Watch motorcycle films online on BFI Player.
Here are 10 films in which motorcycles play a key part. Hollywood produced a deluge of outlaw biker movies and, while this has been the motorcycle’s most common screen manifestation, the machines have also symbolised the quest for freedom and self-discovery. Thompson’s 1966 book Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and then the 1969 Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway concert, at which Hells Angels working as bouncers killed an audience member, that popular culture’s preoccupation with criminal motorcycle gangs reached fever pitch. A trickle of motorcycle-themed film appeared until the mid-60s, but it wasn’t until the release of US gonzo journalist Hunter S. Motorcycle gangs first appeared on the big screen in the early 1950s. There are also wonderful performances by former British screen veterans Beryl Reid (as Tom’s frog worshipping witch mother) and George Sanders, in his last screen role, as Mrs Latham’s delightfully creepy manservant, Shadwell. While Psychomania has few moments of genuine horror, it does have a unique look, an amazing cult soundtrack and some bizarre plot antics, most famously a biker returning from the dead by riding his motorcycle out of his grave. His crew follow his lead, killing themselves and coming back to wreak havoc upon the living. Not content to terrorise the inhabitants of their local town, the leader of the Living Dead motorcycle gang, Tom Latham ( Nicky Henson), makes a pact with the Devil, takes his own life, and returns from the dead with supernatural powers. This September, the living dead won’t be shuffling on to the screen, they’ll roar across it on the back of motorcycles, as the BFI releases its Blu-ray of Australian-born director Don Sharp’s 1973 cult film Psychomania, a fusion of two obsessions of early 70s exploitation cinema: the occult and vicious motorcycle packs.
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