The inspiration behind Jeff Nichols’ ‘The Bikeriders’, explained in Danny Lyon’s book

Jeff Nichols’ new film, Bikers, contains real elements. Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, Toby Wallace and more have finally arrived on the big screen after a new distribution deal and release date pushed the film’s release to 2023. Butler plays the role of Benny, a man, in the film. who loves motorcycles and is drawn to the Chicago Vandals, a motorcycle club that meets frequently to ride and be in community.

Tom Hardy plays Johnny, the founder of the Vandals. Johnny’s right-hand man is Brucie (Damon Herriman), but Benny positions himself as an authority figure within the group. Benny brings Kathy (Jodie Comer) into the group, and she tells much of the oral history of the Vandals to Mike Faist’s Danny.

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The film is based on true events, but large parts are fictionalized. Director Jeff Nichols cites the year 2003, when his younger brother gave him Danny Lyon’s book Bikers as the root of the project. Learn more about the motorcycle movie’s inspiration below.

East The bikers based on a true story?

Somehow. The film is based on a book by photojournalist Danny Lyon, who captured Vandal culture primarily through photos and anecdotes in his book, also titled Bikers. Many of the film’s characters are inspired by Lyon’s photographs and stories. There was a Johnny Davis (played by Hardy in the film) and a Benny (Butler) as well as a Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer) who married Benny.

The audio recording of Kathy recounting how she met Benny is available at bleakbeauty.com.

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“There is a photo that I gave to each department head. It was in the 2003 edition and it was printed in color. In the original version it was printed in black and white. It was a picture of Cal and another guy sitting on their bikes outside a gas station,” Nichols told Deadline on the red carpet of the film’s premiere. “When you look at it, because it’s in color, you can see these layers: the bike chains, the grease at the base of their nails, the details he put in his vest I gave this photo to all the departments and. I said (I wanted) to create a shot in the film as dense as this one.

Lyon said A rabbit’s foot that the text of the book is made up entirely of audio recordings. Kathy spoke to him on a Huer ¼-inch analog tape recorder.

“What Jeff did was structure a fiction film script around the recorded monologues which are the recorded stories of the book,” Lyon also said. A rabbit’s foot“These are great, heartfelt stories that often say more about the character of the speakers than about the world they describe.”

Are the Chicago Vandals a real biker gang?

The film changed the name slightly. Lyon’s book depicted the lives of the Chicago Outlaws, who were founded at Matilda’s Bar on old Route 66 in McCook, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The film alludes to this founding since the Vandals’ headquarters is a bar. Originally founded as the McCook Outlaws Motorcycle Club, the original chapter was actually founded in 1935, not the 1960s. World War II initially curtailed their activity, but in May 1946, the first major rally was held at Soldier Field in Chicago. In the film, the bikers gather at picnics where chapters from all over the country meet to bond with other motorcycle enthusiasts. The growth in membership led the club to relocate to Chicago and rename itself the Chicago Outlaws, which is when, according to the group’s website, the logo changed to the skull seen on the back of Butler and Hardy’s jackets in the film.

According to Biography.com, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang was a “major rival” to the Outlaws. The Hells Angels operated out of Fontana, California, where they were founded in 1948. Funny Sonny was originally a member of the Hells Angels. Cal was also a former Hells Angel, as implied in the film when Sonny confronts him. His true inspiration was Arthur Dion.

How did Danny Lyon decide to capture the story of “The Bikeriders”?

Lyon, played by Mike Faist in the film, decided to document the American biker experience in 1963. He was a freshman history student at the University of Chicago in 1959 when he was introduced to biker culture . He left town in 1962 and became a full member of the motorcycle group in 1965. He was 24 when he joined the club and “had long left school”. He left the club in 1967 because he felt it was time to move on to another project and another story. Nichols talked about expanding the film’s timeline to a decade rather than the short time Lyon spent with the Outlaws.

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Did Cockroaches Really Eat Bugs?

Cockroach (Emory Cohen) talked about eating insects at length in the film, but that seems to stem from an anecdote from Funny Sonny (Norman Reedus) about eating a caterpillar, as highlighted by Esquire.

Are the Outlaws still around today?

Yes, but as the film suggests, the culture within the chapters in at least 26 states has changed. The Outlaws are one of 300 OMGs or outlaw motorcycle gangs labeled by the U.S. Department of Justice as of November 2023. OMGs are “organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises.”

Are there other similar stories about biker culture?

Yes. Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest arose from a similar journalistic curiosity, and Hunter S. Thompson wrote Angels of Hell (1967) about the California-based motorcycle club.

Movies like The wild (1953) starring Marlon Brando, who is cited as Johnny’s inspiration for founding the Outlaws/Vandals in the film, as well as the Dennis Hopper film. Easy Rider (1969) romanticized the lives of bikers, contributing to the glamour of their lives while adding to the negative reputation they had.

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