The Vintagent Classics: Black Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9V2gN_a3P8
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
BLACK RAIN (1989)
Run Time: 2:05:00
Producer: Paramount Pictures
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis
Key Cast: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura
FILM MAKERS
Bōsōzoku arrives in Hollywood! "Just a few years after releasing his own cyberpunk masterpiece via Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott delivered Black Rain (1989), a macho and somewhat racist blockbuster starring Michael Douglas as a bike fanatic detective who journeys to Japan after becoming embroiled in a yakuza conspiracy in New York.
The film opens with Douglas’ character engaging in a testosterone-fuelled drag race beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, but it's Japan’s biker gangs who make heads roll later on. They’re a recurring source of intimidation in violence on behalf of their yakuza buddies in Osaka, showing up wearing bandanas and bearing flags down neon-soaked back streets, embodying what had clearly now become stereotype." - Another Magazine
Black Rain is a neo-noir action thriller directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Douglas, Andy García, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yūsaku Matsuda and Tomisaburo Wakayama. The film focuses on two NYPD detectives who arrest a member of the Yakuza and must escort him back to Japan. Once there, he escapes, and the two officers find themselves dragged deeper and deeper into the Japanese underworld.
The film was released by Paramount Pictures on September 22, 1989. It received much publicity beforehand as it was Douglas's first film since his Oscar winning role in Wall Street- a span of nearly two years. Upon release, it received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics, which praised the performances, action sequences, Hans Zimmer's musical score, direction and editing but criticized the screenwriting, clichéd story and lack of character development.
In the years since, the film has become a cult film and has been widely praised. It was also a huge box office hit, grossing over $134 million worldwide in front of a production budget of $30 million, and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing at the 62nd Academy Awards.
Black Rain was the final film role for actor Yūsaku Matsuda. Matsuda knew he had bladder cancer and that his condition would be aggravated by acting in the movie. He elected to do so anyway, unbeknownst to director Sir Ridley Scott, reportedly saying, "This way, I will live forever." On November 6, 1989, less than seven weeks after the film's American premiere, Matsudo died of his bladder cancer at the age of 40. The film is dedicated to his memory.
SUMMARY
An American Cop in Japan. Their country. Their laws. Their game. His rules.
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. In Japan, however, he manages to escape. As they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game the Japanese way.
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Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube
The Vintagent Trailers: Biker Boyz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zcR0xTFMxw
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
BIKER BOYZ (2003)
Run Time: 1:50:00
Producer: Dreamworks Pictures
Director: Reggie Rock Bythewood
Writer: Michael Gougis, Craig Fernandez, Reggie Rock Bythewood
Key Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Orlando Jones
FILM MAKERS
Biker Boyz is based on a 1999 article of the same name by freelance journalist Michael Gougis for the now defunct alternative weekly publication, the New Times. Gougis reported on the world of African-American motorcycle clubs in Southern California, and the "Biker Boyz" feature was a tour of that world, guided by Manuel "Pokey" Galloway, the president of Valiant Riders of Pasadena, California.
The film features an ensemble cast including Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Meagan Good, Djimon Hounsou, Brendan Fehr, Rick Gonzalez, Larenz Tate, Terrence Howard, Orlando Jones, Salli Richardson, and Kid Rock. It also features Lisa Bonet and Vanessa Bell Calloway.
Biker Boyz was released on January 31, 2003 in the United States by DreamWorks Pictures, received generally unfavorable reviews, and was a box-office failure.
* If anyone finds a copy of the New Times LA feature by Michael Gougis, please send it our way!
SUMMARY
A son of the leader of a legendary group of an urban biker gang tries to retain his championship title.
A mythic motorcycle tale of father and son, this is the story of Manuel "Smoke" Galloway, also known as "the King of Cali", the president of a motorcycle club whose members are all African-American men, mostly white-collar workers who exchange their suits and ties at night and on weekends for leather outfits and motorcycle helmets. The focus of this story takes place at an annual drag-racing event in Fresno, as Manuel tries to retain his championship title.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM on Amazon
Read more Los Angeles Times, 2003
Read 'Bridge', by Michael Gougis
The Vintagent Trailers: The Bikeriders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SolhWny1zF4
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
THE BIKERIDERS (2023)
Run Time: 1:56:00
Producer: New Regency Productions
Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: Jeff Nichols, Dany Lyon
Key Cast: Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy
FILM MAKERS
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, The Bikeriders tells a fictional story inspired by the 1967 photo-book of the same name by Danny Lyon and stars an ensemble cast that includes Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, and Norman Reedus.
The Bikeriders premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 1, 2023, by 20th Century Studios.
SUMMARY
"I've been thinking, I can run this club forever. I've built this from nothing. This is our family. You and me kid."
Kathy, a strong-willed member of the Vandals who is married to a wild, reckless bikerider named Benny, recounts the Vandals' evolution over the course of a decade, beginning as a local club of outsiders united by good times, rumbling bikes, and respect for their strong, steady leader Johnny.
Over the years, Kathy tries her best to navigate her husband's untamed nature and his allegiance to Johnny, with whom she feels she must compete for Benny's attention. As life in the Vandals gets more dangerous, and the club threatens to become a more sinister gang, Kathy, Benny and Johnny are forced to make choices about their loyalty to the club and to each other.
RELATED MEDIA
The Bikeriders, Danny Lyon (1967) - Purchase on the Aperture website for the current reprint that is true to the original.
The Vintagent Trailers: The Place Beyond The Pines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjes7u9Vewc
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (2012)
Run Time: 2:20:00
Producer: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Electric City Entertainment, Verisimilitude
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Key Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes
FILM MAKERS
The Place Beyond The Pines is an American epic crime drama, directed by Derek Cianfrance with a screenplay by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder from a story by Cianfrance and Coccio. The film tells three linear stories: Luke (Ryan Gosling), a motorcycle stunt rider who supports his family through a life of crime; Avery (Bradley Cooper), an ambitious policeman who confronts his corrupt police department; and two troubled teenagers (Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan) who explore the aftermath of Luke and Avery's actions fifteen years later. The supporting cast includes Eva Mendes, with Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin, and Ray Liotta. The soundtrack was composed by Mike Patton and included music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and Ennio Morricone.
