Cycle Cinema

CYCLE CINEMA

FROM THE WILD ONE TO THE MARLBORO MAN, A COLLECTION OF CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE VIDEOS

HERE’S movies A available LIST OF on MOTORCYCLE video, from the famous to the overlooked to the deservedly obscure:

THE WILD ONE (1954)

Biker-flick prototype features rebel Marlon Brando as anti-social gang leader who makes a big show of how alienated he is. Important as foundation for ’80s leather fashion, iconography for roadhouse scenes in “Twin Peaks” TV series.

ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (1973)

Offbeat motorcycle-cop movie starring pre-“Baretta” Robert Blake was a drive-in hit. Avant-garde photographic technique later became a staple of modem, MTV visual style. KNIGHTRIDERS (1981)

Way-out Ed Harris movie about roving gang of performers who wear medieval garb, joust on motorcycles and attempt to observe Arthurian code of honor.

MAD MAX (1979) and THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981)

Australian director George Miller’s post-apocalypse chronicle of a wasteland cop who loses his family to sadistic bikers (in the first installment), and (in the second) helps defend a frontier community against still another punk biker gang. Includes the unforgettable line, “I am the Humongous.” These are the movies that made Mel Gibson a star. SHAME (1988)

Obscure Australian goodie about a lone biker chick who cleans up a small town where a young woman has been raped. Beware of the crummy Dean Stockwell remake that’s sometimes shown on cable. HARLEY-DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN (1991)

This quintessential post-’80s movie features macho posturers Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke as “outlaw” bikers who attempt to save a nightclub by robbing a crooked S&L. COOLAS ICE (1991) Monstrously bad chronicle of sneering leather-and-gold consumerist Vanilla Ice and his gang of self-possessed, arrogant pinheads on whiny Japanese speed bikes.

Gary Thompson