He Would of Rode a Harley

Abstract

Would of Rode a Directed by Mary Beth Bresolin and Laura Schroeter. 1995. 1/2 Video, Color. 45 min. 1608.5 Cerro Gordo, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Fifty years ago several biker gangs converged on the small town of Hollister, California. The bikers shook the town and the country to its core. They were loud, obnoxious, and somewhat violent. They also got a lot of national press. Thus was born the rebel biker into the American consciousness. Today Harley-Davidson motorcycles can cost $20,000 and more, and Peter Fonda has given up his chopper for beekeeping (moving from Easy Rider to U/ee's Gold. In the midst of these transformations, Mary Beth Bresolin and Laura Schroeter have given us Would Of Rode a Harley. The film deals with the Soldiers for Jesus motorcycle club. The opening shot shows a man who could easily have been an extra in The Wild One or Easy Rider but the words sound different. He speaks of seeing a vision of Jesus on a Panhead (an early Harley engine style) and says that the motorcycle was making a joyful noise unto the Lord. would've rode a Harley, says the man. We're not in Hollister anymore. Or are we? The film follows a meandering path through some of these born again bikers' lives and the filmmakers take these men and women at face value, considering their words through both images and themes. In the forty-five minute documentary, they focus on such disparate issues as testimonial stories, weddings, the role of women in the clubs and in the related social structure, the role of violence in these people's lives, their relationship to the larger world of outlaw bikers, and the role of the motorcycle itself in both the original biker image and the reworking of it in a Christian likeness. Though the film has an edgy grainy quality that I liked, sometimes the filmmakers' art overshadows the words being spoken. At one point several men speak about the violence that dominated their lives prior to their conversion and the filmmakers choose to cut from head shots of the men talking to grainy images that depict bikers beating and stabbing someone. When I reviewed the images I decided that they were staged fights using the story narrators. I must confess to being more than a little bothered by the inherent distrust on the part of the filmmakers in the power of the spoken word. A similar technique was used much more effectively in a section where the men talk about their conversion experiences. In this part of the film Bresolin and Schroeter intersperse the head shots with spinning shots of neon crosses and a neon sign reading `Jesus Saves. The effect here is much more gripping, though a folklorist looking for storytelling in context should elsewhere. For the scholar interested in material culture, this film offers some valuable material. Modified motorcycles, tattoos, and biker jackets abound. Though the look is that of the outlaw biker gang, the details have a decidedly Christian flavor. …