Co-writer and director Derek Cianfrance says that his financier would give him the budget he wanted if he shrank the 158-page script to 120 pages. Without removing anything, he used a smaller font and extended the margins. He says no one noticed.
Erwin Urias performed the Globe Of Death stunt riding in the film for Gosling. Erwin is a 4th generation globe rider who has been preforming with his family since he was 14. The Urias Family still performs today in the original 16 foot diameter Globe that was built by their great-grandfather almost 100 years ago. Erwin's son and daughter are now the 5th generation keeping the legacy alive with their family as the Urias Globe Of Death.
SUMMARY
A mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer, Luke, (Ryan Gosling) drives out of a traveling carnival Globe of Death and whizzes through the backstreets of Schenectady, New York, desperately trying to connect with a former lover, Romina, (Eva Mendes) who recently and secretly gave birth to the stunt rider's son. In an attempt to provide for his new family, Luke quits the carnival life and commits a series of bank robberies aided by his superior riding ability. The stakes rise as Luke is put on a collision course with an ambitious police officer, Avery Cross, (Bradley Cooper) looking to quickly move up the ranks in a police department riddled with corruption. The sweeping drama unfolds over fifteen years as the sins of the past haunt the present days lives of two high school boys wrestling with the legacy they've inherited. The only refuge is found in the place beyond the pines.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL MOVIE on Youtube
The Vintagent Classics: Portrait Of An Assassin
https://youtu.be/sYa835M_c5w
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
PORTRAIT OF AN ASSASSIN / PORTRAIT D'UN ASSASSIN (1949)
Run Time: 1:40:00
Producer: Hubert Vincent-Bréchignac
Director: Bernard-Roland
Writer: François Chalais, Henri Decoin, Marcel Rivet
Key Cast: Maria Montez, Erich von Stroheim, Arletty and Pierre Brasseur
FILM MAKERS
"I expected my shooting mishap to be followed by a legal mishap. Well, what do we do now? Shall we have a drink? Make love? Throw things at each other?"
Portrait of an Assassin (French: Portrait d'un assassin) is a 1949 French drama thriller. The film was financed by a French furrier. It was originally announced that the film would be called Portrait of a Murderer and would star Maria Montez and Orson Welles. "Could be the battlingest picture of the century", wrote Hedda Hopper.
Orson Welles and Charles Lederer were hired to rewrite the script. They wrote a new script in just a few weeks, but the producers didn't use it, didn't make the last payment on their salaries, and on top of that, sued them. In My Lunches With Orson, Welles says "They didn't use one word we wrote. But they used the story." Furthermore, "We got paid by a black-market producer who came to the Lancaster hotel with the money wrapped in newspaper."
SUMMARY
Fabius: "I never once got on that bike, not even one night, for the last two years without thinking it would be the last time."
Martha: "So you wanted to kill me because you were afraid something would happen to you?"
Christina (Montez) is the sadistic manager of a circus show, who uses her attractiveness to seduce men and force them to do dangerous acrobatic acts. One such lover, Eric (Von Stroheim), became handicapped.
Christina seduces Fabius (Brasseur) but his wife Martha (Arletty), turns up and performs the acrobatic act and dies. Fabius then murders Christina in revenge, does the act himself, survives and confesses.
RELATED MEDIA
Buy the DVD on Amazon
The Vintagent Trailers: The Motorcycle Diaries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBsQArUkQY
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (2004)
Run Time: 2:06:00
Producer: FilmFour, South Fork Pictures, Tu Vas Voir Productions
Director: Walter Salles
Writer: Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Alberto Granado, Jose Rivera
Key Cast: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mía Maestro
FILM MAKERS
The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 biopic about the journey and written memoir of the 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara, who would several years later become internationally known as the Marxist guerrilla leader and revolutionary leader Che Guevara. The film recounts the 1952 expedition, initially by motorcycle, across South America by Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. As well as being a road movie, the film is a coming-of-age film; as the adventure, initially centered on youthful hedonism, unfolds, Guevara discovers himself transformed by his observations on the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry. Through the characters they encounter on their continental trek, Guevara and Granado witness first hand the injustices that the destitute face and are exposed to people and social classes they would have never encountered otherwise. To their surprise, the road presents to them both a genuine and captivating picture of Latin American identity. As a result, the trip also plants the initial seed of radicalization within Guevara, who would later challenge the continent's endemic economic inequalities and political repression.
The screenplay is based primarily on Guevara's trip diary of the same name, with additional context supplied by Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado. Guevara is played by Gael García Bernal (who previously played Che in the 2002 miniseries Fidel), and Granado by the Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna, who incidentally is a second cousin to the real-life Guevara on his maternal side. Directed by Brazilian director Walter Salles and written by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, the film was an international co-production among production companies from Argentina, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Peru and France.
SUMMARY
"The Che of The Motorcycle Diaries is more akin to Jack Kerouac or Neal Cassady than Marx or Lenin." - Paul Webster, executive producer
In 1952, a semester before Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aires to travel across South America. While there is a goal at the end of their journey - they intend to work in a leper colony in Peru - the main purpose is initially fun and adventure. They desire to see as much of Latin America as they can, more than 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) in just four and a half months, while Granado's purpose is also to bed as many women as will fall for his pickup lines. Their initial method of transport is Granado's dilapidated Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").
Their planned route is ambitious, bringing them north across the Andes, along the coast of Chile, through the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon in order to reach Venezuela just in time for Granado's 30th birthday on 2 April. However, due to La Poderosa's breakdown, they are forced to travel at a much slower pace, often walking, and do not make it to Caracas until July.
