Make Biking Cool, Hollywood
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad on 07.31.06
Ok, I'm behind most of the movie going public in that I just saw The 40 Year Old Virgin on Saturday night. Anyone who's seen it knows that part of what makes Steve Carell's character a dork is that he rides a bike. It's all tied up in his prolonged adolescence and, well, lack of "masculinity." Part of his growing up involves learning to drive -- as though it's de facto an aspect of adulthood. Scenes of him pedaling furiously, carrying his wheel, tucking his pants into his socks, are all used for comic effect. This got me thinking about other cinematic representations of people whose primary mode of transport is the bike. What's your favorite? The most sympathetic? Continue reading for an extensive online "cycling in film" resource.
In Hollywood movies, the cyclist is rarely the character we're supposed to want to emulate. Off the top of my head, there's Ducky, from Pretty in Pink (dorky, eccentric, not a "man" with a car like Blaine), the iconic paper boy who wants his $2 in Better off Dead, and Pee-Wee Herman, of course. I never saw Quicksilver or Breaking Away, but it seems like films that are about professional cyclists should be placed in a different category. The boys in Lords of Dogtown rode their bikes, but they were all hard core and youth subculture-y, not "grown-ups." We need options that aren't doofus-y or hyper-masculine.
The Bicycle Film Festival comes to Chicago August 10. We love it. It seems like it appeals especially to those who are firmly immersed in bike culture. But what about everyday jills and joes who don't necessarily see themselves as potential cyclists?
Producers, writers, actors: we love you driving your hybrids. Other ways to make a big difference making alternate transportation choices seem valid would be to "cool" biking, mass transit, etc., or to normalize them, in your films and TV projects. Put adults on bikes -- that means women, too.
Take a gander at the Cycling Films Big List. ::
My favorite bicyclist character is Michael Bluth, the straight man/ protagonist of Arrested Development. He rode his bike to work and all over Orange County where the show was set. Despite the fact that the show was a comedy, he was actually presented as a responsible business man with a good job.
Better than making it cool, the show simply treated bicycling as a normal mode of transport. It was also nice to see him biking on the street- right next to cars- and not getting beeped at or yelled at.
The show always seemed to have an alternate mode of transport agenda as GOB, his goofy brother, spent a lot of time cruising around on a Segway.
Besides that, it was an exquisitely funny program and I highly recommend the DVDs to anyone who hasn't seen it.
cheers-
Armand
There is also the movie "I (heart) huckabees" where one of characters if a firefighter who rides a bike.
There is the classic scenere where he passes the firetruck stuck in traffic, gets to the buring building first, rescues the hot woman (who then falls in love with him).
One of my favorite lines from the movie is his response to the confused parking valet: "Just treat it like a car."
The character had deliberately chosen the bicycle as transporation for very good reasons which are expresse in the movie. But I am afraid that the character still might come across as a bit eccentric from many audiences.
I guess I'm still not grown up then! I'm nearly 30 years old and I've never had a driver's license. (I'm proud of it too.) I walk, I bike, and I use public transportation.
(above post edited for typos - I wish there was a way to edit your posts)
There is also the movie "I (heart) huckabees" where one of characters is a firefighter who rides a bike.
There is the classic scene where he passes the firetruck stuck in traffic, gets to the burning building first and rescues the hot woman (who then falls in love with him).
One of my favorite lines from the movie is his response to the confused parking valet: "Just treat it like a car."
The character had deliberately chosen the bicycle as transportation for very good reasons which are expressed in the movie. But I am afraid that the character still might come across as a bit eccentric for many audiences.
The Jeff Goldblum character in "Independence Day" was an enviromentalist who rode a bike!
Good for you, Non-driver! In my suburb, learning to drive was a total rite of passage thing. Wish it hadn't been so.
Funny, I watched Arrested Development pretty regularly, but somehow missed Michael on the bike!
And I forgot about Marky Mark in I heart huckabees. That was a great character, but I agree -- not so relate-able.
A friend just saw You, Me and Dupree. Apparently Owen Wilson rides a bike, but it's also sort of an aspect of his prolonged adolescence.
Quicksilver is about a Stockbroker turned Bike Messenger, hardly a professional - but he's a good guy, fighting crime, helping out his family, getting the Girl, with car/bike chases and comic relief. A classic. One of the subtexts in the movie is him giving up a life revolving around money (this was shot in the 80's btw) and instead being happier with a job he likes.
Breaking Away is a little different, it is about racing, but it's an amateur race and the whole pretense is of the rider being more important than the bike he's riding on - a recycled frame, btw!
Cheers,
Bruce Banner in "Hulk"
but he played a bit of a nerdy wuss too until he started smashing things.
Here in the UK, there's also Tyres, of 'Spaced' - highly recommended TV Series. He's fairly cool, a bit crazy, but definitely likeable. And I don't think the fact that he rides a bike is used against him - he just happens to be a bike messenger.
Now let's see, who would really look good on a bike? Maybe Lindsay Lohan, chillin on a Schwinn StingRay? Or more terrifying, director Peter Jackson barrelling at you in tight spandex on a no-brakes track bike?
It's gonna be tough for bikes to catch on as cool vehicles in movies because of helmets. I'm serious. Hollywood is about impossibly beautiful people, and as we all know, bike helmets are no good for hair. Maybe for somebody playing Lex Luthor..
