Review by Tim-O
Directed by Jack Cardiff
Starring Marianne Faithfull
(A British-French co production)
“Girl on a Motorcycle” is one of those old cult films that I’d heard of for years, but had never seen or new why it was a cult hit. It always had cool poster art with Marianne Faithful in a black leather body suit, straddling a motorcycle with a seductive look on her face. That’s a good start for me! How much more can you ask for in a swinging 60’s counter-culture sexual liberation epic? Filmmaker Jack Cardiff’s answer to this question seems to be;”not much”.
Marianne Faithful stars as Rebecca, a bored newlywed who awakes one morning and decides to just drop everything and take off in search of her ex-lover. She puts on a sexy leather outfit and rides off on her motorcycle, leaving her life and husband behind. The viewer is then subjected to endless scenes of Rebecca riding around the countryside thinking to herself in annoying whispered voice-overs. She spends a good part of the movie doing this while having boring flashbacks showing her with her boring husband and her boring lover. She does stop long enough to eat or get gas, etc., and to be sexually harassed by every man she encounters along the way. (I guess “free love” is only reserved for the young, attractive and “enlightened”, huh? This is something I’ve always found ironic about these types of films.)
That‘s about all there is until the last minute of the film which ends abruptly and violently. This ending, and Marianne Faithfull in various states of undress, are the only reasons I can see why this movie has the cult status it enjoys. It tries hard to constantly be saying something important about being free in life and following your dreams, no matter how useless and psychedelic they may be, but only succeeds at being extraordinarily tedious.
Ultimately,”Girl on a Motorcycle” ends up being as relevant as a hippie on acid spewing forth a bunch of peace and love mumbo jumbo. It’s self important, self righteous and very, very, very boring. If you’re in the mood to watch a movie where people ride motorcycles and explain how being a hippie makes you an enlightened mental giant, stick with Easy Rider. 2/10