During their expedition, Guevara and Granado encounter the poverty of the indigenous peasants, and the movie assumes a greater seriousness once the men gain a better sense of the disparity between the "haves" (to which they belong) and the obviously exploited "have-nots" (who make up the majority of those they encounter) by travelling on foot. In Chile, for instance, they encounter a penniless and persecuted couple forced onto the road because of their communist beliefs. In a fire-lit scene, Guevara and Granado ashamedly admit to the couple that they are not out looking for work as well. The duo then accompanies the couple to the Chuquicamata copper mine, where Guevara becomes angry at the treatment of the workers.
However, it is a visit to the ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru that solidifies something in Guevara. His musings are then somberly refocused to how an indigenous civilization capable of building such beauty could be destroyed by the creators of the eventually polluted urban decay of nearby Lima.
Later, in Peru, they volunteer for three weeks at the San Pablo leper colony. There, Guevara observes both literally and metaphorically the division of society, as the staff live on the north side of a river, separated from the deprived lepers living across the river to the south. To demonstrate his solidarity, and his medical belief that leprosy is not contagious, Guevara refuses to wear rubber gloves during his visit as the head nun requires, choosing instead to shake bare hands and interact normally with the surprised leper patients.
At the end of the film, after his sojourn at the leper colony, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, revolutionary impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it, he invokes a pan-Latin American identity that transcends the arbitrary boundaries of both nation and race. These encounters with social injustice transform the way Guevara sees the world and his purposes in it, and by implication motivates his later political activities as a Marxist revolutionary.
Guevara makes his symbolic "final journey" at night when, despite the danger and his asthma, he swims across the river that separates the two societies of the leper colony, to spend the night in a leper shack, instead of in the doctors' cabins. Later, as they bid each other farewell at an airport, Granado reveals that his birthday was not 2 April, but rather 8 August, and that the aforementioned goal was simply a motivator: Guevara replies that he knew all along. The film closes with an appearance by the real 82-year-old Alberto Granado, along with pictures from the actual journey and a brief mention of Che Guevara's eventual 1967 CIA-assisted execution in the Bolivian jungle.
RELATED MEDIA
Read The BOOK
Follow the MAP of The Motorcycle Diaries
Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube
The Vintagent Classics: Touki Bouki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaWmfqrQjU4
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
TOUKI BOUKI (pronounced tukki bukki), Wolof for 'The Journey of the Hyena' (1973)
Run Time: 1:25:00
A Film By: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Key Cast: Magaye Niang, Myriam Niang, Christoph Colomb
FILM MAKERS
Touki Bouki is a 1973 Senegalese drama film, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. It was shown at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. The film was restored in 2008 at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory by the World Cinema Foundation. It was selected as the 93rd greatest film of all time by the Sight and Sound Critic's Poll. This film is now part of the Criterion Collection, spine #685. This film is believed to be Africa's first avant-garde film, although Oh, Sun (1967) could also make this claim.
Based on his own story and script, Djibril Diop Mambéty made Touki Bouki with a budget of $30,000 – obtained in part from the Senegalese government. Though influenced by French New Wave, Touki Bouki displays a style all its own. Its camerawork and soundtrack have a frenetic rhythm uncharacteristic of most African films – known for their often deliberately slow-paced, linearly evolving narratives. However, it has been asserted that the jump cuts and radical spatial shifts of the film are inspired by African oral traditions. The word "Bouki" in the title refers to a popular folk character, known for causing mischief and cheating his way to what he wants. Through jump cuts, colliding montage, dissonant sonic accompaniment, and the juxtaposition of premodern, pastoral and modern sounds and visual elements, Touki Bouki conveys and grapples with the hybridization of Senegal.
West African cinema contemporaneous with Touki Bouki was primarily financed and distributed by the French Ministry of Cooperation's Bureau du Cinema, which ensured that scripts had to conform to cinematographic standards acceptable to the French Government. Touki Bouki, in contrast, was made without any French financial assistance, allowing Mambéty relatively significant autonomy in production of the film. Mambéty's ready adoption of French New Wave techniques was to a degree motivated by meagre financial resources, circumstances similar to those of the film-makers of the early French New Wave. Narrative and cinematographic techniques associated with the Western genre (known for dehumanizing depictions of Native Americans and minorities) were also subversively utilized by Mambéty in the production of the film.
During the production of Touki Bouki, Mambéty was arrested for participating in anti-racist protests in Rome, and bailed out by lawyers from the Italian Communist Party after appeals from friends such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Sophia Loren. The experience of receiving a request from the Italian Communist Party to compensate them for the legal fees spent in his defence served as an inspiration for a character in his later film, Hyènes. - Wikipedia
SUMMARY
Mory, a cowherd who drives a motorcycle mounted with a bull-horned skull, and Anta, a student, meet in Dakar. Alienated and tired of life in Senegal, they dream of going to Paris and come up with different schemes to raise money for the trip. Mory eventually succeeds in stealing the money, and a large amount of clothing, from the household of a wealthy homosexual while the latter is taking a shower. Anta and Mory can finally buy tickets for the ship to France. But their wealthy victim phones the police who begin to tail the duo, and when Anta and Mory board the ship in the Port of Dakar, the loudspeaker summons Mory to see the captain. Upon hearing this, Mory leaves Anta and runs away madly to find his bull-horned motorcycle, only to see that it has been ruined in a crash that nearly killed the rider who had taken it. The ship sails away with Anta but not Mory, who sits next to his hat on the ground, staring disconsolately at his wrecked motorcycle.
RELATED MEDIA
Complete Interview with Djibril Diop Mambéty (1997)
Martin Scorcese on Touki Bouki
Watch the FULL FILM or Buy the DVD on Criterion Collection
The Vintagent Classics: Scotland Yard: The Wall Of Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4rpIg8E9ck&feature=youtu.be
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
SCOTLAND YARD, EPISODE #15: THE WALL OF DEATH (TV 1956)
Run Time: 30:00
Producer: Alec C. Snowden
Director: Montgomery Tully
Writer: Montgomery Tully, Judith Warden
Key Cast: Edgar Lustgarten, Cyril Chamberlain, Vernon Greeves
FILM MAKERS
Scotland Yard is a series of 39 half-hour episodes produced by Anglo-Amalgamated. Produced between 1953 and 1961, they are short films, originally made to support the main feature in a cinema double-bill. Each film focuses on a true crime case with names changed, and feature an introduction by the crime writer Edgar Lustgarten.
