What About the Movies?

At the Cinema
"Okay. But what about the movies?"

"What about them?.." 

It is one of those circuitous conversations about whether bikes stand a chance in mainstream culture. The kind of conversation that inevitably raises the point that American cities are not Amsterdam. Or Copenhagen. Before moving on to differences in fuel prices, weather conditions, standards in hygiene and typical commuting distances. Quick to tire of this topic, I sip my wine - inserting the occasional comment on autopilot. But now this movie thing is a new twist and I perk up.

"Can you imagine bikes instead of cars in movies? I mean, that would be ridiculous!"

We run through the gamut of pop culture classics that would not be the same carless. James Bond. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Back to the Future. Pulp Fiction. The list goes on. Re-imagining some of these with bikes replacing cars proves a great source of entertainment. National Lampoon's Vacation with the dead grandma strapped onto a longtail cargo bike. Law and Order SVU, with Olivia and Stabler as bike cops (okay so that's a TV show, but still).

But it's not just about specific movies. It's entire scenarios, concepts. The summer road trip. The iconic car chase. The drive-in and the drive-through. The dead body in the trunk. Romantic joyrides in convertibles. Disastrous family vacations. High school students cruising aimlessly as they come of age in towns where no one understands them. Tragic couples, well-dressed and adulterous, exchanging looks of yearning in the dim light of the dashboard. Secret agents and mobsters getting in and out of each other's sedans in abandoned lots under rusty bridges. The entire kitsch horror genre that relies on teenagers smooching in the back seat, oblivious to the crouching axe murderers ready to prey upon them. And of course there is that scene, where the sleek black Porsche (or maybe it's a BMW) pulls up and, as the driver comes around to get the door, the camera zooms in on a pair of women's legs stepping out - just the legs, in stiletto heels and perhaps black fishnet stockings - a moment in which we, the viewers, know that the creature who emerges will be beautiful and mysterious and utterly unattainable - destined to become the main character's love interest.

Do you mean to take this - all this - away from us and replace it with bikes? that sporty, politically-correct contraption devoid of sex, drama and suspense? That is the panicked subtext of all this movie talk.It is almost as if we're discussing the possibility of some big, bad Bike Lobby censor editing out cars from all our favourite films and TV shows. 

I never know what to say to those who view bike culture as threatening to car culture, and this is no exception. Look, I don't want my Ferris Bueller and Pulp Fiction ruined with bikes either. Jokes aside, it's absurd to imagine bikes in existing films where the cultural context for them is all wrong. Just like it's absurd to imagine films with period-inappropriate clothing, dwellings or slang. But if bikes become more normalised in society over time, things will change - not forcefully, but organically. Bike-centered cultural scripts will emerge and take root, upon which scenarios of future films could be based - complete with naturally-occuring sex, drama and suspense. It does not seem like such a difficult concept to me.  

And the thing is, Vincent's suit in Pulp Fiction aside, it's not all black and white. Don't you remember, when they were talking in the car, how he'd just gotten back from Amsterdam? If you think about it, he probably rode a bike there. In that suit and everything. Briefcase full of drug money dangling off the handlebars of a borrowed opafiets, a miniskirted lady-friend perched on the rear rack... Okay, so it's not in the movie. It was 1994 after all; they didn't want to shock the American public with bikes. But it's implied, okay? Subtly implied. It sets the groundwork.

And with that image, everyone seems appeased. Maybe the movies are safe after all. 

Comments

  1. Perhaps Bicycles are not ready to step into the roll as staring vehicle just yet. I think it might more interesting to play a game where one tries to figure out all the movies and TV shows with bicycles IN them. Perhaps some one riding them, perhaps just propped in the back ground of a shot, implying that the character is fit, young, health or "hip". I think you would be surprised at the number of bikes that appear on small and big screens every day.

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  2. At least you haven't been conditioned to the point you can't imagine a different scenario anymore.

    It never ceases to amaze me how many people prefer their realities freeze-dried or canned--add a couple thoughts of your own to make the 'reality' 'yours'. :rofl:

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  3. There's a 100% red-blooded American action-movie chase scene on bikes -- with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson -- in _Die Hard With A Vengeance_. To say nothing of _Premium Rush_. And I really will say nothing of _Quicksilver_.

