Volume 4, Issue 2: Fall 2008
“Take the Trip” Down Under: The Significance of Stone (1974)
Errol Vieth
Stone (1974) was the first serious Australian biker film. Whilst motorcycles occasionally played roles in other Australian films—for example, Jack and Jill: A Postscript (1973) and Fast Talking (1983)—Stone was the first to formulate a problematic biker culture and lifestyle of the 1970s. Members of biker clubs featured in the film—the Hells Angels MC Sydney chapter received mention in the credits—but not in the way that the older outlaw clubs in the United States were represented in the media. There, events in the town of Hollister in 1947 were the origin of outlaw motorcycling’s media presence. According to the U.S. national press, the presence of outlaw bikers rivaled the threat of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. After Stanley Kramer’s The Wild One (1953) and for the next decades, the press and film productions—for example, The Wild Angels (1966) Devil’s Angels (1967), Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) and Easy Rider (1969)—created an image of outlaws riding motorcycles, loose on the streets of the United States, and intent on serious rapine and pillage (Vieth 98–105, Thompson 195–216).
By contrast, Australian bikers of the late 1960s and early 1970s were pretty much just post-pubescent teenagers, hardly the stuff of current myth about those times. They may have been tough young men but were more prone to the odd drunken brawl than setting up any kind of criminal activity. That came later (Marsden and Sher 88–150). Unlike their U.S. antecedents, Australian motorcycle clubs did not coalesce from alienated returned soldiers of World War II; rather, they comprised the children of that generation, returning from the Vietnam War and for some, the Korean conflict. According to Arthur Veno, the Hells Angels club received a charter to form a club in Sydney in 1967 (68, 69), but that is disputed by the U.S. organization, which claims that chapters were officially inaugurated in Melbourne and Sydney in 1973, the year before Stone was produced.
Stone, then, does not have the content of its U.S. cousins of that era but there are similarities between the production contexts in the United States and in Australia. Easy Rider exemplified films from the New Hollywood: cinema was being revolutionized by auteurs (who were new to the game and often young), by emergent commercial formations that replaced the vertically integrated film company, and by new imperatives such as changing audience demographics and the competition of television (Biskind 14–22). A different type of change marked the film industry in 1970s Australia. Prior to that decade, various factors militated against a home-grown industry: a small Australian market for films, the Hollywood domination of the industry from the 1920s, a lack of belief that Australians could make popular films, and the desire of exhibitors and distributors to maximize profits by purchasing relatively inexpensive films from the United States. Films from and about Australia were few and far between, and were sometimes made by overseas companies, such as the British studio Ealing, which made five films from 1946 to 1959, including The Shiralee (1957) (Moran and Vieth 117).
In the 1970s, film became a cultural product rather than just a commercial commodity in the eyes of the Australian government, which viewed support of the industry as a means of recording the Australian experience, however that was conceived. The film industry surged into national significance as a result of an emerging consciousness of cinema as an art form and an expression and exploration of national identity, paralleling but not mirroring the changing nature of the film industry in the United States. Australia did things differently from the United States: government subsidies and a generous tax regime for corporations that invested in film encouraged auteurs to do the experimentation and direction that the theory enunciated. So whilst the underlying reasons for change were different from those in 1960s Hollywood, the results were the same: young filmmakers were given the space and resources to make films. In Australia, assisted by a grant from the newly established Australian Film Development Corporation, Sandy Harbutt and Michael Robinson wrote the script for the film Stone, which was subsequently directed by Harbutt and he also played one of the leading roles: Undertaker. Harbutt was one of the auteurs of the time: writing, directing and acting.
Stone was different from and similar to its U.S. antecedents. It was a film about bikers, conjuring images of earlier Hollywood exploitation films with biker themes and subjects. In contrast, it contradicted its biker-exploitation film roots, that is, it was the thinking man’s biker film, and although it is not directly comparable with Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), like that book it is, in part, “an inquiry into values.” Such an enquiry was not an unusual element of popular culture at the time: both Stone and Pirsig’s book were released in 1974.