The earlier films were produced by Alec C. Snowden, who was succeeded by Jack Greenwood. Directors included Ken Hughes and Montgomery Tully. The principal character in each film is a Detective Inspector, played by a variety of actors but most frequently by Russell Napier (usually portraying DI Duggan). Many of the films feature, in supporting roles, actors later to become well-known. They include Jill Bennett, Peter Arne, Harry H. Corbett, James Villiers, Edward Judd, Arthur Lowe, Peter Halliday, Wilfrid Brambell, Rita Webb, Peter Bowles and Roger Delgado.
All of the episodes were shot at Merton Park Studios in London and on location on monochrome 35mm film. Most of the episodes were presented in the old Academy screen ratio of 1.33:1, whilst a handful of the later episodes were shot in a hard-matted widescreen ratio of 1.66:1
SUMMARY
A Scotland Yard detective investigates the death of a man who died on an amusement park ride.
The rider is Tornado Smith, riding his own wall at the Kursaal, Southend. Research continues into whether this episode was based on a true crime. Stay tuned!
RELATED MEDIA
Buy the complete series DVD Box set on Amazon
The Vintagent Classics: Beach Blanket Bingo
https://youtu.be/BEhnHynXa6w
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1965)
Run Time: 1:38:00
Producer: Alta Vista Productions
Director: William Asher
Writer: William Asher, Leo Townsend
Key Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley
FILM MAKERS
"It's the wettest, wildest game in town!"
Beach Blanket Bingo is a 1965 American beach party film directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the Beach Party film series. The film stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Linda Evans, Deborah Walley, Paul Lynde, and Don Rickles. Earl Wilson and Buster Keaton appear. Evans's singing voice was dubbed by Jackie Ward.
The story involves a missing pop star, a mermaid, and Eric Von Zipper's gang. Timothy Carey is wild as zonked-out hipster South Dakota Slim, a pool playing, biker sadist, and kidnapping tap dancer who is a swell guy.
The Hondels rock on "The Cycle Set." Tons of other songs are performed by Frankie, Annette, Donna Loren and Linda Evans. Frankie Avalon, Linda Evans, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Donna Loren, Marta Kristen, Timothy Carey, Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, Bobbi Shaw, Buster Keaton, Brian Wilson, The Hondels.
SUMMARY
A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde), for example, faking a skydiving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley).
Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane, takes up skydiving at Bonnie's prompting; she secretly wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. This prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. Meanwhile, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen).
Eventually, Von Zipper "puts the snatch" on Sugar Kane, and in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey) kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM on Amazon
Buy the DVD at Video Beat
The Vintagent Trailers: We Ride
https://vimeo.com/842904942?share=copy
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
WE RIDE (2022)
Run Time: 14:00
A Film By: Romain Thomassin
Editor: Angelita Mendoza
Key Cast: Jane Love, Agata Dabkowska, Lanakila MacNaughton
FILM MAKERS
Romain is a French director and producer living in San Francisco. He started his filmmaking career in Brooklyn where, for 10 years, he shaped a keen eye for subcultural movements and authentic human stories inspired by artists, musicians and designers for whom he directed film portraits, short docs and music videos. While in Brooklyn, Romain also worked at Vice Media for four years, where he developed a raw, visceral yet entertaining approach of storytelling and learned a motto that he often makes his own: "make serious stupid, make stupid serious". Amongst multiple Vice projects Romain wrote and creative-directed Encore: a Never-Ending Story, a short doc about the history of the encore tradition at music shows (feat. Dolly Parton, Har Mar Superstar, Grouplove, Mac DeMarco, Michael Stipe and many others). He also co-wrote, along with director Laura Herrero Garvín, the short film Borrando la Frontera following contemporary artist Ana Teresa Fernández "erasing" the U.S.-Mexican border wall. The film premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 2018. In 2019, Romain founded Saturated, a Brooklyn and SF-based production company focusing on nonfiction cinema, social media videos and branded content. Saturated produced videos for Parrot Drones, New York Fashion Week, IDEO, WantedDesign, Jellysmack and French Embassy’s artist residency: Villa Albertine. Romain’s latest short film We Ride, draws a parallel between Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels and a new generation of women motorcyclists. It premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2023.
We Ride will be releases for view online in 2024. Stay Tuned!
SUMMARY
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels is given new meaning when compared, contrasted and appropriated to describe the hell-raising antics of groups of fierce and free-wheeling women who hit the road on their own custom bikes and their own terms.
Motorcycles have long been considered the property of men. Amongst them: the outlaws from the Motorcycle Clubs, once described with surgical precision by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in his first book: Hell’s Angels (1967). But a new generation of women riders is hitting the road, low in the saddle of the Harley choppers. Fueled by a passion for speed and mechanics, they created riding collectives, motorcycle camps, clothing brands, custom shops and garages... embracing the codes of iconic biker culture but also revolutionizing it from within. From the streets of New York to the pine forests of Oregon, they transform the horsepower of their engine into a force for personal empowerment. Juxtaposing Hunter S. Thompson’s writings about male biker gangs in the 60s, with contemporary stories of women motorcyclists, We Ride questions the persistent stereotypes in motorcycle culture, ultimately proving that riding has no genre. “Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on..."
