The charismatic performances of the cast are undoubtedly key to The Bikeriders' charm, particularly Comer's fast-talking reluctant romantic and Hardy as a beleaguered boss realizing he can't keep up with a changing world. Newcomer Toby Wallace (who also makes an impression in Kitty Green's The Royal Hotel) is well-cast as a chillingly determined wannabe, while a well-timed cameo from Norman Reedus as zonked-out Californian biker Funny Sonny is delightful. If there's one complaint to be made about the ensemble, it's that there's simply not enough Michael Shannon screentime.

Chapman, Wilson (August 4, 2022). "Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy to Star in Jeff Nichols Film 'The Bikeriders' ". Variety . Retrieved September 7, 2023.

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Front and center are Butler as devastatinglyhandsome biker Benny; Comer as down-to-earth Kathy, unvarnished and clear-eyed, she sees through the biker bullshit; and Hardy as Johnny, the leader who kinda wants to be Benny. Later, Lyon began creating his own books. His first was a study of outlaw motorcyclists in the collection The Bikeriders (1968), where Lyon photographed, traveled with and shared the lifestyle of bikers in the American Midwest from 1963 to 1967. [12] [13] Living in a rented apartment in Woodlawn, Chicago, Lyon followed the Chicago chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in an "attempt to record and glorify the life of the American bikerider". Seeking advice from Hunter S. Thompson, who spent a year with the Hells Angels for his own book, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Thompson warned Lyon that he should "get to hell out of that club unless it's absolutely necessary for photo action." [14] [15] Lyon said of Thompson's response: "He advised me not to join the Outlaws and to wear a helmet. I joined the club and seldom wore a helmet". He was a full-fledged member of the Outlaws between 1966 and 1967. [15] On his time as an Outlaws member, Lyon said: "I was kind of horrified by the end. I remember I had a big disagreement with this guy who rolled out a huge Nazi flag as a picnic rug to put our beers on. By then I had realised that some of these guys were not so romantic after all". [14] Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO [7] [21] Also a filmmaker and writer, Lyon's films and videos include Los Niños Abandonados, Born to Film, Willie, and Murderers. He has published the non-fiction book Like A Thief's Dream.

Patton, Phil (7 March 2013). "Two Looks at Danny Lyon's 'Bikeriders' Photos". Wheels.blogs.nytimes.com . Retrieved 28 November 2017. Conversations With The Dead: Photographs of Prison Life with the Letters and Drawings of Billy McCune #122054. ISBN 9780714870519. Digitally remastered facsimile edition with a new afterword by Lyon. I’d go up to him and I’d be like, ‘See, you’ve got to stop smiling so much.’ He’d be like, ‘Oh, okay, Jeff.’ I’d be like, ‘No, you’re doing it again. Stop being so charming.’ But he has an aura around him. When you have that aura combined with the work ethic and the talent that guy’s going to the moon,” he declared. a b c Seeger, Bob (1989). Everybody Says Freedom. New York u.a: Norton. pp.87–100. ISBN 0393306046. But Benny is deeply in love with Kathy, played by Jodie Comer with tough pugnacity and an outrageous northwestern accent with which you could slice a chrome tailpipe in two. She is effectively the narrator, speaking to Danny Lyon himself, played by Mike Faust. Like Lorraine Bracco’s Karen in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Kathy is a respectable working-class woman who never intended to get drawn into this world, but found Benny very attractive just as he was beguiled by her cool, sceptical confidence. It is Kathy who can see the ritual absurdity of the Vandals’ codes of masculinity – how, having affected to despise rules, they set up a club with a huge amount of rules, followed with pedantic solemnity like a cross between the army and the Rotary club. She can see how her Benny is going to die one day in the service of this crazy group, and so a duel for possession begins between her and Johnny.Because even if you’re looking at a biker who’s all greasy and crazy looking, it’s like, ‘Yeah, but they sewed those patches on. They’re actually thinking about who they are.’ And they’ve put love into those bikes and it’s all an outward expression of some identity for themselves. But they’re also on the fringe. But because then it starts to become a social thing, a group thing, people start to have to put rules to it and kind of this structure to it. And as soon as you start that, it starts to die.” Characteristic of his documentary approach, Lyon’s films are, like his photography, the product of living with people and observing them closely. Lyon has always been tangled up in the lives of his subjects, and his works are both literal and metaphoric portraits, often focusing on storytellers and letting individuals narrate their own lives for the camera. There is, in all his work, a palpable affection for people that breathes new warmth into the cold blood of postwar humanism. These are his friends, buddies, comrades in arms, kids, and lovers, and his images are full of tenderness and compassion. “You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he told Randy Kennedy of the New York Times. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process.” Photographer of all things rebellious and quietly wild, Phaidon's retrospective covers nearly 7 decades of Danny Lyon's work and includes some never-before-seen images and mixed media work, along with written commentary by the man behind the lens."— TIME LightBox While it could be accused of romanticizing some pretty damaged characters (the real-life Benny abused his wife), “The Bikeriders” doesn’t pretend that motorcycle gangs can’t be dangerous. Still, it goes a long way to humanize figures who’ve been long misrepresented on film, while giving audiences privileged access to this inner world. Kathy, like Karen in “Goodfellas” or Kay in “The Godfather,” has entered into a marriage where it’s understood that she comes second to her husband’s true loves, which in this case are his bike and his buddies. While not quite homoerotic, the bond between Benny and Johnny is stronger than family. Nichols told me that he called Adam Driver, who starred with Comer in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, to ask what she was like to work with.