BLACK LEATHER JACKET

 

Astride my first Honda CX500 motorbike during the early 1990s and  wearing my self-customised black leather jacket (BLJ) that was officially displayed at the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition in autumn 1993, and which was also featured in Mike Phillips's article 'Black Art', on the subject of the BLJ, published by the British monthly motorbike magazine Bike in its October 1993 issue (© Dr Karl Shuker)

 

It's been quite a while since this blog last journeyed there from MovieLand, so it's high time that I crossed the border once again to pay another of my occasional visits to TV Land – and for what better reason than to indulge my lifelong passion for all things appertaining to motorbikes, via my recalling here today a very memorable 1980s TV docu-movie that led to one of my very own motorbike jackets becoming both a star exhibit and a media star!

 

  

Full cover of my official sell-thru VHS video of Black Leather Jacket (© Nick Mead/Paul Cowan/Mick Farren/Channel 4 Television Corporation/Polygram Music Video – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As a biker ever since my late teens in the 1970s, my habitual and favourite garment of choice to wear has always been the classic black leather jacket, of the motorbike style beloved by bona fide, would-be, and on-screen bikers alike, not to mention rock stars, fashion models, punks, and rebels of every shape, size, and description.

So when while browsing in a bookshop one Sunday afternoon during the mid-1980s in the Warwickshire, England, town of Stratford-upon-Avon, world-famous as the birthplace of one William Shakespeare, I chanced upon a fairly large brand-new hardback book entitled The Black Leather Jacket, sporting an embossed, textured front cover designed to look and even feel like the real thing, and documenting the fascinating history of this truly iconic item of clothing, I lost no time whatsoever in purchasing it and reading it from cover to cover as soon as I arrived back home.

Written by English journalist Mick Farren and first published in 1985, this engrossing book reveals and extensively illustrates via a comprehensive selection of very distinctive glossy b/w photographs how its titular subject, the black leather jacket (or the BLJ, as I'll refer to it hereafter for convenience), has evolved and diversified since its origin during the early years of the 20^th Century.

The BLJ's progress is succinctly chronicled from the standard unadorned predecessors worn by the likes of WW1 fighter pilots and the Gestapo of WW2, through the classic 1950s Brando/Dean rebel styles, plus all manner of self-customised be-studded and badged-to-the-hilt individualized versions worn by outlaw bikers and 1960s rockers/greasers, to the slashed and safety-pinned punk gear of the 1970s, and the somewhat emasculated 1980s fashionista formats more at home on the catwalk than the highway, as well as every conceivable variation in between. So too is its enduring intrinsic appeal, traditionally daring, dark, even dangerous, regardless of its ever-changing external form. But that's not all.

 

The front cover of the original hardback First Edition of Mick Farren's book The Black Leather Jacket that I still own today (© Mick Farren/Plexus Publishing – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

In 1988, Channel 4, a terrestrial TV station in the UK, produced and screened a 60-minute docu-movie directly inspired by Mick Farren's book but simply entitled Black Leather Jacket (i.e. no The). It was directed by Nick Mead, co-written by him with Farren, and produced by Paul Cowan. Narrated by big-screen bad boy Dennis Hopper of Easy Rider fame, Black Leather Jacket stayed faithful to the contents of Farren's book but also featured clips from a number of classic movies relating in some way to the BLJ and motorbikes (such as the cult 1970s British biker/horror movie Psychomania, which I've reviewed here).

Moreover, it contained an excellent rock soundtrack too, including contributions from famous BLJ-wearing performers such as Elvis Presley, The Clash, Gun, L.A. Guns, Zodiac Mindwarp (remember them?), Velvet Underground, Kiss, and Motorhead – whose song 'Black Leather Jacket' was used as this documentary movie's title song, accompanying clips of a teenage BLJ/Levis-wearing Michael Vartan (in his on-screen debut) riding a Harley through a neon-lit city centre at night and duly dubbed Motorcycle Boy in the credits.

Knowing full well that I would definitely enjoy Black Leather Jacket just as much as I'd done with the original book, I had the foresight to video-record it for future re-watchings at home, which was just as well, because I never remember it being re-screened. Tragically, however, as was so often the case with all but the highest-quality recordable blank videocassettes available back then, the picture quality of my precious recording of it diminished with repeated viewings down through the years.