The most responsible bike commuter I have seen in film is Dave.
Thanks for schooling me, Justin. I totally thought Quicksilver and Breaking Away were about racers.
martin, it would be an interesting design challenge to get around the helmet hair issue. If there were a crystal-encrusted helmet, I bet Paris Hilton would wear it.
I guess helmets need to become cool accessories. It can be done - over time we've been convinced to shave our legs, feather our hair, and use crimping irons for goodness sake. Helmets just have to be made sexy.
I dunno.. one of the biggest problems I have with cycling(and it's not a very big one) is that helmets make you look like a dork. Period.
If you go for the whole cycling clothing thing - i.e. the bright yellow and red spandex getup - its not as bad, but you still look like a dork.
I'd have a hard time believing hollywood could make it cool.. kinda like I believe they have a hard time making smoking look uncool. Some things are just intrinsically un/cool.
Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker was a pizza-delivery boy on a bike in Spiderman 2. Besides that, he walked or web-slinged everywhere. No gasoline consumption or carbon emissions for this hero!
Dorky? Try, it makes you look "safe". It doesn't matter how dorky I look so long as it improves my safety.
I recently saw a movie that presented a respectable bicyclist. I don't remember the title, but it was about a dance teacher in Manhattan who began teaching swing dance to stereotypical inner city gangbanger kids in a rough high school. The kids were all the ones on detention, hence they were the "worst" of the kids in this rough high school. The dancer/bicyclist was shown riding a real nice bicycle dressed in a tuxedo on his way to a fancy dance.
Jasno -- Hollywood made smoking cool. If it can do it for little, white, burning poison sticks, it can do it for bike helmets.
Well- there is one place (in reality, not in movies) I've been where there are a lot of cool-looking cyclists: Amsterdam.
It's a totally different bike culture there than in the states. Nearly everybody rides one, the more ancient the better. You can get run over by the waves of them at certain times of day.
Anyway, there you'll regularly see drop-dead beautiful women (along with every other type of person) biking to work, to dinner dates, and to every other piece of their lives, the way that people in the States drive to everything in theirs. The sight of it was truly an inspiration. But I don't recall too many helmets. I bet I wouldn't have been noticing drop-dead foxy women if helmets had been universal. :)
"safe" and "hot" just don't come together often.
Riffing on the dorky-helmet bit.
How much of a cycling helmet is over-designed for impact-at-higher-speed?
I happen to enjoy the hour it takes me to leisurely ride the 12km into work (and back). I'm not off-road(path)ing or peddling furiously in top gear down hills. I'm not about to stop wearing a helmet either, but it would be nice if there were some different options out there for folks like me who aren't in a rush.
My favorite is exactly the one you put at the picture on the right, "The day I became a woman". The women are biking for they freedom, against the direction of the tide and the winds.
The second favourite would be the canadian animation "Les triplettes de Belleville".
Dorky Helmet Syndrome???
I would highly recommend a skateboard helmet. They come in way cool designs and styles and they fit like a true helmet. I've had one since my skateboarding days. Good memories. Great helmets. So what if there not 84% aerodynamic. They look cool!!
Check out this thread Check out this thread on the Xtracycle blog for an interesting exchange on bike helmets and safety.....
The opening of 187 features Samuel L Jackson biking to work through the streets of New York, backed by a Massive Attack track (Karma Koma?). Very well filmed and captures urban commuting pretty well IMO too.
One of the best poster boys for bicycles and roller blading used to be JFK Jr....he used to make being an urban resident cool...
i used to take my daughter to school on a pedicab..she was always mortified...but now she designs bamboo t-shirts so i forgive her for not understanding i was cool even shough she thought i was worse than steve carrell...
the bicycle thief.
The ancestor of all nerdy bicycle-rider-as-film-hero movies is Jaques Tati's "Mon Uncle". B&W, shot in Paris, very funny if enjoy subtitles of can understand French. Makes constant contrast of high tech versus traditional urban living.
I would highly recommend the post over at the Xtracycle blog and I would recommend that everyone also read the article in the British Medical Journal as well (and, while you are at it, read the comments).
I was annoyed at "40 Year Old Virgin" for the same reason as Kyeann. The protagonist was prefectly able to get around everywhere by bike, but it was portrayed as childish and unmasculine. I also had some issues with his techniques, such as the left turn he made at the beginning of the movie where he basically gets traffic to stop so he can make the turn in the middle of the block.
Anyway, not a favorite of mine but one nobody mentioned - USA's "Pacific Blue". Went off the air in 2000. Bike cops on the beach in Santa Monica, CA, sort of a "Baywatch" on bikes. Impossibly beautiful and cool people riding bikes. Not only did they ride bikes on the job, but after hours, too. Most of the characters used bikes as a main means of transportation - I think they were trying to portray a "bicycling lifestyle".
Quicksilver was one of my all time favorite movies when I was a kid, and it solidified my love of bikes.
If Hollywood was looking to popularize biking, movies like that would help a lot.
"I [Heart] Huckabees" is a classic. Mark Walberg and Jason Schwartzman are fantastic in their idiosyncratic portrayal of biking fanatics. One of my favorites.