*'We Ride' was granted the rights to use Hunter S. Thompson's cult classic Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (Ballantine, 1967) by his estate and his wife Anita, who created the Gonzo Foundation dedicated to promote literature, journalism and political activism through the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Mabel At The Wheel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsYq2MbFOI&t=3s
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
MABEL AT THE WHEEL (1914)
Run Time: 23:22
Producer: Keystone Film Company
Director: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Key Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Harry McCoy
FILM MAKERS
Mabel at the Wheel is a 1914 Keystone Studios slapstick comedy produced by Mack Sennett, written and directed by Mabel Normand. It was the first two-reel film starring Charlie Chaplin (credited as Charles Chaplin)
The Keystone Comedy Studio was built on nonsense and slapstick, a product of the fertile, perhaps warped, mind of Mack Sennett. How curious, then, to think that the foundation of Keystone’s success was a small dramatic actress by the name of Mabel Normand. Mack, and his partners, promised her dramatically-oriented comedies to match her classical training. While many of her films with Keystone were slapstick, her main job was to create what Chaplin called the 'pulchritudinous influence', which would afford balance to the otherwise zany pictures. Until Mabel, Keystone films had merely been situation comedies, but Mabel took the studio further, crafting equal parts drama and comedy into complex and endearing story lines.
SUMMARY
Chaplin plays a villain, a Dutch immigrant (a character made famous by Ford Sterling, the star of Keystone, whom Chaplin had been asked to replace... and imitate, which he would not tolerate for long). Mabel Normand, meanwhile, is the girlfriend of a pilot (Harry McCoy). On the occasion of the Vanderbilt Cup, a famous car race which takes place in Santa Monica, Chaplin kidnaps Mabel's boyfriend to prevent him from participating in the competition. But Mabel is not discouraged and gets into the car herself. In spite of all the attempts of sabotage of the perfidious little mustachian, she will manage to gain the final victory.
The story goes that Sennett asked Chaplin if he’d ever ridden a motorcycle, to which he answered “yes”, but it turned out he’d only ever ridden a pedal cycle. They began to shoot the scene where Chaplin takes Mabel for a ride on his motorcycle. Charlie was sitting on the 1912 Thor chain drive Model M Type IV , and Mabel climbed on. Charlie pushed off, the motor fired, Charlie gave it full throttle and the machine roared off. However, they’d only gone five yards before the thing went into a huge wobble. After a few high-speed seconds, Mabel was thrown from the bike, and cast unceremoniously into a ditch, in a flurry of Parisian petticoats. They later pried Charlie from among the wreckage of the cycle... - The making of Mabel At The Wheel
RELATED MEDIA
The making of Mabel At The Wheel
The life and times of Mabel Normand
Mabel, a motorcycle girl
The Vintagent Selects: Norton Commando at 50
https://vimeo.com/303847065
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
NORTON COMMANDO AT 50 (2018)
Run Time: 8:00
A Film By: Roberto Serrini
Key Cast: Allan Tannenbaum, Kenny Cummings, Elspeth Beard
FILM MAKERS
Roberto Serrini has many credits and awards under his belt. Including a handful of motorcycle films including Earned: The Story Of Keith Hale's Ducati 750SS (2021, All The Pretty Things (2021), The American Wall Of Death (2016), and Moto Borgotaro (2015).
SUMMARY
The Norton Commando motorcycle was first produced in 1968 and Brooklyn's Union Garage and the UK's Belstaff celebrated the anniversary in style. This film gives a look into some of the characters of the NYC motorcycle scene and an homage to an English tradition and "the cutest version of an American chopper you've ever seen."
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: The Pink Angels
https://youtu.be/iKbY6UCFXzY
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
THE PINK ANGELS (1971)
Run Time: 1:21:00
Producer: Plateau Productions
Director: Larry G. Brown
Writer: Margaret McPherson
Key Cast: John Alderman, Tom Basham, Henry Olek
FILM MAKERS
The Pink Angels is an oddball exploitation film written by a woman (with no other credits to her name), and is the only film in the American Biker Flick genre (1966-1972) to focus on a non binary motorcycle gang. A campy romp full of one liners on sexuality, mixed with a dark undercurrent that hits heavy on the anti-establishment, anti-Vietnam politics of the time, culminating in a shocking final scene. see summary for details.
SUMMARY
The Pink Angels frolic up the California coastline, on their way to a "ladies Cotillion (drag queen contest) in L.A. Meanwhile, quick cuts jump to a nameless, maniacal military general who's hell-bent on locating and capturing all “long hairs” on a top secret map. Targeting biker gangs specifically, 'The General' much like Uncle Victor in Harold and Maude, is made to seem foolish. Stuck in a brutal, bloody past which the hippy generation has moved beyond.
In the final scenes, the Pink Angels dressed entirely in drag, meet a rival gang who don't recognize “the broads” as their sworn enemies, and instead, ask them out. They load the ladies onto the backs of their bikes and head to a party, but the military is waiting, and everyone's hauled in for questioning. The General probes the “gals” for incriminating dirt on the bikers, but the Pink Angels refuse to bad mouth the gang even though they are sworn rivals. In an act of biker comradery, They voluntarily reveal that they are not girls at all…but bikers themselves…"cross dressing, biker faggots!"
One final jump cut shows a shocking end. The Pink Angels hanging from a tree. Lynched not for being bikers, but for cross dressing. An end even too brutal for The General to inflict on the bikers he was mercilessly hunting, while God Bless America plays and the credits roll.
Followers of gay cinema of the 20th century will recognize this end as all too familiar. scenes of queer characters meeting tragic and violent ends was used for decades following the Hays code to depict gay characters as deviant, thus making their violent death a moral warning. Watch 'The Celluloid Closet' for a great primer on this subject.
RELATED MEDIA
Read more at Cine Meccanica
Buy the film at The Video Beat
The Vintagent Selects: Salt Fever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvl5-xhiEcg
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
SALT FEVER (2015)
Run Time: 18:27
A Film By: Minnie Freudenthal & Manual Rosario
Narration: Minnie Freudenthal
Key Cast: The Racers Of Bonneville
FILM MAKERS
Salt Fever was screened on September 26, 2015, at the Motorcycle Film Festival, in Brooklyn and in June 2016, it was chosen to open the Lisbon Motorcycle Film Fest at Cinema São Jorge, in Lisbon.
When we are editing a film we end up looking at it and revisiting it without counting, always on a small screen.