In Australia, other films resulted from this newfound sense of enquiry into the values and paradoxes of Australian culture:
Our stories were starting to be told and the subjects hitherto regarded as too difficult were being explored. Australian youth culture and society's darker side were starting to be seen on screen in films such as the biker movie Stone (1974); the outback was the setting for two very interesting and disturbing films, Wake in Fright and Walkabout (both 1971); the experience of Vietnam was explored in The Odd Angry Shot (1979); and social mores and class were tackled in films like Tim Burstall's Petersen (1974). (Tingwell 214)
Stone was different from the slew of films of a particular style that preceded it and that were released in the wake of the proclamation of tax advantages for film producers in Australia. Those films, known as “ocker” films, celebrated a working-class existence, contempt for authority, hedonistic beliefs and practices, excessive beer drinking, a love of sport and lack of serious consideration of any issue. The main character in the “ocker” film was a send-up of the characteristics of the male. Examples include Stork (1971), Adventures of Barry Mackenzie (1972), Alvin’s Party (1973), and The True Story of Eskimo Nell (also known as Dick Down Under, 1974). In some ways, Stone was similar: it celebrated beer drinking, its characters rejected figures and institutions of authority outside its own structure, and its story involved sexual activity. Nevertheless, Stone’s characters did not send themselves up; there was no sense of the ridiculous or the fatalism that pervaded the ocker films, and no sense of comedy was apparent. Whilst no drugs were used in the ocker films, cannabis and hallucinogens were pivotal to the narrative of Stone: it was marketed with the subtitle “Take the Trip.” Stone was serious and violent business, simmering on the edge of cataclysm. Thus the film marked a distinct break from the ocker films that were its immediate predecessors in the emergent Australian industry.
The ocker films had received financial assistance from the
Australian Film Development Commission, which also funded Stone, but soon after, that body was replaced by the Australian
Film Commission, which funded films that were considered to be more
artistically and culturally legitimate: Picnic
at Hanging Rock (1975) and My
Brilliant Career (1979) are examples.
Stone was quite
different from its close predecessor in the emergent New Hollywood, Easy Rider, but there are similarities
as well. Both emerged from the shadow of the Vietnam War—Australian
troops were withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973—encumbered by the negative
baggage that was associated with that conflict; in both films, drugs such as
alcohol, marijuana and hallucinogens played an important role. Both films hinged
around a motorcycling lifestyle. Both
critiqued mainstream contemporary society not only in content, but in the fact
of their existence. There the similarities end. Whilst the earlier Easy Rider reflected a kind of cultural
rupturing that was occurring in the United States, in part as a result of its
involvement in Vietnam, Stone reflected and highlighted the disillusion, the post-war fatigue, that some
ex-servicemen felt after Australia’s earlier withdrawal from that theatre of
war, a situation that prefigured a similar but later phenomenon in the United
States.
The naming of the characters in Stone reflects the “shock factor” common in biker–non-biker relations; not so for Easy Rider. In the latter, the characters are Wyatt, Billy, Jesus, Lisa, Sarah, Jack, Joanne and so on, but in Stone appear the much more confrontational Undertaker, Toad, Dr. Death, Stinkfinger, [1] Hooks, Septic, Captain Midnight, Zonk, Tart, Flossie, and Euridyce for example. The plot of Stone revolves around the killing of members of a motorcycle gang, the Grave Diggers, by an unknown person. An undercover policeman, Stone, is assigned to solve the crime. With his police credentials known, he becomes a part-time member of the gang, gaining some credibility with and respect from the bikers. He manages to find out the “who” and “why,” but at a cost.
The significance of the club name, Grave Diggers, requires elucidation. All members of the club—male, by definition—were returned soldiers, either from the Vietnam War or the earlier Korean conflict. The patch of the club was a skull wearing the hat that was made famous by Australian troops in both World Wars, the slouch hat. This patch was first used as an advertising icon for the film; it has since become the patch of the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club in Australia and is the only patch that can be worn across other outlaw clubs’ territories without interference.
