everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

"Keeg" (Bruce Dern) is the psychotic leader of a motorcycle gang which pretty much does whatever it wants due to the fact that the people in a certain community are terrified to testify against them. This is especially true for a beautiful woman named "Lea" (Melody Patterson) who would love to tell the police everything she knows. Unfortunately, her sister happens to be in a prostitution ring run by Keeg's older brother and is deathly afraid for what might happen to her. So like everybody else she remains silent. Then one day Keeg catches a glimpse of a young man by the name of "Romko" (Chris Robinson) who spends his time sketching everything he sees—and that includes some of the activities of the motorcycle gang. This infuriates Keeg who roughs up Romko and destroys all of the sketches involving him and his gang. However, Keeg soon becomes obsessed with the idea that Romko might begin drawing more sketches and because of that begins to make plans to prevent that from happening. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a rather dramatic biker movie due in large part to the performance of Bruce Dern. Likewise the scene involving the brutal gang-rape of the attractive blonde by the name of "Janie" (Karen Cirol) was also quite shocking and intense as well. Be that as it may, I thought that this was one of the more explicit and realistic biker movies out there and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

After his fine performance as an aging man in the recent "Nebraska" I decided to look up some of Dern's older movies to see how he was in the brash, hot- head roles of his younger days. I found this one on Netflix streaming movies.Bruce Dern, in his 30s here, was biker gang leader Keeg. He was demanding and arbitrary, but he somehow had a blind loyal following of several no-account bikers. Plus a few ladies in the traditional subservient roles. It is violent, within what was allowed to be shown in the 1960s, and when a new girl is brought into the den, she is "initiated" by being subjected to gang rape, while the other girls looked on and smiled. This is NOT a good movie, even by 1969 standards. It is cheesy and has a plot that doesn't make much sense. A foreigner has moved to town, he is an artist who likes to hang out in public places and do B&W charcoal sketches, mostly faces. Keeg doesn't like this so he wants to harm the artist. He finally has a grand idea, you know those big vises that are in every workshop, they will get the artist, put his hands in it, and crank down to destroy his ability to draw. It is hard to explain a reason to have made this movie except to give Dern a starring role. Seeing him in his early years is the only reason to possibly see this movie.SPOILERS: In the biker den, right before the artist is maimed, a girl pulls a gun, but doesn't shoot, then as Keeg decides to make a run for it, hearing the police were on their way, another girl takes the gun, goes outside, fires a few times at Keeg on the motorcycle, manages to hit him, he crashes into some garbage (symbolism??) and when she gets to him he is dead. THE END

Bruce Dern is at his psychotic best as Keeg, leader of a biker gang and a white slave trader to boot. He realizes that a newcomer to his neighbourhood, an artist named Romko (Chris Robinson) has been sketching them, and he doesn't like this, so he plans on doing some serious damage to the mans' hands. Meanwhile, Romko is falling in love with local gal Lea (Melody Patterson of 'F Troop' and the trash flick "Blood and Lace"), who feels much guilt about the part she plays in Keegs' schemes. The most interesting thing of all when it comes to "The Cycle Savages" is the fact that it was executive produced by record executive (and later lieutenant governor of California) Mike Curb and legendary D.J. Casey Kasem (who also plays a small role). The movie is written and directed by Bill Brame, and is rather crudely and awkwardly done in its fight scenes. It does have one extremely tasteless scene that kicks up the sleaze factor a notch and which will make it worth watching for trash film fans. The lovely Patterson does a nude scene, which is a nice bonus, but ultimately it's too tastefully done to really satisfy some viewers. Otherwise, it's fairly grim, gritty stuff, but does not stand apart from any other biker film of the era. It's mostly watchable because of Derns' marvellously scuzzy performance; Robinson is much too stiff, but Patterson is quite appealing, and there's more eye candy in the form of Karen Ciral as the naive Janie, who has to suffer some pretty awful treatment from Keeg and gang. Maray Ayres is good as pathetic biker mama Sandy, and veterans Scott Brady and Steve Brodie make uncredited appearances as vice detectives. You're not likely to remember this film for long after it's over, but it's passable enough stuff that kills 82 minutes fairly well. Even at 82 minutes, one can feel the padding on this thing, but all in all die hard fans of the Bikesploitation genre may get a kick out of it. Six out of 10.

I don't bandy words like that around, but this film pretty much IS worthless, even for those who might be seeking cooler-than-thou amusement or exploitation kicks.... there's not enough that's amusing or erotic to excite a gerbil. Dern gives his stock performance. The only thing that gave me pause to laugh or even wake up was the sight of Casey Kasem, legendary "reach for the stars" top 40 radio host, pimped out in a bathrobe with chicks at a backyard pool.Not much here worth looking at.