Volume 4, Issue 1: Spring 2008

Video Review

Living On The Edge: Riding With The Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club in Pennsylvania
Directed by Edward Winterhalder
Blockhead City Entertainment, 2007

Ron Milam

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re takin’ up too much room!”

So read the T-shirts, posters, DVDs and promos for a new proposed documentary reality TV series that is being offered to cable television and/or the DVD market. Presented by Blockhead City Entertainment, the series focuses on the “positive aspects of motorcycle club life” (DVD case liner). For the first episode, director Ed Winterhalder has chosen to highlight the activities of the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club in Pennsylvania, a state branch of a national motorcycle club. This choice allows the producers to focus on not only the biker culture and the visual imagery of Harleys and custom bikes, but also the Vietnam veteran culture. And this combination raises issues that supersede the activities of middle-age men riding bikes because there has always been a fascination about the veteran biker.

There is historical debate regarding whether biker gangs such as the Hells Angels and Bandidos were founded by veterans, but there is little controversy about the presence of many veterans in such clubs. Perhaps it was inevitable that a motorcycle club with membership exclusively drawn from those who served in America’s most controversial war would establish itself as a “positive” club. (The club’s website states that Vietnam “Era” vets are eligible to join. Another club, “In Country Vets MC” requires members to have actually served in Vietnam.) In interviews conducted by the film’s director, Vietnam Veterans with nicknames such as “No Gas,” “Tunnel Rat,” and “Dog Man,” explain why they joined the club, and why it is important that they continue to support each other in a brotherhood of bikers. This episode follows the bikers as they plan and execute a weekend of activities designed to welcome home Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) veterans. Every Vietnam Veteran makes reference to having been “spit” on or treated poorly upon their DEROS (Date Eligible for Return from Overseas), and these bikers express their concern that today’s vets receive better treatment. While the issue of whether society actually or metaphorically “spit” on returning vets remains a subject for academic discourse, there is no debate among these veteran bikers. So much of the air time is devoted to this topic that the reviewer can only assume that ill treatment as perceived by the veterans is the motivating factor not only for their immediate focus on the current war veterans, but also for the existence of the Vietnam Veteran Motorcycle Club itself.

The film also provides an insider’s look at the future of veteran biker clubs. While the Vietnam Veteran’s Motorcycle Club is the largest and most visible of the veteran biker clubs, the Legacy Vets are also given air time. Membership in this group requires one to have served in the military after 1975 and thus is composed of bikers whose beards (and guts) provide a sharp contrast to that of the Vietnam veterans. And a new club composed of current war veterans is mentioned–the 2nd Brigade. All of this brotherhood, controversy, and camaraderie is best described by Rob “No Gas” Kantner when he contemplates today’s warriors: “Nobody recognized us when we came home–those boys are getting a lot of recognition. … Maybe the government ain’t doin’ the right thing, who really knows, but those guys who are over there are Americans and that’s where they want to serve.”

The show is professionally produced with good cinematography and sound editing. Living on the Edge’s director Winterhalder hopes to develop this pilot project into a television reality series. This episode is a good first step, and the ultimate success will be determined by whether a television audience will be interested in “good bikers.” Few popular television reality shows lack controversy and the positive activities of veteran bikers may not hold much interest for the viewing public. But there might be a market for such a show if each episode contains similar feel good images as displayed in Living on the Edge. Based upon some of the other subjects shown in the documentary, we might expect to see an episode devoted to the exploits of the Christian Motorcyclists Association or the Tribe of Judah Motorcycle Ministries.

To meet audience demand, Blockhead City Entertainment may need to consider expanding their episodic offerings to include the Bandidos, Hells Angels, Pagans and Outlaws. Then the series title might truly be portraying “Living on the Edge.”

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