Figure 1: The Grave
Diggers patch. Source: Sandy Harbutt. (Click to enlarge)
The name Grave Diggers was a play on “grave” and also “diggers,” the collective, familiar and (liked) term for the Australian soldier.
The film opens at an open-air speech by an anti-development member of Parliament. The bikers attend, and Grave Digger Toad is apparently under the influence of an hallucinogenic drug. He witnesses an assassin preparing to kill the speaker and the assassin sees him. Some time after this event, three members of the Grave Diggers are killed, probably by the assassin, although this is not made clear. At the funeral of the third, the police arrive, explaining that they were unaware of the two earlier murders. In what today would be regarded as a highly unrealistic scene, the detectives are unfailingly polite in the face of being insulted and sworn at by the Grave Diggers. Later, whilst drinking in a pub, the Grave Diggers are approached by a motorcycling policeman, Stone. His credentials as a friend of the gang are tested when the assassin attempts a further killing, unsuccessful this time, but Stone performs admirably enough for the gang members to accept him. They vote narrowly to allow Stone to join the gang to find the assassin.
Stone, riding his Norton Commando twin, parks next to the
four-cylinder Kawasaki KZ 900s of the gang members at their fort, where they
indulge in sexual activities, drinking beer, smoking marijuana and enjoying the
sun. Nudity is not unusual in the film. Stone is initiated in a violent
ceremony with beer and an ear piercing and is given a set of colors. Juxtaposed
against the bikers’ lifestyle is that of Stone’s friends and his girlfriend.
They enjoy a luxurious existence at a mansion on Sydney Harbour. Later, Stone’s
upper-class girlfriend calls the police inspector—as though he was always
willing to give her access to him—to complain that Stone was not able to
take time off to make up a doubles tennis team. Back at the Grave Diggers,
Stone is tested by having to race against Captain Midnight, an Aboriginal biker
who has the reputation of driving the fastest around a street track—real
streets in Sydney. Both bikes wheel stand around the track—an achievement
in itself—and Stone is only narrowly beaten, winning the admiration of
the gang for this. (Nowadays, some thirty years later, such a race would be
impossible, given the amount of traffic at all hours.)
Stone speaks with the local business owners to determine
if there is anyone who does not like the Grave Diggers. One group of likely
suspects in the murders is the local version of the Mafia standover men, who
had been collecting protection money from local businesses, and whom the Grave
Diggers had displaced. The business owners are generally sympathetic to the
Grave Diggers and have stories to tell about their prowess. The immediate
analogy is with Robin Hood and his gang, assisting people to be free of the
hated Sheriff of Nottingham. Back in the Grave Diggers’ bar, a couple of young
men in suits enter and are confronted and humiliated by Toad and Captain
Midnight, who offers to kiss one of them. They leave quickly, whilst the strip
poker game in the background continues without interruption. A rival gang, the
Black Hawks, arrive and a brawl ensues in the street outside the pub. The Black
Hawks were played by members of the Sydney chapter of Hells Angels, whose
cooperation was cemented through the provision of 36 cartons of beer in return
for their appearance. They gladly accepted and drank most of the beer before
filming began for the day. Back in the film, the Black Hawks leave, having
established their presence in the narrative and making it possible for
subsequent events to be plausible.
Whilst the gangs battle in the street at Balmain, a Sydney
suburb, developers meet elsewhere to initiate a strategy to control waterfront
land that will allow them to control other land. The strategy requires the
Grave Diggers be moved on. Returning to the fort, the bikers are making
themselves comfortable when Tart tries to seduce Stone. He is attacked by
Undertaker for stealing their “moll” and is lectured by Undertaker’s girlfriend
about biker lore and law. A full cultural critique follows, involving the
Vietnam War, recrimination, aspects of rural Aboriginal life, the fight game,
and the unifying influence of motorcycling and the attraction of powerful
engines. The next morning, while the assassins prepare their weapons, the Grave
Diggers swim completely nude in Sydney Harbour, in a scene more reminiscent of
Woodstock than a biker gathering.
