Motorcycle Gang

I first saw this film on TV late one night. It starts out with the basic fundamentals of a road movie, a family are driving across the mid American desert to their new home in California in the mid sixties when they become terrorised by a motorcycle gang. The father, Cal, appears to be a mild mannered family man, spontaniously dealing with the angst displayed by his wife and teenage daughter whilst also trying to negotiate moving the family across the country. When his daughter is taken hostage by bikers it would seem he is powerless to alter the events that occur.

Nothing however could be further from the truth, it turns out that Cal is actually a World War 2 combat veteran and despite his humbled and fifty something appearance is a very efficient killing machine. When the final fight sequence occurs the character transformation becomes something to behold, as family man Cal takes on his opponents with a supremely violent and ruthess efficiency.

This movie is a classic. despite being shunned at the cinema, i would recommend it to anyone interested in good film. Neither a road, action or adventure movie, this picture defies a specific genre and in doing so in my opinion has become one of the best low key American classical of all time.

"Motorcycle Gang" benefits from above average performances and interesting, though marginally developed characters. The deliberate pacing is another plus, which allows for more than just the usual cursory dialog. Jake Busey is well cast as the leader of the gang, and Gerald McRaney is good as the dad in pursuit of his kidnapped daughter, Carla Gugino. Nice desert photography enhances the production as well. Overall, this has entertainment value because it never pretends to be anything except an updated 50s biker movie, and at that it succeeds nicely. So what you see is what you get, and that is totally acceptable from my point of view. - MERK

This film essentially begins sometime in the 50's with a man by the name of "Cal Morris" (Gerald McRaney), his wife "Jean Morris" (Elan Oberon) and their teenage daughter "Leann Morris" (Carla Gugino) packing up the car and heading out from Houston to their new home in Los Angeles. Naturally, since the interstate highways system was yet to be completed during this time, Cal figures that their trip will take approximately 3 days. Meanwhile, about 700 miles down the road, a motorcycle gang has recently gone on a killing spree and when they meet the Morris family at a roadside diner, the leader of the gang, known simply as "Jake" (Jake Busey), decides that he can make some money by kidnapping Leann and selling her in Mexico. What he doesn't realize, however, is that Cal is a former Army veteran who has seen his share of combat and is more than willing to take matters into his own hands to get his daughter back. Now, as far as the actual merits of this movie are concerned, I must admit that I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, although the film takes place in the 50's, there was something about the setting that just didn't feel right for some reason. I don't know, maybe it's just me but something seemed off. Likewise, I didn't particularly care for the acting on the part of Jake Busey all that much either. While it's true that his character was quite unsavory, his performance wasn't nearly as menacing as it should have been. Perhaps it was his goofy smile during some of these scenes, but whatever the reason, he just didn't seem right for this role. On the other hand, I thought that Gerald McRaney put in a good performance and--along with the reasonably interesting plot--managed to overcome some of the weaknesses just mentioned. That being said, while this was certainly not a great "biker film" by any means, it wasn't all that bad and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

An ordinary American family, not counting the fact that the head of such is a former Marine, a veteran of the Korean War, once again moves to a new place of residence. Their path lies from Texas to California. In general, a measured trip is episodically interrupted by various small stories, such as a meeting with a couple of beatniks who own a small motel, gradually leading the parallel story to a skirmish with a biker gang led by a blond nicknamed Busey, who kidnaps the daughter and goes to Mexico for a batch of drugs. Remembering his former skills, the hero again takes the path of war and begins to inflict justice in his own way in the vastness, where, apparently, the police are pushed into the background, and various psychopaths and crazy criminal elements rule the ball. The synopsis of the plot introduces some dissonance.

This layout fits in well with the reality of what could be expected in the 1990s, but with the conditional specificity of the 1950s, this form fits rather poorly, and it actually explains the weak presence of action as such. Some philosophical messages do not particularly save the situation.

There is "Motorcycle Gang" from 1957 with a similar theme, but a different story.

It was a dark, cold evening at 48 Hawthorn Avenue, with only my young Asian friend to keep me company. The night seemed to be innocuously drawing towards an uneventful conclusion, when all of a sudden a last desperate bout of channel-hopping produced a remarkable result - Motorcycle Gang. A superbly crafted piece of modern cinema (although it wasn't actually released in theaters - a travesty!), this film merely serves one purpose - to overawe the viewer with sheer class from every quarter, and it succeeds! Much better than others from the Late Night Classic collection such as On The Line (see review), it features another Oscar worthy performance from Jake "son of Gary" Busey, showing once again why he is widely considered to be superior in every way to his great father (watch starship troopers(1997), which is excellent, and the foot shooting party(1994), which is also probably excellent, for further evidence). The Directing is spot on, with John Milius finally rediscovering the flair shown in Conan the Barbarian (Phew, I hear you gasp in relief. The world is a better place with Milius on top form). But in all honesty, the finale is the pinnacle of this epic. The showdown between the gang and former Army man Cal is quite possibly the best fight scene in history. Cal takes on four, yes four, motorcyclists, and takes each one out with chilling yet breathtaking efficiency, and no little style, saving his pretty young daughter from the grasps of the evil Jake, Crab, Volker and Kincaid. You truly have to see it to believe it.

As you can imagine, that cold dark evening was infinitely warmed up by this unexpected gem of a movie, and if it were up to me, this film would be released on the cinema immediately, opening it up to the wider audience that it surely deserves. Masterpiece!