Imagine my surprise but delight, then, when just over a year ago I discovered not only that Black Leather Jacket had actually been released as an official sell-thru video but also that there was a single example of it listed at that very same time on ebay, on a Buy It Now basis. So that's what I did, and just a few days later I was able to watch and enjoy it in its original top-quality viewing state all over again. But that's still not all.

Just a few miles from where I live in the West Midlands, England, is the prestigious Walsall Leather Museum, devoted to the history of the town of Walsall's long-established leather trade and manufacturing, and during summer 1993 I learnt from a friend who worked there that they were planning to stage a temporary public exhibition devoted exclusively to the BLJ!

 

Mini-poster produced by the Walsall Leather Museum advertising its BLJ Exhibition (© Walsall Leather Museum – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As a local biker who had painstakingly customized several of my motorbike BLJs in the classic 1960s rocker/greaser style (having been inspired to do so after seeing and admiring original examples worn by various bikers featured in clips from Black Leather Jacket of London's famous biker/rocker-associated Ace Cafe and 59 Club during that decade), it occurred to me that the Museum may perhaps be interested in including one of them in their exhibition as a representation of that particular BLJ genre. So one afternoon shortly after learning about their plans, I rode there on my motorbike wearing one of them – and was delighted when they were indeed very keen to exhibit it!

 

My official invitation to the preview of the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition in autumn 1993 (© Dr Karl Shuker/Walsall Leather Museum – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The Walsall Leather Museum's 'The Black Leather Jacket' Exhibition ran from 4 September to 14 November 1993 inclusive, but I was invited with other contributors to an exclusive preview, and when I turned up on my motorbike (wearing a different BLJ), there on display in a tall glass showcase was my very own jacket, fully labeled and fully visible from all angles. If pride is a sin, then I sinned very extensively that day!

 

The official b/w photograph of me wearing my exhibited BLJ that appeared alongside my jacket's showcase in the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, and which also appeared in Mike Phillips's article 'Black Art', on the subject of the BLJ, published by the British monthly motorbike magazine Bike in its October 1993 issue (© Walsall Leather Museum (photographer unknown to me) – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Moreover, perhaps because of how eyecatching it was, bristling all over with badges, studs, chains, and above all else its full official Easyriders back patch, it was my BLJ that attracted much of the media attention relating to the Museum's BLJ Exhibition.

 

Report from The Observer (London) for 5 September 1993 re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, and including a close-up photo of my exhibited BLJ – please click to enlarge for reading purposes (© The Observer/Guardian Media Group – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

It was pictured in a number of newspaper reports (including one by none other than London's eminent weekly broadsheet The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791, and in which I am referred to as "a local biker with a vivid sense of design" - love it!), as well as in a special BLJ article entitled 'Black Art' authored by motorbike journalist Mike Phillips and published in the October 1993 issue of Bike, Britain's best-selling motorbike magazine.

 

Birmingham Post newspaper's 2-page magazine supplement report for 29 September 1993 re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition, which includes a name-check and quote from me (arrowed in red) on p.4 and a picture of a model wearing my exhibited BLJ on p. 5 – please click to enlarge for reading purposes (© Birmingham Post/Reach plc – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My exhibited BLJ also featured in two local TV news reports, and in one of them it was even worn by Midlands Today presenter Richard Ulridge while sitting astride a motorbike and then riding off on it, with my BLJ's Easyrider back patch fully displayed (click here to view both of these TV news reports – and my BLJ! – on YouTube).

 

Photo-still from the Midlands Today news report re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition depicting presenter Richard Ulridge wearing my exhibited BLJ (© Dr Karl Shuker/Midlands Today – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

If you'd like to watch Black Leather Jacket, most of it can currently be viewed free of charge on YouTube, where it has been uploaded in nine parts (but, oddly, Part 3 is seemingly missing), though the resolution quality is not great. Click here to begin viewing with Part 1.

Finally: To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Photo-still from the Midlands Today news report re the Walsall Leather Museum's BLJ Exhibition depicting the back of my exhibited BLJ as worn by presenter Richard Ulridge (© Dr Karl Shuker/Midlands Today – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

RUMBLE FISH

 

My official UK DVD of Rumble Fish (© Francis Ford Coppola/Zoetrope Studios/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Last night's movie watch was the iconic early-1980s rebel film Rumble Fish, based upon American authoress S.E. Hinton's eponymous 1975 novel that I read so very long ago as a teenager.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also co-wrote its screenplay (with Hinton), and released by Universal Pictures in 1983, Rumble Fish centres around an aloof but charismatic motorbike-riding character in his early 20s who is referred to only as The Motorcycle Boy (hereafter TMB in this review for brevity), and is played to perfection as a veritable flawed, earthbound demi-deity (at least in the worshipping eyes of those around him) by the then young and equally charismatic Mickey Rourke.

