Great Motorcycle Movies

July 21 2009 by Jason Fogelson

iStock_000000671126XSmall.jpgYou can't ride all the time. Sometimes, you have to stop and watch a movie about riding!

Here are a few films with great motorcycle footage to inspire you to take a long ride.

The Wild One (1953): Starring Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy and Lee Marvin. Brando rides a Triumph into town, and thousands of guys buy black leather jacks the next week.

The Great Escape (1963): This John Sturges-directed WWII caper film is on my list for one scene: When Steve McQueen's character, Hilts, makes his escape on a Nazi motorcycle, he executes a spectacular jump over (and into) a barbed wire fence. It's the most thrilling bike stunt in cinema history, ridden by McQueen's longtime friend Bud Ekins. And the rest of the movie's not bad, either (unless you're a Nazi).

Hell's Angels on Wheels (1967): Starring Jack Nicholson as a gas station attendant who gets mixed up with a tough gang of motorcyclists. A "B" movie elevated to another level by Nicholson's easy charm as a youth, and by some great bikes. Directed by Richard Rush, who went on to direct the great Peter O'Toole film, Stuntman.

Easy Rider (1969): The greatest motorcycling movie ever made, despite some weird, incoherent druggy sequences in New Orleans. Peter Fonda was never cooler. Dennis Hopper writes, directs and stars alongside him as they ride in search of America.

On Any Sunday (1971): Bruce Brown's Oscar-nominated documentary about motorcycle racing across the world, featuring Malcolm Smith, Mert Lawwill and the great Steve McQueen. If you don't understand motorcycling (and fall in love with the unstoppable Malcolm Smith) after watching this, you have no soul.

Electra Glide in Blue (1973): Robert Blake (yes, that Robert Blake) stars as an Arizona motorcycle cop who gets promoted to be a homicide detective. It's a creepy, bizarre movie, with a bunch of great motorcycle footage.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981): George Miller's first sequel is the best of the three Mad Max films, starring a young Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky. Max doesn't ride a motorcycle; he drives an Australian Ford XB GT Falcon Coupe (known as the Interceptor). But his rivals, an evil, post-Apocalyptic biker gang, ride some mean machines, and the stunts are high-speed mayhem.

Mask (1985): Cher stars as a biker chick with a deformed son in this Peter Bogdanovich film. Sam Elliott as Gar is the leader of a biker gang - but the good kind of biker gang, the kind with a heart. Some great motorcycles, and a kinder, gentler look at motorcycle culture.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991): Is James Cameron's second Terminator film the greatest action film of all time? Maybe. It is certainly memorable for the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator walks naked into a biker bar, and announces, "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle." When he rides away on that custom Harley-Davidson, you know it's on.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004): Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo De la Serna star as Che Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado in Walter Salles' adaptation of the story of a political coming of age, aided and abetted by a 1952 motorcycle road trip. Great performances, and a really moving story of friendship and travel.

The World's Fastest Indian (2005): Roger Donaldson's dramatic version of Burt Munro's attempt to set the land speed record on a 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967. Anthony Hopkins gives a great performance as Munro, a man whose obsession led him to risk everything to reach his goal.

What's your favorite motorcycle film?

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