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I like watching motorcycle movies. Any recommendations?

The world's fastest Indian: loved it, and even my wife got a smile out of it. A good one to watch if you think life is unfair and you're getting old.

On any Sunday: okay, but to be the best bike movie ever, which is how it was recommended to me, it is too one-sided on dirt bikes. I'd like to have seen more of the legendary road riders of that period.

Easy Rider: The granddaddy, I guess. A bit pretentious but a good movie if you can get past the weirdness.

The motorcycle diaries: I remember to have liked it when I saw it. The perspective of a revolutionary in the making.

Long way round: interesting and recommendable for many reasons. Reminds me of how small the portion of world I live in is, how nice it is when people get along, and how many more different ways to live a life there are.

The wild one: frankly didn't do anything for me.

Last part of "The Great Escape" ; the Triumph jumping the fence etc.

well, there are also lots of documentaary motorcycle-centric movies apart from the hollywood movies.

movies like modo enduro, faster, etc.

are you interested in discussing those or more interested in the hollywood movies?

wes

One Week - a new Canadian movie, it was awesome...
About a guy who finds out he has terminal cancer, buys an old Norton and rides across Canada...
http://www.oneweek.ca/

crazyhorse wrote:well, there are also lots of documentaary motorcycle-centric movies apart from the hollywood movies.

movies like modo enduro, faster, etc.

are you interested in discussing those or more interested in the hollywood movies?

wes

I appreciate a good documentary as much as a movie. Some documentaries are probably more stimulating than Hollywood movies. The "Fastest Indian" DVD has a documentary from the 70s about Burt Munro which I liked. I don't like watching racing all that much but a good documentary on that might be worthwhile.
BTW, I just realized there is a separate forum for OT posts. Please don't get angry with me

You may want to check out Dust to Glory, as a warning it is a documentry, and it is dirt bike oriented. However, it is a documentry centering on a guy nicknamed Mouse (I cannot recall his real name right now) who raced the Baja 1,000 SOLO and got within 45 miles or so of winning it before crashing and breaking a collarbone, IIRC, then limping in in the top 4 or 5. Along with following Mouse it gives some good background on the 1,000 and the crazies in and around it. It's pretty entertaining.

There is also the Doctor, the Tornado, and The Kentucky Kid by the guy who produced Faster. Again, it's "kind of" a documentery, and it is racing. But, it's Moto GP racing and litterally a Cinderella story of Nicky Hayden winning the first new Moto GP race in the US. Plus his dad Earl is a trip.

One Man's Island. About a Canadian club racer who sells everything he owns to go and race at the Isle of Man.

Riding Solo to the Top of the Earth. A guy from India does a solo trip in the Indian mountains. All by himself like the Survivor Man series.

Take it to the Limit. An old 1970's movie along the lines of On any Sunday. The best part is seeing Mike Hailwood bump starting an old two stroke race bike and doing a lap in the rain on the mountain course.

"The Wild Angels" with Peter Fonda , Michael J. Pollard , Bruce Dern and Nancy Sinatra. Man all they like want to do is like party and not be hastled by the Man.

Mark

Be careful ordering movies on line. A friend saw an interesting movie titled 'Leather Boys' the ad showed a few young guys in leathers astride 60's era Brit Café racers. The movie was about guys riding, but they weren't riding motorcycles. Boy was he surprised! Then he made the mistake of telling ONE good friend he bought the tape - I don't have to relate the rest of the story, that was a few years ago but everyone still calls the guy 'Leather Boy'.

i watched one week tonight. it was good, although a bit contrived as to the canadiana - and i'm from vancouver!

wes

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep em coming. I just ordered Faster on Amazon. Some of the others like "One man's island" and "Take it to the limit" I couldn't find. 'One week' might be a good rental if I can find it as it is a bit expensive to buy. Maybe a reason to do the Netflix thing.
I just finished 'Long Way Round'. At least for a while it put a different perspective on things and stuff for me, and I always appreciate that. Recommended.

I liked "Long Way Down" better than "Long Way Round." I thought "Round" got a bit boring: "Let's see what mud-hole we can get stuck in today." "Down" gave a great view into the diversity and reality of Africa.

I loved WFI, but it's really about Burt's obsession with his quest for the record (and Donaldson's obsession with his quest to make the movie) than about motorcycles.

And for mindless fun, there's always "Wild Hogs."

NeilS wrote:I liked "Long Way Down" better than "Long Way Round."

I have the full box, so 'Long way down' is on the shelf. I will probably watch that next.

