The Loveless

I think this movie comes closest to what bikers experience while on the road. Boredom, waiting, mechanical problems, prejudice of the locals. I have done many transcontinental motorcycle rides alone, and this one captures it best. You're not going to come across Timothy Leary in the middle of nowhere (Roadside Prophets), or pick up Nicholson and get blown away (Easy Rider). There are long stretches where absolutely nothing happens. There is a scene where Dafoe sits in the bar and it is filmed in real time, security-camera style. Unbearable minutes go by and nothing happens at all, while a gorgeous Brenda Lee song "I Want To Be Wanted" plays in the background.

The loneliness of riding alone and coming into town alone is what makes this movie poignant and beautiful in a quiet way.

This movie is also a rockabilly heaven. Eddy Dixon's superb opening song Relentless is possibly one of the most difficult songs to find in print. NYC rockabilly singer Robert Gordon also serves up some over-the-top method acting here. DaFoe's narrative voice is already wonderful here, as is Bigelow's filmmaking style. Sometimes I explain this movie to people as one where the tables are turned and men get objectified. It's an interesting dynamic to see what mainstream films have done for so long to women done to men.

The plot is about a group of bikers who are en route to Florida to see some auto/bike racing. They are coming from different states and planning to converge at a meeting point. One of the biker's Harleys break down and there is a delay that holds them up in a small Georgia town. Dafoe runs into a daughter of a redneck at a gas station and hooks up there. Everything finally hits the fan at the local bar.

Lots of nice shots of vintage bikes. Harley shovelheads and knuckleheads are in effect throughout the movie.

They ride fast and live dirty and cool, that could be a tagline for The Loveless. The characters in this biker gang, who are actually relatively peaceful compared to the people in The Wild One (they aren't that rebellious, but just enough to make an impression), and just want to chill in a small not-quite town until they can go down to Daytona for a big race. But there isn't much to do in terms of hanging out. Sure, they can work on their rides in a local garage, and sure Willem Dafoe's Vance has a ladies-man charm that is uncanny (or just, you know, 'bad boy' style, as we see in an opening scene where he helps an older woman with a flat tire), and sure there's a night of revelry in a bar. But these guys aren't looking too much for trouble, relatively. It's more about how they just want to drink some good booze, listen to their rock and roll, and unfortunately get harassed by rednecks who think their Commies.

I can't really say for Monty Montgomery, as he directed this as his first feature and then went off into producing (save maybe for the connection to Wild at Heart), but as Kathryn Bigelow's first film as co- director it shows so much promise for the rest of her career. And intriguingly it's not quite like her other movies. It's inspired by some of the Wild One, some rock and roll, but in its look and melodramatic shades such as with the girl Vance hooks up with it's akin to Douglas Sirk. It's visual sheen is very 1950's, and it's got guys on bikes who are looking for a good time, and all the actors are cast spot on. Fun to watch as well is one of the bikers played by Robert Gordon, a Rockabilly legend. But it's Bigelow's vision that makes it unique, and perhaps Montgomery's affinity for 50's low-down road culture.

It's hard to pin-point what makes the movie interesting since, frankly, not a whole lot happens. There's the romantic fling Vance has with the girl- a scenario shot with loving close-ups to the girl and a fine look to the motel bed scenes- and there's some doing with the sub-plot of the redneck dudes looking to beat some biker ass. But the tone is what counts here, and what may actually turn off some viewers. There isn't a lot of 'plot' and in some ways, more than any other Bigelow film, resembles a European piece that concerns itself with how these guys move, react, listen to the music (and there's a lot, a close second to American Graffiti in terms of amount of 50's rock tunes, this less recognizable but still as meaningful), and get drunk in a bar with what looks like 100 bottles on a table.

What it comes down to in The Loveless is you can either take the figurative ride with these guys just hanging out, or not. I did, and it was enjoyable once it got me in its grasp. It's never boring though; you always are a little on edge that something *could* happen, and when it does (i.e. the confrontation between the girl's father and Vance) that it reaches a dramatic peak, or of course with the violent climax that could be an homage to Peckinpah. It's just a different kind of biker movie, less concerned with action and more about what it was like to be these guys, or be around them, in a sleepy nothing-town in the mid 50's. If Antonioni made a biker movie and had to have a soundtrack of wall-to-wall rockabilly, it might be this.

