling. Indeed, having a heart of service is practically a prerequisite for being a practicing Christian.  Yet, Zipco is refused entry because, frankly, he is crazy.  There is such a thing as being zealous for God, which today is often viewed as nuts, but Zipco’s behavior was a bit too much, even for that era.  What did not go away was his desire to be a part of something bigger than himself, thus he becomes a Vandal.  Johnny sensed this need when he formed the club, though, sadly, with also knowing that they wanted to have somebody to pick on.  In this way, Johnny is tapping into the sinful nature of man, the side of us that supposedly needs an outlet for out darker tendencies.  I find that modern society indulges in these feelings far too often.  The film seems to agree with me through Kathy.  Early on, she says her relationship with Benny has been nothing but trouble.  Pointedly, she asserts that it cannot be love, but that it must be stupidity.  That is because true love, the love that God has for us, the love that a husband and wife are called upon to emulate, does not involve one of the spouses abandoning the other in favor of an alternative lifestyle.  Regardless, Kathy does show a Christ-like behavior towards Benny when he comes back to her after Johnny’s murder.  It is in these kinds of vocations, like marriage or religious communities, that we find our real belonging in God’s family without the need for violence.

The Bikeriders was interesting for me for the personal reasons I discussed throughout.  It is probably not for every audience, especially since it is a period piece and does not move along at a snappy pace.  Further, while I did enjoy the accents, they were more of a rural, northern Illinois/Wisconsin accent than a real Chicago one.  Mostly, I am fine with this, as with the rest of the film.