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  4. Well, there's a great scene in the cult classic "Burn after Reading" involving Brad Pitt and John Malkovich, but unfortunately the cyclist in this case (Brad Pitt) is once again cast as the brunt of a good laugh, not to be taken seriously. I have to admit I laughed, too. In fact, I think it was probably the best scene in the entire film:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCYc7mELjW0

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  5. love that sweet folder!!!

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  6. Wasn't there some bike messenger movie a couple years ago...Filled with action and chase scenes and I presume a love interest?

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  7. Ha! I remember Jeff Goldblum riding a bike to his office job in Independence Day. He was typecast as a schticky, greenie.
    Mainstream - I am seeing bikes in commercials for banks and other products. Hard to see how folks take to it. The velogrouch in me sees shameless pandering to a demographic biased against the big corporate monster. Someone with a bike as a pure utility tool might not even notice.
    In so many comments in various bike articles, even in a site like Treehugger, there are too many commenters who are chiming in negative comments about bikes where possible, "Oh they hog lanes", "Oh I might burn an extra calorie moving my steering wheel 3 inches to avoid one of those slow pokes", "they're sweaty". I get road rage just sitting there.
    I would love to see more 'mainstream' acceptance but there's a huge chunk of the population really ignorant of the whole 'bike thing'. They are convinced we are smug and too selfish to want to ride the roads safely without being killed. They see bike placement as a thorn in their side or eye.

    I'm probably totally wrong and it's just Monday.

    Maybe they could remake Corvette Summer and make it be about a gold plated Colnago fixed gear conversion with the drive train on the left side.

    "politically correct contraption devoid of sex, drama and suspense..."
    You gotta check out the Kent Avenue bike lane in Williamsburg in the summer!

    vsk

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  8. I'm thinking Portland (or maybe even Boston) has some sort of bike movie festival. I'd spend a the money to see films which feature some aspect of bike culture or travel. Something like the equivalent of what 'Southbounders' was to the Appalachian Trail, or several movies beginning with the classic 'Easy Rider' which offer insight and adventure with motorcycles. Anyway, fun thinking about this morning....Thanks.

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    1. Yes, many cities have bike film festivals but they are a niche market, the films are often short and about bicycles or cycling. not for mainstream consumption.

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  9. Likewise, imagine the opposite: The Automobile Thief? Breaking Away with Formula 1 cars? Just as terrible.

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    1. And to imagine one of my favorite local radio shows named "The James Dean Death Bicycle Experience"? Nah, doesn't work.

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  10. Not really a movie, but definitely pop culture, are the Grand Theft Auto video games. The title itself is car-centric, but bicycles are available for use as well. I Only really played GTA: San Andreas which, relevant to the above discussion, features the voices of Samuel L Jackson and Chris Penn as corrupt cops. (This is the one from 10 years ago, but bikes are still usable in the new ones, I've heard.) The only bike options were mtb, bmx, and some kind of musclebike. I used them a lot b/c I'm a bike guy, but they're actually useful b/c they don't explode, and once you get your cycling skill pts up, you seldom crash and can bunny hop over tanks. (The mtb jumps best, has best top speed, etc.) Some missions disallow use of a bike (b/c you'll need to carry passengers or cargo), but many missions do allow the bikes.

    Even cooler, the game has optional bike-themed subgames, such as a triathlon, bmx park skills challenge, and even a mtb/dh stage race, with 3 stages that you generally can't run on the same day. (!)

    Bikes make their ways into more movies in better ways all the time. The stuff in "40 year old virgin" is my favorite; there are carfree discussions (disrespectful albeit realistic ones), bike logistic considerations ("I hope you have a big truck, b/c I'm putting my bike in it"), and the main character even replaces his bike with a different one, rather than a car, when his ship finally comes in. (Rumor: Steve Carrell used his personal bike for the movie, but never got it back after filming.)

    Bottom line: as bikes become increasingly popular, it'll be reflected in movies/tv more often. This will, in turn, lead to more bike popularity. No, outside of dumb "posenger" movies, we won't see high-speed bike chases, and I hope I never see a bike tumble off a cliff, flip over, and explode. But, as Velouria suggested, the bike will appear in a natural, reasonable context more frequently as we see them more frequently in life.

    -rob

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    1. Yes, but the character in the 40 year old Virgin was a total schlump, meant to be laughed at. It simply upheld the idea that if you are economical, care about the environment, want to get some fresh air, care about your health and dare to ride a bike, you are a nebbish loser, weirdo, hippy, are a manchild, like toys, star trek, science fiction etc..
      Given the state of jobs and economy, I cannot fathom how so many people can even afford to drive and own cars. Even as a source of empowerment, somebody could throw it out there that it is far less expensive to ride a bike or take transit, that while you might not be able to go on a spontaneous road trip, if you are poor and working all hours to keep a car on the road on top of rent, food and bills, you can't go on that fun trip anyway!