TMB was once the greatest gang leader in his district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, until he eventually decided that gangs and rumbles were boring, for losers, and single-handedly broke up all the gangs and ended all the rumbles before abruptly disappearing who knows where on his motorbike. Left behind is his slightly younger, idolising brother Rusty James (Matt Dillon), who seeks to emulate TMB and gain the respect among the district's teenage delinquents that he still holds, even in his absence. However, Rusty James (everyone always calls him by his full name for some unexplained reason) has neither his brother's brain nor his mystique to do so.

And then, out of the blue, TMB returns. He has been to California to seek out their mother, who abandoned the family when they were only small children, the shock of which sent their father (Dennis Hopper) spiraling downward into abject alcoholism. TMB arrives back in town just in time to rescue his brother (hereafter RJ for brevity) after he has been stabbed in a fight during the resurgence of gangs and rumbles that has begun during TMB's AWOL.

From then on, we watch how RJ's grip on the leadership of his buddies progressively slips, finally ousted by supposed friend Smokey (a young Nicolas Cage, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola), who also steals his girlfriend Patty (Diane Lane). And after being mugged in an alley, RJ even loses his grip on himself, literally, when he seemingly undergoes a brief out-of-body experience, floating eerily but unseen through the air as he looks down upon his erstwhile compatriots grieving at his apparent death – or was it all just a fevered dream, experienced by him before regaining consciousness after the mugging?

Meanwhile, TMB is just as enigmatic as ever, his succinct comments betraying an erudite, highly intelligent mind that totally surpasses RJ's in every way. But is he really merely enigmatic, or, as others and even his own father suspect, might he actually be insane?

RJ hero-worships TMB too much to permit such doubts to linger in his own far less astute, knowledgeable mind, until the fateful day when he finds TMB in a pet shop, seemingly entranced by a series of small aquaria each containing a single male Siamese fighting fish, some of which are bright red, others blue. TMB tells RJ that they are rumble fish, so aggressive that they will even attack their own reflection in a mirror, which he demonstrates. TMB says that they should be free, in a river, not imprisoned in glass tanks.

That night, while taking RJ for a motorbike ride, TMB turns up at the pet shop, now closed for the evening, and decides to break in to free the fish. Even RJ realises the folly of such a plan, and pleads with him not to do so, but TMB's mind is made up. However, neither of them spies the shadow of a longstanding enemy close by, watching them, armed with a gun and an abiding, obsessive hatred of TMB. Two irrationally-minded entities are about to violently interact head-on, just like a couple of rival rumble fishes, but who – if either one of them – will emerge triumphant?

Rumble Fish is an engrossing, highly memorable movie, very atmospheric visually due to its plethora of smoke and shadows, but rendered even more so by being shot almost entirely in black-and-white, which thereby directly presents to the audience TMB's distinctive vision of the world, as it is revealed early on in the film that he is colour-blind (he is also partially deaf). There is only one major monochromatic exception – the Siamese fighting fish are always filmed in full colour (as is a police car's flashing red siren seen briefly near the end).  Also of note, literally, is the music score, composed and performed by none other than Stewart Copeland, who at that time was also the drummer in the highly successful British rock group The Police.

Dillon puts in a dynamic, muscular performance as rebellious, wannabe gang leader RJ, and is the movie's top-billed star. However, Rumble Fish indisputably belongs to Mickey Rourke – second-billed he may be, but he expertly portrays TMB as a super-cool yet inscrutable, innately dangerous, and quite possibly deranged loner, ostensibly laid-back but in reality perpetually poised and ready to spring into unpredictable yet most probably ultra-violent action should the need arise or his fuse be lit.

If you'd like to pay a visit to the dark, ominous, uncertain world of TMB and RJ, be sure to click here to watch an official Rumble Fish trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My paperback edition of Rumble Fish (© S.E. Hinton/Dell Publishing – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)