We know the smallest details not only two clips and also the multiple layers of the sound trail. With each visualization we always find something to improve… More to see the film that we made on a cinema screen, in a dark room, surrounded by dozens of people, feeling them react and finally hearing the applause is a very strong and unique experience that I confess I never expected to live... - Manual Rosario
SUMMARY
Our curiosities brought us to the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials and what we saw was terrifying…
Documentary about the 2013 BUB at Bonneville Salt Flats by Manuel Rosario and Minnie Freudenthal. This documentary is about the people that come to this event, the sharing of creative solutions, women's participation and the general warm feeling at the BUB.
The finish line was not the starting point. Therefore, the result was so surprising.
When I asked myself: “how are we going to see the specks in Bonneville? I am certain that my eyes will show fright.
I walk around in the environment, feeling dizzy in my body with the illusion that it's snowing, it makes me insecure about being able to film the specks and talk with people about a matter I know little about. I've been riding moped for more than 40 years, but I don't know anything about engines, brands or even to recognize that it was modified for better performance. For that, I could count on my husband! The map that they give us when we buy the entrance tickets does not let us imagine that the environment is open, cordial and close. Let's go back to beautiful images and conversations with people from many places and professions. For 1 year, we ride with that material. At the finish line, it wasn't all our dreams and that's why we were so surprised! - Minnie Freudenthal
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Hell's Angels '69
https://youtu.be/8d7VanlMb2I
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
HELL'S ANGELS '69 (1969)
Run Time: 1:37:00
Producer: American Internation Pictures (AIP)
Director: Lee Madden
Writer: Don Tait, Tom Stern, Jeremy Slate
Key Cast: Tom Stern, Jeremy Slate, Conny Van Dyke
FILM MAKERS
It’s gonna be a mindbender. An upper to end all uppers
Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote in his review: "HELL'S ANGELS '69, which opened about 30 per cent out of focus at the DeMille yesterday, uses that noted law-and-order group, the Oakland Hell's Angels, as heroes in a dismal story that wastes most of its attention on the villains. By now their physical resemblance to lovable teddy bears may well have affected the Angels' self image, but not, I hope, to the extent that they continue to submit to such degrading elevation in American folk-demonology. Two California playboy types (Tom Stern and Jeremy Slate, who also wrote the film in which they star) join the Angels and con them into riding to Las Vegas, where they use them as public diversion to cover a robbery from Caesars Palace.
They make their haul, and their getaway, but not without the encumbrance of a buxom Angel mamma (Conny Van Dyke) and the threat of the Angels' revenge. Revenge comes after a desert motorcycle chase, photographed with such concern for getting pursuers and pursued into a single frame that it looks less like a chase than a pleasure ride. Before the Angels have brutally righted the wrong, the Nevada desert has been covered with a quantity of lost loot perhaps unequaled since the windblown paper money finale of Allan Dwan's The River's Edge (1957). But comparisons can only hurt Hell's Angels '69, which more than lacks in character and conviction what it attempts to make up in sucker's-eye views of Vegas casinos and timid glances at bike-groups' mores. With this caper, as with so many in recent movies, the theft is for a lark rather than for the money — a squandering of time and energy (more time than energy) that seems both unaesthetic and immoral. Only Miss Van Dyke emerges, her acting ability still in question (a plus in the context of Hell's Angels '69), but her physical presence superb. Plump, pretty, with a kind of facial nobility that depends more on soul than on bone structure, she catches the image of the American lost girl with an indirection that deserves a better movie than this."
SUMMARY
This was the RUMBLE that ROCKED Las Vegas!
Two brothers, Chuck and Wes, plan to rob the Caesar's Palace Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. They decide to use the Oakland Hell's Angels as dupes in their plans by pretending to be members of an East Coast motorcycle club/gang and winning the Angels' trust, and then using them to create a disturbance outside the casino while they are inside robbing it. While gaining the trust of the Angels, Wes becomes romantically involved with Betsy, one of the Angels' "old ladies" who has a rocky relationship with the Angel Tramp.
Chuck and Wes's plan to rob Caesar's Palace first involves them persuading the Angels to make a weekend run to Las Vegas, where the Angels occupy a farm just outside of town belonging to the sister of one the club members. Chuck and Wes make a bet with the Angels that they can go directly to Caesar's Palace, in spite of their shabby biker appearances, to both gamble and rent a hotel room. Betsy asks the brothers to take her into town with them, but they leave her behind, after which she decides to hitchhike into town to join up with them. Once inside Las Vegas, the brothers stop at a bus terminal mail stop and pick up a set of dress suits they had shipped to themselves in advance of the planned robbery.
Chuck and Wes check into a reserved room at Caesar's Palace wearing their biker garb. They then make a phone call to the farm where the Angels are camping, feigning harassment in the hotel for being bikers, asking for the club to come into town to back them up. With the bikers en route to the hotel, they quickly change into their suits and a more "square" appearance. They enter the casino and use the pretense of one of them having a stolen credit card and being detained by casino security as a means by which to gain access to the cash cage, whilst outside the Hell's Angels arrive, squaring off against casino security and the police, demanding entrance to the casino while Chuck and Wes return to their room (and are witnessed doing so by the just-arrived Betsy), change back into their biker garb, and leave the hotel with $600,000 in stolen cash, unbeknownst to both the Angels and law enforcement, who are looking for two suspects in suits instead of two bikers.
Once camping back outside of Las Vegas, the Angels expel Chuck, Wes, and Betsy from the group for wasting their time over coming into Las Vegas over far less apparent trouble than they purported to be having. The trio exchange their choppers for smaller scrambler motorcycles and plan to cross the open desert to make their way back toward Los Angeles. Shortly afterward, the local sheriff pays a visit to the Hell's Angels and relays his suspicions that the robbery may have been carried out by Chuck and Wes, who in turn were playing the Angels this whole time. The Angels plan to track down Chuck and Wes, locating the motorcycle shop where they also obtain scramblers and pursue the brothers and Betsy out into the desert.