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    2. OH MY GAWD, I CANT WAIT TO SEE A BIKE DRIVE OVER A CLIFF AND EXPLODE AFTER FLIPPING A COUPLE OF TIMES!!!

      I HAVE JUST THE BIKE IN MIND TOO!!! A GOLD PLATED COLNAGO FIXED GEAR WITH LEFT SIDE DRIVE!!!

      spindizzy

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    3. 2 SHAY !!! 'dizzy !

      Maybe they could film it in Williamsburg and have it crash down in front of an artisanal grilled cheese sandwich place!

      vsk

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    4. There is a bike featured pretty normally in the original Arrested Development. Michael Bluth (the adult character with the most sanity/relatability in the whole show) rides a bike for transportation in several scenes and in general those parts are written pretty straight, i.e. the biking itself is not usually the target of a joke. This contrasts entertainment's other typical bike trope of the goofy weirdo which is what Heather is talking about. Of course, then the stair car comes in...

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    5. Heather, I disagree. 40YOV's main character was flawed, but he was pretty complex. To be sure, he was immature and weird, but he was living within his means, held a job, kept himself clean, and was generally likable. Certainly, a sympathetic character, and not just a holotypic "loser" character to ridicule and/or despise.

      Moreover, by the end of the movie, he pretty much had his shhh together: relationship, toys exchanged for riches, his own business which was meant to seem promising, friends, a sex life.... And yet, there's indication that he remains a transportation cyclist.

      Still, we'll know we've got our own shhhh straight when mainstream American movies feature adult characters that ride for transportation without any add'l "statements" attached. Nowadays, if the character is riding (in itself a rarity), s/he'll be a DUI victim, a tree-hugging hippie, an anarchist, or (like Steve Carrell) a likeable, childish quasi-loser. Or, if they're trying to glorify it, the transportation cyclist protagonist will be somehow "badass", like the various posenger movies that have come out in the past few decades. If we see movies where main characters are riding a bike, but it's no big deal, same as if they're driving a Ford-- well, then we're gettin' somewhere.

      Art does imitate life, though, and the fact is, in most of America, riding for transportation is a "statement" in and of itself.

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    6. spindizzy: Maybe you're right; watching a bike fall off a cliff, flip over, and explode will be awesome-- the first time. (But that joke will get old pretty fast.) It'd be that much better if the cyclist involved in the crash survives the fall, but cannot un-clip in time to escape the explosion.

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  11. Bizarre.

    Bike culture is simultaneously thriving and dying in this new econ - so last year/the future.

    I wonder if I'll ever hear an honest take about how empowering a car can be from the bike blogosphere.

    What happens on the big screen has nothing to do with a person's waking hours - that's the point.

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  12. Don't forget that product placements in movies are big business. And unfortunately, even Trek doesn't have the money to compete with BMW or Aston Martin in the bidding war to provide the next James Bond's mode of transportation.

    That said, I expect more bike in sub-roles. You already see them leaning in the corner when somebody is portrayed as young and hip – that cannot hurt!

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    1. Yes, adverts everywhere!! Maybe better to read a book about bikes...or better yet, poetry :)

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  13. I thought Premium Rush did a good job as representation of fixie culture. My neighbors were fixie drug dealers who I can imagine were chased at least once or twice by elite business men. I can still see the growing trend in going brakeless, blowing through intersections and riding carelessly. Maybe a fast and the furious 8 on fixies could work. I would enjoy more positive cycling influenced films.

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  14. Romantic joyrides in convertibles. High school students cruising aimlessly as they come of age in towns where no one understands them. Tragic couples, well-dressed and adulterous, exchanging looks of yearning in the dim light of the dashboard.

    I want a coming of age movie where two young people cruise around town on their bicycles, talking, laughing and being carefree. Then, at a key moment in the golden hour of sunset, they ride side-by-side and one of them holds out their hand.

    The other takes it, and they ride together -- keeping pace, keeping speed, and trusting each other in a certain way that you can never replicate by simply holding hands in a car.

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    1. Nice image.