The assassins set up a scam whereby the Grave Diggers are
led to believe that the Black Hawks are behind the killings and eventually the
Grave Diggers are led to a cemetery and an ambush. The bikers outsmart the
assassins but Toad is shot and dies after identifying one of the assassins as
the person who killed the anti-development parliamentarian in the opening
scenes. Being a policeman, Stone protects the assassin from the rough justice
of the gang and takes him into custody. Through this action, Stone annuls his
membership of the club. Later, back at the beachside home, he and his girlfriend
are visited by the bikers who beat him to a pulp and take back his colors, a
justice he understands and does not report to his superiors. They have, he
says, “a sense of honor that I like.”
Semiotician Yuri Lotman suggested the notion of semiosphere,
which is a closed environment like a biosphere, but an environment of meaning
elements rather than of biological elements (151–170). In this simplification, much is lost,
but the concept has powerful explanatory characteristics. In brief, a semisophere
is a description of the elements that constitute meaning in an environment that
can be defined by a user. The semiosphere of Stone is thrown into relief when it is compared with the other
biker films mentioned earlier. In contemporary Hollywood films, the Hells
Angels club was featured in different ways in films that exploited the Hells
Angels name (in the title) or through using the club members in some way in the
film. Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger was technical advisor for and played
himself in the Joe Solomon produced Hells
Angels on Wheels (Barger 132). Solomon mined the name and the outlaw biker
content further in Angels from Hell (1968), Run, Angel, Run (1969) and others of
increasing ineptness. Whilst Barger liked the Solomon-produced films for their
authenticity—and for the income they provided—he was scathing about
the Roger Corman-produced The Wild Angels,
as well as the slew of films of the same genre that followed: Naked Angels (1969), Angels Unchained (1970) and The Black Angels (1970) (Barger
132–137; Wooley and Price 68–73, 111–123).
In contrast, Stone made
little reference to the Hells Angels. The Black Hawks club comprised members of
the Sydney Hells Angels, but they did not appear as members of the Angels
although the Sydney Hells Angels club was thanked in the credits. Indeed,
whilst the level of narrative and production sophistication of Stone is of significant improvement over
the Hollywood productions, the behavior of the Black Hawks is sometimes comic.
Because of financial constraints, some scenes were shot only once, so any
unintentional comedy was left uncut. Whilst arriving at the hotel (“pub”) for
the brawl, one pillion falls off a bike, another rider drops his bike whilst it
is moving slowly and another has difficulty starting his. Suffice to say that
none of these events was intended, but the 36 cartons of beer that were the
currency for the appearance of the bikers might have had some influence on
these happenings (Hannay).
The staging of the “run” in Stone was quite different from anything its Hollywood counterparts
could muster. The funeral procession for the third murder victim was filmed on
the M3 motorway that still leads north out of Sydney and which had just been
completed—the lack of traffic stands in stark contrast with today.
Through the press, Sandy Harbutt invited bikers to attend this filming and 400
turned up and were subsequently filmed in this scene, making this one of the
most unusual collection of bikers in one place at the time, and one of the most
unusual film shots.
Whilst the plot of Easy
Rider could be reduced to a few sentences about a couple of stoners
searching for the mythical state of America (perhaps a state of consciousness), Stone’s narrative thread is almost
just an excuse to explore an alternative culture that filmmaker Harbutt
attributed to a biker community. In Easy
Rider, the primary unit of organization was the individual. Dennis Hopper
and Peter Fonda were separate individuals in an era when the individual search
for meaning was a cultural given. In Stone,
the motorcycle club was the primary unit of social organization. The community
existed above the individual although the individual was important within it.
In that sense, the social organization of Stone reflected that of the emerging outlaw clubs, more so than did Easy Rider.