BTW, I find most motorcycle movies aren't truly about motorcycles. The bikes are the hook, and usually it's about the adventure, lust for life, possibilities, and that a wrong turn doesn't necessarily lead to the wrong place. Well, sometimes they can be more mindless than that.

riderwarehouse.com (aerostitch.com) has a lot of the more esoteric ones.

terra circa is another great documentary in the going around the world on old enduro bikes genrea like mondo enduro, which i am really into now after doing some adventure riding myself lately.

sort of on this same topic, i have been really enjoying the tv series 'twist the throttle', i think it is from discovery HD (it just shows up recorded on my tivo so im not positive) that outlines the history of the major maufacturers, honda, yamaha, ducati, and yes, bmw. (except for the inanely annoying nick ineatch.)

wes

I just remembered a couple of hokey ones from the '70's Little Foss and Big Halsey starred Robert Redford as a struggling itenerant dirt bike racer, and CC and Company with, get this, Joe Namath as the lead, I don't remember much about that one with the exception of Namath grazing through a grocery store shoplifting the items needed to make one sandwich and eat it in the store

BigEasy wrote:I just remembered a couple of hokey ones from the '70's Little Foss and Big Halsey starred Robert Redford as a struggling itenerant dirt bike racer, and CC and Company with, get this, Joe Namath as the lead, I don't remember much about that one with the exception of Namath grazing through a grocery store shoplifting the items needed to make one sandwich and eat it in the store

I saw them both at the drive in theatre in the early 70s.

Mark

To go along with Long Way Round and Long Way Down, my boxed set came with Race To Dakar. Another interesting documentary, but without Ewan... it's just Charley on this one. I'm about halfway through it.

Along with the movies, I have a list of favorite motorcycle/travel books:

The Perfect Vehicle - Melissa Holbrook Pierson
Hog Fever - Richard La Plante
Detours - Richard La Plante
Leanings - Peter Egan
Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - Pirsig
Ghost Rider - Neal Peart (drummer for Canadian rock band RUSH)
Blue Highways - William Least Heat Moon

I guess my 2 faves are the La Plante books, even though the bikes are big V-Twins, his writing is hilarious. My second fave is The Perfect Vehicle, which features her prized Moto Guzzi.

Blue Highways is a GREAT travel documentary, it makes you want to get out and roam.

Though it's not a good film, if you get a chance try to see "The Pace That Thrills". A movie produced by Howard Hughes in 1952 about motorcycle racing which features bad acting, a silly plot, and limp direction, but which somehow has excellent race footage, much of it filmed for this movie, not just stock footage. How such a badly made movie has such fine race footage I don't know. The footage consists of flat track racing and something that looks like early-fifties motocross.

If you like old bikes, it's a fun film. I didn't notice any BMWs, however.

It stars Bill Williams (husband of Barbara Hale, Perry Mason's "Della Street") as a motorcycle racer who everyone except the heroine seems to admire despite his being a blatant cheater. Eventually, the heroine decides he's not such a bad guy and falls in love with him. Strangely, despite having a cheater for a hero the movie tries to give the audience the impression that motorcycling is a wholesome hobby. At times, it pushes the wholesomeness so hard, it almost seems like it was intended as an answer to The Wild One, except that that film was released after this one.

See it for the bikes.

On rare occasion the movie shows up on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

I have watched the Long Way Round, Long Way Down, and Race to Dakar series multiple times. While some of the whiny actor stuff can get annoying, those series are love letters to riding BMWs around the world. While not strictly a motorcycle movie (but it starts with motorcycles) By Any Means by some of the same Long Way crew is pretty good travelogue in the classic sense.

Also consider turning off the computer/TV and picking up a book. Three weeks after I read Jupiter's Travels I found myself on the back of my DRZ400S for a week riding back roads around the outer edge of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Dangerous book.

To add to the list of books, I enjoyed Ted Bishop: Riding with Rilke. It's a travel account by someone who loves bikes and knows how to navigate in the world of literature also. I guess I don't need to mention 'The art of BMW'.

I'm just watching The long way down. The best is that my wife watches it with me and tells me not to start without her. She jumped on somewhere in the middle of The long way round. She doesn't care that much about the bikes, but the adventurous travels do it for her. The funny thing is that we visited the Moto Guzzi museum together a few years ago. Big smiles and good memories.

My box set has the Paris Dakar series also. Good suggestions here. I didn't expect this level of interest in my original question but I am very pleased to have this discussion.