      In real life though I couldn't always wait for that golden hour of summer sunset, sometimes it was February and sleeting. Glad when I could get my hands on a car to offer to get her to the restaurant/theater/basement of my parents house...

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  15. What is that bike?!

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  16. Bicycles are still too rarely seen in film and television. Even european movies set in places where people ride lots of bikes, rarely have people on bikes. Think of the Killing in Copenhagen, only once did a character appear on a bike in season 1 or 2. in the background everyone was riding bikes, but none of the players.
    The Mike Leigh movie "Happy Go Lucky" where the heroine was riding a cute bike with great boots, it was obvious that was her mode of transport. It got stolen, and instead of buying another bike new, used, from a bike forum, she got it in her head that it was time for her to 'grow up' and learn how to drive(very very expensive in the UK to have a car). It was uncharacteristic of her to suddenly give up cycling just because a bike was stolen.
    Characters who do ride bikes are seen as sanctamonious twits, like one of the spin doctors in The Thick of It rode a folding bike, but was viewed as a loser. Given the huge interest in cycling in the UK with the tour de france and Olympic cycling wins I hope it changes to more than period dramas with people seen on a period bicycle for five seconds.
    Newer movies with hipster characters or younger people in general will show apartments with bikes in the background, once or twice a cute boy will take his fixie out and ride to work, I still have not seen a woman do so. I could not believe that none of the characters in "Girls" rode bikes. They live in Brooklyn, they are young and money is tight, in reality such folk ride bikes.
    No, revisionism would not work, the context could not be the same as high end expensive cars indicate wealth, or stud cars indicate a certain character, certain cars evoke underworld gangsters.
    Jan Heine just wrote about an amazing woman who celebrated her 100th birthday who rode through WW2 and was likely involved in the resistance, and he has hinted at the role of randonneuring clubs in the resistance. For all the films I have seen, this is never brought up. People would often appear on bikes in the darkness with a message or some bread, but back then more people rode bikes and if fuel was unavailable what choice did they have? I'd LOVE to see a movie about a group of randonneurs in the french resistance.

    War in Wintertime is one of the few films where people are riding bikes so much as if it was completely normal.
    But given how many people do actually ride around for sport or transport, surely a film or tv show can throw that in without it being weird or comment worthy at all. Nor should it indicate that they are hard done by, struggling and cannot afford a car, or hold down a job enough to keep a car running or have had their licence revoked for driving drunk or something. I liked that michael bluth rode his bike in Arrested Development and there didn't seem to be any issue around it, until at some point he decided he needed a car -probably to be more 'grown up'.

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    1. As a 'twit' and 'loser' I'm grateful for the ways in which bicycles have offered hope and reconnected me to living.

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  17. Hell, if this Summer's offerings are any guide, better off worrying about no movies at all than bikes in movies.

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  18. What about Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?" Or Sean Connery in "Finding Forrester?" Or Kermit and Miss Piggy in "The Great Muppet Caper?" There is certainly a place for bikes in movies, in between and alongside all the cars (not to mention all those post-apocalyptic and sci-fi movies where the characters SHOULD have hopped on some mountain bikes every now and then).

    Or on TV, there were countless shots of both background and main characters tooling around the camp on those awesome military bikes during the run of MASH. It was just such a logical and utilitarian thing to do it passed without comment. Or how about during the episode of Doctor Who when the protagonists were fleeing on foot from the monster of the week through the sprawling Mars base, when the Doctor wondered out loud why the explorers hadn't thought to bring some "little foldaway bikes" with them.

    How about some Hollywood glamour? Just look at Rides A Bike (http://ridesabike.tumblr.com) and check out all sorts of movie stars showing off their fashion sense (and often their legs) on two wheels.

    It's all there ;-)

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  19. I think one of the things that got me to finally pick up my bike again was the British show "Call the Midwife," with its characters going out to deliver babies in their cute vintage fashions and vintage bicycles!

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    1. Loved that series!! Though I would not characterized the time or fashions as cute :)

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    2. Hated the series, hate the way the ladies ride in it - so amateurishly actorly.

      Part of it is the bikes, heavily-laden med kits over and behind the axle...hey is this thing on?

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  20. watching korean soap operas, they always include a scene where a couple takes a romantic carefree bike ride in the countryside. this ultimately underscores how south koreans (at least the rich and beautiful) only use them as a sporty leisure type activity.

    i recently watched World War Z, where brad pitt escapes to his plane on bicycle. and i thought finally! a bicycle in a post-apocalyptic world when technology fails (i'm looking at you NBC"s Revolution, there's horses but no bikes?).