It becomes revealed that Chuck and Wes are in fact half-brothers, and that neither of them needed the money from the robbery because they live off of a sizable inheritance which is solely in Chuck's name. The robbery was carried out simply for the thrill of it with the intention of returning the entire stolen sum once the brothers have returned to their home in Los Angeles. Wes, however, becomes resentful at the idea of continually depending on Chuck for his livelihood and decides to keep half of the money stolen from Caesar's Palace. They fight, with Wes and Betsy splitting off from Chuck. The Angels arrive and see that the trio has split up. They ride after Chuck on a prolonged motorcycle chase. Chuck is nearly trapped, and attempts to jump his bike across a gorge to get away from being surrounded by the Angels. Chuck jumps short, his bike explodes on the other side of the gorge and he is killed.
Wes and Betsy arrive just in time to see Chuck die, after which they are surrounded by the Angels, who take the stolen money, disable Wes and Betsy's motorcycles, and dump out their water supply. The Angels ride off as Wes and Betsy abandon their now useless motorcycles and are left to an uncertain fate as the movie ends.
The movie is noteworthy for having many prominent members of the Hells Angels (most notably Sonny Barger) play themselves.
RELATED MEDIA
Read more at Cine Meccanica
Watch the FULL FILM
The Artist And The Wall Of Death
In March we featured the trailer for the feature length documentary, The Artist and The Wall Of Death (2023), directed by Maurice O’Brien. The film follows Stephen Skrynka's five-year obsession to build his own Motordrome, and learn to ride it. In the film, we quickly discover that Stephen is as unique as his project, and while building a Wall of Death proves an epic struggle, he is rightly the center of this fascinating story. He embarks on his journey via two friends who built a Wall in their backyard (and on whose story became the 1986 film Eat The Peach), but Stephen’s journey has its own twist, with the Wall he constructs becoming a detailed work of art itself that evolves into a vibrant art space.
The Artist And The Wall Of Death is now available worldwide to screen on iTunes. Watch it HERE. To celebrate its release, we caught up with the Artist in the interview below.
Stephen Skrynka (center) and several players in his artistic cohort. [Robert Perry for The Scotsman]
Stephen Skrynka
“It’s the nearest thing to being alive” - Richard Thompson
I began to construct the wall in the first week of lockdown in my shed. Luckily I had enough wood stockpiled to get me started. I worked in total isolation under no illusion about the size of the task but I realized that if I did not start, I would never start. I had no idea if or when I would finish this mammoth task. “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” (Rumi) I originally trained as a cabinetmaker so it was important for me to build it to the best of my ability using only traditional woodworking joints such as mortise and tenons, dado housings and finger joints….and no nails, in the traditional manner of a Japanese temple building. By its nature, this challenge created a thing of great beauty and great strength. There were no drawings, everything was worked out live. I worked like this from March until August, day and night. When I outgrew my shed I spilled out into the garden.
Then the lockdown eased and I was able to move all the work into a shipyard on the Clyde called Barclay Curle in Whiteinch, Glasgow. I phoned a number painted on the side of the building that said space was available. By sheer good fortune, Bradley, the owner of the building is from a Fairground family and believed in the project. He and the buildings co-owner Andrew offered me the space to carry on with the work for free and without their generosity and support there is no way I could’ve carried on. Thereafter, I was joined by a group of people who wanted to help. They were curious and could see the level of devotion that was required to make this thing real. The word was out, volunteers appeared one by one and before too long we were a dedicated group of mavericks, comrades from all walks of life, all learning from each other and spurred on by the vision. It gave us all a sense of purpose and a routine during very difficult and dark times. In total we have spent over 14,000 hours building this using hand tools.
Soon we ran out of wood. People we didn’t know started to give us money, mainly modest amounts of money, £20 here, £50 there, then somebody anonymously put an envelope with £500 through my door with a note saying keep up the good work. Everybody started believing in what we were doing. It was like a miracle. In this way we carried on until we were finished. The whole project I see as a work of art in itself. It is impossible to put a cost on something like this. It is priceless because it is beyond being quantified in financial terms. This has made us free from the pressure of the corporate world, it has enabled us to use the space in very interesting ways. We have had cinema screenings by independent filmmakers, plays, concerts, art exhibitions plus fundraising events for Ukraine (I rode the wall and did 109 as a fundraiser). My father was a Ukrainian refugee from the Second World War.
Artist Stephen Skrynka and his late father Volodymyr, protesting at the Russian Embassy in London in the 1960s. [Colin Mearns for The Herald Scotland]
I am very lucky that I was taught to learn to ride by Ken Fox about 15 years ago and grateful that he took me on. I was, without a doubt, the world’s worst and most accident-prone apprentice. I found it so difficult to get the hang of. Eventually I managed it but not without many accidents. It is the strangest feeling of exhilaration, living on a knife edge, poised between serenity and oblivion. I can only ride…doing actual tricks is a whole other ball game. If you see a professional Wall Of Death trick-rider it takes it all to another level. Through years of experience they somehow manage to make it look so easy.
My children have been very supportive and I think if you asked them they would probably say they’re quite proud of me. If they were worried for me, they hid it very well.
Stephen with one of his stripped-down Wall bikes. [Colin Mearns for The Herald Scotland]
For £3.50 you can watch three people risk their lives for 15 minutes in front of your very eyes as part of a Fairground Attraction which goes back 100 years. To quote Richard Thompson “it’s the nearest thing to being alive.” I believe that art should always in some way reflect life and death, to me that is its very purpose. So in my opinion, the Wall of Death isn’t just a Fairground Attraction but actually a pure form of art. An art form which is choreographed and balletic, an art form which has not changed in 100 years and yet still affects people as deeply as it ever did. The majestic skill and daring required is difficult to take in when you see it performed before your very eyes. As a spectator you are very much part of it and being at the top looking down you are making an implicit pact with danger. It is magical realism in the true sense and so visceral, I have seen at least five people in the audience faint.
