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If I ever meet Mr. Harris, I’m only going to ask about this scene, and whether I am right when I bet someone a hundred bucks he couldn’t see shit in that thing. Ed, did you really almost drop it but manage to keep it together for the take (because he would allow me to call him “Ed”)?

And he would say yes, and I would win some money.

Or maybe not, because the first time we see the art of motorcycle jousting, it’s actually a little scary. And by that I mean I feared for the actors’ lives. There is no way that is safe, smart or advisable, and the less-well shot scenes of combat are a little challenging to watch. Nonetheless, we learn that Billy’s troupe of fighters is under financial strain, the local police are trying to interfere with one of their shows, and everyone is a little weirded out by Billy’s “martyr king” act. He even says he’s had visions of a Black Bird, and cavalierly assumes it’s a portent of his own doom.

A violent run-in with the law splits the troupe into factions, with Billy’s nemesis Morgan (longtime Romero collaborator Tom Savini) wanting to split off on his own. The group has been offered a lucrative entertainment offer that Billy continues to turn down, due to his hyper-intense belief that the “lifestyle,” and not the money, is the point of what they do. Billy’s zeal is perhaps even a step beyond “evangelical,” and Harris is required to take the story on his back for most of the film. But a strong supporting cast and a pair of deceptively relevant subplots make for much more of a movie than I was expecting.

Before the end of the film, the quality of the bike combat improves, which is good. At the end of the day, this is a movie about people who swing axes at each other on motorbikes. There’s an expectation that comes with that, and I can’t accuse Knightriders of not delivering. I don’t know if there IS a such thing as too much motorcycle combat, but if that’s what you came for, you will leave fat and happy.

But this is also a movie about a patriarch at a crossroads, who takes on the burdens of his family without their necessarily understanding this. This is a movie about figuring out who you are, what your purpose is in life, and whether or not you’ll be worthy of it when you find it. There is nothing campy about Knightriders, unless you count the corny rubber suits. This is a straight up domestic drama that just happens to also be Nerds on Bikes. I found myself pretty well immersed in it to the point that I became fine with the costumes (that would again change by the third act - you’ll know it when you see it) and entirely focused on trying to figure out whether Billy was crazy, or crazy smart.

Knightriders is by no means Romero’s best known film, but it’s certainly one of his best. Not only is it a rare detour from horror, but it’s surprisingly satisfying in unexpected ways - despite being a bit overlong. But, on the upside, that allows time for a number of characters to complete some curiously compelling arcs. There’s a lot of good stuff here, which reminds me - watch for novelist Stephen King.

Yes, THAT Stephen King. He’s in there somewhere, eating a sandwich. As one does.

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