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  21. In the alleycat documentary "Line of Sight" by Lucas Brunelle, there's a vignette called "Chasing Demons" that involves three fixies and some semi-automatic weapons in Guatemala, à la any good action film. I have to admit, it somehow doesn't work as well as with the gas-burning, gear-grinding automobile.

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  22. The best James Bond chase in recent memory (and possibly of all time, IMO), was the foot chase in Casino Royale. Car chases have been in movies for at least 50 years and are pretty much a cliche; I think there's plenty of room for some new chases, or new twists on old ones. It's not hard at all to imagine an exciting mountain bike chase down a mountain ending with a jump off a cliff and...I don't know, a collision with a helicopter or something.

    I mean, it's hard to imagine Bond riding a Brompton...but it's also hard to imagine him driving my Mazda.

    Or maybe not...Bond jumps out of an airplane. He reaches into what looks like his parachute and pulls out...and folded Brompton! He unfolds it in midair, mounts it, and lands on a steep downhill slope where he can break the momentum from his fall. And there's a chase through a wooded area too narrow for cars and too steep for motorcycles...

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  23. Didja notice that more and more bicycles are showing up in commercials, i.e., very short plotless movies? Or that Sean Connery (My Hero) rides a Raleigh Tourist in reality? I agree with Emily; the 1950s were a happy time, generally, and many of the fashions were cute. Some were quite elegant, rather like a lady's Raleigh Tourist is: Understated, practical, and beautiful.

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  24. Don't forget "ET"! Yes, they were kids, but nonetheless a great chase scene is easily possible on bikes!

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    1. Oh, I'm glad someone thought of "E.T."! I think about that chase scene sometimes as I ride my bike.

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  25. Jackie Chan rocked a bike chase scene in "Project A". An updated version would fit right into a Bond film.

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  26. This is one of those discussions that makes me wonder how many people actually believe bikes and cars are equivalent. And not just in books and movies(James Bond on a Pinarello? Do you KNOW who James Bond is?)but in the real world too.

    A cars ability to compress distance and stretch time make some human experience possible that asking a bike to attempt is just dumb. You got 9 days you've stolen from the MAN and you want to go to Austin for BBQ, you want to see the Grand Canyon, or Canada, or Aunt Carole in Hospice slipping away from Ovarian Cancer... you're going to hitch up the Bob to your Long Haul Trucker?

    Those movies with cars as believable or even understandable Characters are only possible because cars have re-calibrated us, opened new horizons and created new expectations about how we throw ourselves at the scenery of our lives. It's not all good but it is real. You can't tell some stories with bikes just like you can't make BBQ with bean curd, or a B17 without cowskin.

    I love bikes. I love cars. Most things in my life are better when I work my bikes into the endeavor but there are things that happen to us in our modern world that define us as 21st century 1st world humans, things that hammer out the sides of our consciousness that require more horsepower than you can generate yourself.

    Bikes just aren't up to the job sometimes,
    like luring that fantastic creature that was NEVER going to climb on the handlebars of my Mongoose, but gleefully slipped into the front seat of my beloved 66 Chrysler Hardtop at midnight, with the dash lit up like Vegas and the 383 murmuring encouragement on our way to go swimming in the river. Maybe not movie worthy but I wouldn't have missed it for any number of smug Biker points...

    Spindizzy

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    1. Clearly, bikes and cars are very different machines, especially when we're dealing with stuff that's movie-worthy, like road trips, motorsports, and being frik'n Batman. I get that.

      OTOH, in daily life, folks often use their cars in ways that would make more sense on a bike. We don't drive NASCAR, drive across country, or chase down the Riddler everyday. We go to the store for some milk, hit up a cafe for a cafe americano, or we meet a friend at a pub a few towns over. In these sorts of activities, the two machines are roughly equivalent, with each having a couple of advantages and a couple of disadvantages as compared to the other. We just have to decide on our priorities and choose accordingly. I think the bicycle is chosen less often, but makes the most sense in most cases.

      Y'know, I was wrong about the appeal of an exploding bike above; maybe it *would* be cool to watch Batman confront two-face on a bicycle. I picture the BatmoBike as a fully-faired fatbike with a retro-direct 2 speed drivetrain.

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  27. Pee Wee Herman won "Le Tour De France" on his Pimped Columbia in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and changed the course of my life...