The Wall Of Death riders I have met are made of something very special, their total commitment goes beyond their bravery and riding skills, it is actually a way of life, a hard life on the road. People sometimes imagine that these are superstars that just turn up in a limo to perform and then disappear to their hotel rooms. Reality could not be further from the truth, they have to know how to load up, build up the wall, pull it down, drive the lorries, see to all the mechanics and meticulously maintain their 100 year old motorcycles which they depend on with their lives … and all done on a shoestring. It takes grueling stamina and determination to do this season after season.
Part of the magic of the Wall of Death is it seems to appear in a community as if by magic, it’s there for a day or two and then disappears; almost like a dream, you are left wondering whether you actually imagined it all. There are few Walls left in the world, quite a dwindling number and yet in our digital age It is unique to be confronted by something so powerfully real. I think it is so important to keep this tradition alive.
As an artist my interests are twofold, the first, as I mentioned, is to keep the tradition alive and the second is to celebrate the Wall Of Death as an Artspace in and of itself. The Wall of Death I see as an archetypal architectural space which has resonance with the Brochs of Scotland (stone circular buildings from 300 BC) Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, the Trulli of Apullia in Italy, the Pantheon in Rome and Shakespeare’s globe, which he himself called the “Wooden O” - a place where you can be transported into other worlds. The poetics of this space go very deep.
A performance within the Revelator. [Chris Leslie for The Drouth]
Our Wall Of Death is called the Revelator. It is a nomadic art space which will be used to create experimental and community-based artworks and performances it will be used as an art school, a cinema, a lecture theatre a performance space, an arts and craft workshop where traditional skills are taught such as Fairground sign writing and woodcarving. Uniquely, it is a celebration of both the traditional and the experimental. The reason we are able to do this is because we are free of external demands, free of corporate pressure. It is not about making money it is all about exchanging ideas and bringing people together, creating new audiences and exposing art to disparate groups and communities. The intention behind this is also to introduce new audiences to the Wall Of Death performance. I am aware that people who go to see a Wall of Death are from quite specific groups who may have an interest in motorbikes or fairgrounds or steam rallies. My quest is to bring audiences from all different walks of life to appreciate this art form.
The Revelator with its spiral staircase and viewing gallery. [Chris Leslie for The Drouth]
The Revelator has come to represent a radical way of making things happen, reconnecting us with how things used to be done. We have only managed to create this magical project by working under the radar without asking permission or seeking funding from bodies which would enforce prohibitive restrictions on what we are trying to do. This has given us the freedom of expression that is unfettered from market forces and pressures from the corporate world. Any money generated from events and happenings in the space will be plowed straight back in. On high days and holidays we plan to put on traditional Wall Of Death performances. All the riders in the world are welcome to come and perform. The Wall Of Death community maybe quite small in numbers but it has a very long reach.
"With our hands we built the new theater with a wall as its stage" - the Revelator motto. [Robert Perry for The Scotsman]
LINKS
For the history of the Wall of Death, read our groundbreaking research on its origins.
The Vintagent Selects: The Secret Cabin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAXg6xfw-YI&t=38s
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
THE SECRET CABIN (2021)
Run Time: 27:16
A Film By: Greg Villalobos
Additional Camera: Wil Linssen, Adam Mitchinson, Clive Barber
Key Cast: Clive Barber, Noel Thom, Wil Linssen, Adam Mitchinson, Greg Villalobos
FILM MAKERS
Greg Villalobos is a veteran motorcycle film maker. His quirky adventure films include The Coast To Coast Trial (2013), The Weekend Pass (2016), The Green Lane Relay (2016), Malle Moto: The Forgotten Dakar Story (2017), and Hunt For The Wild: The Trans Euro Trail Adventure (2018).
SUMMARY
The Trans Euro Trail is an epic 50,000km dirt road route through Europe. We were set to head off from the UK to Spain to explore the pristine tracks and trails of the Pyrenees. And then Covid-19 reared its ugly head. Disaster. Or maybe not. What would a five day mini-TET adventure look like in our own back yard? And would we make it to the fabled secret cabin in the woods...
*NOTE: I know what you are going to ask... are all the trails here on the TET? Well no. The first half are routes we were scouting for possible inclusion in future updates on the TET. But the trails in Cumbria for the second half of the trip are on the TET. Go take a look at the website and start making plans for your own TET adventure today! https://transeurotrail.org/
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: The Glory Stompers
https://youtu.be/adm4oOkStpQ
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
THE GLORY STOMPERS (1967)
Run Time: 1:25:00
Producer: American International Pictures (AIP)
Director: Anthony M. Lanza
Writer: James Gordon White, John Lawrence
Key Cast: Dennis Hopper, Jody McCrea, Chris Noel
FILM MAKERS
They're On Their Way!
The Glory Stompers is one of the first in a slew of outlaw biker flicks put out between 1967 and 1971. The film was the first directed by Anthony M Lanza who was better known as an off beat low budget (B Movie) film editor, and stars Dennis Hopper in his first ever biker flick roll! The 'Biker Flick' genre itself was was kicked off and named by Roger Corman when he directed the first of it's kind, The Wild Angels starring Peter Fonda in 1966. Two dozen or so trashy exploitation 'biker flicks' were made between 1967 and 1971. Some more interesting than others, most morally objectionable, and all a piece of our motorcycle history.
SUMMARY
STRADDLE YOUR HOGS AND RIDE, MAN! The 'Black Souls' vs the 'Stompers' in the deadliest gang war ever waged!
After a standoff between two biker gangs in California, members of the Black Souls, led by the vicious and unstable Chino (Dennis Hopper) ambush Darryl (Jody McCrea), leader of the Glory Stompers, and beat him severely. Thinking they've killed Darryl, the Black Souls kidnap his girlfriend (Chris Noel) to prevent her from becoming a witness against them. They decide to traffic her in Mexico and head south for the border, unaware that Darryl has recovered and is in pursuit.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube
Listen to the FILM SOUNDTRACK on Spotify