The narrative explores issues of 1970s Australia: the Vietnam War, nascent rebelliousness against middle-class, suburban values and the ideologies that underpinned them, the nature of communitarian life, drugs, gender relationships, the love of motorcycling, justice and power. Harbutt imagined a biker world opposed to the dull and monotone greyness of mainstream life in Sydney. As Charles Tingwell asserted, such a cultural critique was not unique in 1970s Australia. The hippie movement was groping its way to ultimate irrelevance, whilst others sought to put into practice a coherent philosophy of practical alternatives, resulting in books with titles like The Way Out: Radical Alternatives in Australia (Smith and Crossley). For some in both the United States and Australia, the 1970s was a time of questioning, a time of imagining of different realities that addressed the contradictions that were perceived to be endemic to mainstream life. Stone, then, was not radical in its conception; it was quite radical in its content. It was radical in that it did critique contemporary culture, unlike the ocker films that preceded it.
The Grave Diggers’ perspective on the law, violence and
its relation to the Vietnam War is one element of this critique, and is
articulated in a discussion the members have with Stone in their
clubhouse/fort. (The fort was a disused gun emplacement designed to guard the
waters of Sydney Harbour.) Most gang members had returned from Vietnam; one was
a veteran of the Korean conflict. The scene unfolds: Toad’s girlfriend, Tart,
kisses Stone. Seeing this, Undertaker slaps Tart and punches Stone, they fight,
Undertaker unfolds a flick knife and threatens to kill him. To prevent anyone
getting hurt, Tart knees Stone in the groin, causing him to double over in
pain. Undertaker says, “I told you to keep your hands off our molls.” His
“moll,” Vanessa, then tells Stone the relevant biker law (or lore): “What Tart
did was against our laws and when you break the law, you get punished. Right?
If she doesn’t want to be Toad’s woman all she has to do is tell him and its
finished.”
STONE: Oh yeah. That’s a good law. All based on violence.
UNDERTAKER: All
law is based on violence, man. And any cat that breaks the law gets clobbered.
Only difference is, our law only applies to us. Your law sends young blokes to
fight people they know nothing about. As long as you keep on shooting them,
they hang medals on you. When you don’t shoot them any more they shove you in
jail.
Whilst Undertaker was incarcerated in military prison for
refusing to fight, Doctor Death had a slightly different response to the
shattering of the illusion of the Vietnam warrior. When Stone asks, “How did
you all get together?” Doctor Death says, “Peculiar. But when you’ve been
conditioned into believing something, and you blow it, I mean you really blow
it, you get this incredible sense of shame. And it’s funny, because you can
always recognize fellow travelers.”
Bindi Williams, an Aboriginal actor who played no further
role in the Australian film industry after Stone,
played Captain Midnight. Aboriginal Australians have often been the focus and
subject of film narratives, where their difference from “normal” Australians
has been investigated and explained or otherwise. Their story has been told,
often inaccurately. In Stone, Captain
Midnight is one of the gang, no different from any of the others except for his
unsurpassed ability to ride around the street track that was the Grave Digger’s
proving ground. But in the contemporary and ongoing debate about Aboriginality
and its meaning, Midnight was uncluttered by romantic notions of Aboriginal
community: in a different way from Doctor Death, he too found the image was an
illusion. When Stone asked him where he learned to ride “like that,” Midnight
said: “Coonabarabran. Used to round up the stock on old BMWs. I never rode on
the tar before I came to the city, though.” When asked if he missed the bush,
he continued, “No bloody way. Living in a humpy on Gunnedah Hill—work for
nothing—hang around the main street on Saturday night. Stick that up your
arse.”
Toad was a veteran and a heavyweight boxer, who was set up
by his manager in his last fight, served time for the scam, and when he came
out his manager had taken the winnings and fled. He too had had his reality
shattered. When Undertaker was released, he joined with Toad and rode bikes,
picking up other disaffected veterans and other disaffected bikers and their
molls on the way. The bikes remained their link. Toad says, “When you’re on a
bike, a big bike, you got all the power . . . Once you’ve really ridden a big
bike, fast and hard, who wants to do anything else?” Undertaker sums up the
club’s raison d’être: “Well, that’s why we’re here man. Together. Because when
we’re out there riding, the Grave Diggers, we own the world. What can stop us,
man? What can stop us?”