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  28. Imagine how much more epic the ending to The Graduate could have been if Ben had cycled all the way from San Francisco to Santa Barbara – just substitute the Alfa Romeo Spider with a Cinelli…

    Arrives at the church absolutely knackered, and not just from running the last few blocks… "Elaine!!! Elaine!!! Elaine!!!.." "Ben!!!.." Then after he's fended everyone off with the cross and stuck it in the door to wedge it shut... they cycle off into the sunset with Elaine riding sidesaddle on the top tube of the Cinelli to the strains of "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head"... and it's raining this time, and... there's a rainbow – yay! :)

    Sorry, lost the plot a bit there – same actress, different movies – but maybe in some other lifetime, where everything goes the way it's supposed to and not the way it actually does, that's how it would have happened.

    "Future's all yours, you lovely bicycle," as Butch really should have said... :)

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  29. I'm really looking forward to Wadjda (already released in the UK).

    "Saudi's first feature film is groundbreaking on many levels, featuring the kingdom's first female director, Haifaa Al Mansour, and a female lead. It’s also the first film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia.

    "Wadjda" tells the story of a determined young girl who competes in a Quran recitation contest.

    She enters in order to win enough money to purchase a green bike so she can beat her friend Abdullah in a race; despite the fact that unchaperoned women aren't allowed to ride bikes in public."

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  30. The poster in your photo more or less summarizes my thoughts on the matter. Was the composition intentional?

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  31. In the link below, Alvin, riding his lawn tractor, towing his trailer, stops to watch a pack of cyclists ride by, and then joins them later at their camp for a rumination on getting old:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzrAHqJKMYw

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  32. I'd be happy, for starters, having bike racks in front of movie theatres so you can go there by bike and not have to hitch it to a tree or light post.

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  33. There was that TV movie in the '70's about the gas crisis where everyone was riding bikes on the highways...

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  34. Oh Oh!

    In the first Star Trek reboot movie:

    1. car goes irretrievably off cliff
    2. hero gets around on two wheels
    3. Sulu has a folding sword

    In the second reboot movie, Kirk uses a very simple and energy-saving method of travelling through space. It requires using a helmet, but it turns out the helmet gives inadequate protection against the space junk in his way. Fortunately, this do-it-yourself mode of transport goes under the radar of the bad guys.

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  35. Bicycles seem to be getting more respect in the movies since the millenial change.

    Before, it seemed as if Hollywood was leading the charge in worshipping the beast and denigrating the bicycle in such classics as The Wizard of Oz, the Pee Wee episodes, and Forrest Gump. Even though elevated in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch eventually dismisses "the Future" with contempt in that film.

    But lately such films as ET, Finding Forester, and Pay it Forward seem to be reversing the trend.

    Actually,I thought this post was going to be about the experience of going to the movies on bicycles, which evoked in me an old fantasy: What do you think about biking out to resurrected drive-in theatres in which vintage cars representing every year going back about a century are permanently parked and reservable for viewing your much anticipated film.

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  36. Over here in Amsterdam it's nothing "either or". Just bikes and cars trying to get along.

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  37. I was in the movies! Or at least a crew from a major studio got some footage of me last week.

    I was riding to work on my DL-1 with a 6ft stepladder over my shoulder. Something I had not done in fifteen years. Film crew flagged me down. I rode back and forth in the street for them a few times while the camera rolled.

    Basically they were doing waiting time for whatever the main shoot was and grabbed something interesting that came by. Talked to them a minute while giving them contact info and asked what would become of the footage. Probably nothing they said. Wonderful visual they said. Perfect props they said. Great wardrobe they said. Great natural light they said. But aside from the fact there was no particular need for the scene no one would believe that I was not a stuntman. The whole thing was not believable. In this case real life looked much too much like "only in the movies".

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  38. The metro.co.uk just published an article
    listing their top 14 bicycle movies, with shorts.
    My favorite is no. 12. A Scanner Darkly
    but here is the full list. Great to watch:

    http://goo.gl/Y1a8mm

    John I

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  39. As the brother of a screenwriter (who has not had her ass on a bike in almost sixty years, however) and who has spent many an evening bouncing ideas back and forth with her, I think the writer's imagination is the only limit. Movies and for that matter, rock and roll lyrics, would be no less crazy, sexy, and entertaining without mention of Henry Ford's homicidal environmental destruction device.

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