Willem Dafoe earned his first starring role in this somewhat obscure biker film that also marked the filmmaking debut for future A list director Kathryn Bigelow ("Point Break", "The Hurt Locker"). Dafoe plays Vance, one of a bunch of bikers that stop over in a small town on their way to some races in Daytona. Unsurprisingly, they shake up the local populace, despite the fact that as some movie depictions of bikers go, they're kind of on the tame side.

While there are some appreciable exploitable elements (namely, nudity), "The Loveless" is indeed much more mood piece than action film. It does capture a certain slice of Americana at a certain time (the 1950s), when outsiders and rebels such as Vance and company were treated with suspicion. It's not completely without humor, but is also not afraid to get pretty grim and tragic. Excellent location shooting and local flavor help to make this feel authentic. Bigelow and her co-writer / co-director Monty Montgomery, who went on to work with David Lynch on a couple of projects ('Twin Peaks', "Wild at Heart", etc.), get able performances out of their mostly no-name, regional cast. Dafoe shows definite screen presence and charisma in this early showcase, while Tina L'Hotsky has plenty of appeal as the young sportster driving girl who catches Vances' eye. One of the co-stars is Robert Gordon, who's pretty good himself; he's been an icon in the rockabilly genre and naturally also composed much of the score.

Highlighted by a literate, philosophical script by Bigelow and Montgomery.

Seven out of 10.

"The Loveless" was Kathryn Bigelow's feature film debut, (she co-wrote and co-directed it with Monty Montgomery). It's a very self-conscious homage to both "The Wild One", with Willem Dafoe in the Brando role, (it also marked Dafoe's 'official' debut), and Kenneth Anger's "Scorpio Rising" shot in the garish colors of the kind of fifties' melodramas that Douglas Sirk might have made. It's got a very rough and ready feel to it and the script and the acting leave a lot to be desired but it looks great, (Bigelow was a painter before going into movies), and it has a great soundtrack. Hardly anything happens and it might have worked better as a short but at 82 minutes it never outstays its welcome and is worth catching.

Before director Kathryn Bigelow became widely recognizable with her later effort in 1987's NEAR DARK, 1991's POINT BREAK, 1995's STRANGE DAYS and of course, right down to 2009's Oscar-winning war drama THE HURT LOCKER, she made her first feature debut in a low-budget independent drama called THE LOVELESS when she was still studying in NYC as a film student. THE LOVELESS is a stylized and eccentric genre movie that pays homage to 1950s biker movies (notably Marlon Brando's THE WILD ONE) with art-house sensibility. This movie is also notable as Willem Dafoe's first lead role.

Set in 1950s, the story centers on Vance (Dafoe), a leather-clad biker who rides into a small Southern town where he supposes to meet up with his fellow motorcycle gang at a cafe somewhere at Highway 17. Their plan is to head over to Daytona Beach for the races, but they forced to postpone for a while when one of their motorcycles breaks down. While waiting the broken motorcycle to get fixed in a nearby garage, Vance and his motorcycle gang hang around at the cafe. Along the process, Vance flirts a bit with a widowed waitress named Augusta (Liz Gans). She also hooks up with Telena (Marin Kanter), the rebellious teenage daughter of a psychotic father, Tarver (J. Don Ferguson).

THE LOVELESS is also co-directed by Monty Montgomery, who is best known for producing David Lynch's WILD AT HEART (1990). Both he and Bigelow favors a lot in fetishism (mostly close-up on leather outfit, motorcycle, chrome) that it's quite mesmerizing to watch their stylized eroticization of a '50s biker culture. Somewhere in between, you can also see Bigelow's earlier attempt in lurid direction that will later becoming one of her trademarks in her subsequent movies. Despite its low-budget standard, the visual is adequate enough for this kind of genre, while Robert Gordon's (who also appeared as an actor here, playing one of Vance's motorcycle gang member named Davis) rock soundtrack is a standout. As for Willem Dafoe, he made quite an impression playing a stoic lead character.

But most of the movie is a disappointment. Despite clocking at a brief 82 minutes, the movie can be excruciatingly tough to sit through. The pace is deliberately slow to a crawl, especially in the long-winded first hour. Here, the movie lingers in a circle as we watch the characters sit around and talk about nothing in particular. Other times we see them stare silently into space, waiting for something to happen, and all the mundane tasks that goes on and on. The purposefully-stylized dialogues, which meant to be cool, are mostly borderline into self-parody. Meanwhile, the sudden burst of violence that occurs in the final act, fails to deliver any would-be shocking impact.

Suffice to say, THE LOVELESS isn't much of a recommended effort, other than those who always curious to see how Bigelow and Dafoe get started during their early careers.

www.caseymoviemania.blogspot.com