In Easy Rider,
the choppers were a statement, but were not in themselves of significance apart
from being modes of transport. But for the Grave Diggers the motorcycle is more
than just a showy mode of transport. As the characters articulate, riding a
powerful motorcycle at speed provides a kind of “high.” The motorcycles in Easy Rider were Harley-Davidson-based
choppers and arguably, the film helped to further popularize the brand as
congruent with the outlaw manifesto in the United States. However, this was not
always the case, as the motorcycle ridden by Johnny in The Wild One (1953) was a Triumph—although that ridden by the
somewhat less presentable Chino was an old Harley. For Australian bikers,
Harley-Davidson motorcycles were not the brand of choice. World War II surplus
WLA Harley-Davidsons were sought after, but only for status and collector
purposes. They were not a serious challenge to the English and Continental
motorcycles that were well established in Australia: Triumph, Norton, BSA,
Velocette, and, in earlier years, Ariel, were the main contenders from Britain.
In the late 1960s, the first Honda 750-cc four-cylinder bikes stormed on to the
Australian market, outperforming all else. Honda was followed by Kawasaki, who
upped the ante with a four cylinder, 900-cc bike. The era of British bikes was
suddenly over; the Japanese multi was in the ascendant. The Grave Diggers in Stone rode Kawasaki 900s. High-speed
races around the streets of Sydney and the characters’ espousal of the virtues
of speed mark a difference from Easy
Rider.
Figure 2: Sandy Harbutt kept his Kawasaki 900. Source: Sandy Harbutt. (Click to enlarge)
Whilst Stone’s
success was limited to a particular market in Australia and overseas, it did
give rise to a notable successor. Elements of Stone are recycled in Mad Max (1979), which appeared four years later. Like Max, Stone has a house in an idyllic
beachside location where he lives with his lover/wife. Like Max, he is a
policeman. The motorcycles in both films are Kawasaki KZ 900s. A character
called Bad Max appeared in Stone and
four actors from the film also played in Mad
Max—Vincent Gil, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward and Reg Evans. Apart
from this minor contribution to elements of Mad
Max, the contribution of Stone to
the Australian film industry and culture is yet to be fully documented.
It is of note that this other Australian biker film of the
1970s, Mad Max, heralded a globally
popular series. Raising comparisons with the critical reception of Stone and also ironic in the light of
its success was the critical panning that Mad
Max received from the Australian film cultural elite. Made without
government funding, the film was distributed in the United States by American
International Pictures. Its box office was moderate initially, and better after
its successors attracted greater attention. Strangely in retrospect, Mel
Gibson’s voice was dubbed over by an American actor for its U.S. release. Its
success—and the success of its progeny—can be attributed to the
filmmakers Byron Kennedy and George Miller’s sense of narrative, their ability
to tell a story on screen. But their film has never achieved the cult film
status of Stone.
In some respects, the biker culture that followed in later
decades drew on the culture of Stone for its archetypes, and Sandy Harbutt is a respected visitor at many outlaw
biker clubhouses and events. The place of the film within Australian
motorcycling culture was brought home in 1998 when the documentary Stone Forever (1999) was made. The
documentary filmed the anniversary of the funeral run in the film and recreated
the run from Sydney north along the M3. An estimated 30,000 motorcyclists
attended.
Stone was and
remains an outstanding example of contemporary Australian filmmaking. Of the
many films that were made during the 1970s, Stone is marked by a longevity and popularity that other, more critically acclaimed and
highly lauded films of the time have been unable to match. The great tragedy
has been that Director Harbutt was sidelined. After Stone, the visionary members of the funding body—the
Australian Film Development Corporation—were replaced by bureaucrats in a
new funding body who wanted Australia to be presented as something more
sophisticated than a biker battleground. Although he had proven himself to be a
talented and productive writer, director, and actor, Harbutt’s many
applications for funding assistance for films have never again been accepted.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Notes
1 To “play stinkfinger” is an offensive Australian colloquial expression meaning “to engage in erotic play of the fingers with the female genitals.”
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