directed by Larry Ferguson
written by Larry Ferguson
written by Larry Ferguson
Capitol Films
1992
108 minutes
Beyond the Law is a made for TV crime movie first broadcast on HBO in 1992. The film depicts a small-town Arizona police officer named Dan Saxon (played by Charlie Sheen), who goes undercover into the world of outlaw bikers. Saxon, whose biker alias is Sid, consistently topped the bikers of the Jackals MC in terms of outrageous behavior and became such a trusted ally to the club that Jackals president, Blood, made repeated requests to sponsor Sid for membership.
Saxon/Sid enters the biker underworld after his dismissal from the police force of his small town. The scene that leads to his firing also demonstrates his suitability for assuming the pose of a biker outlaw, as he gets into a fight with his commanding officer after an episode of insubordination. Saxon also struggles with repressed memories relating to abuse he experienced as a child. His stepfather was a motorcycle cop who handcuffed him to a chair in the basement and beat him. This abuse ended when the young Saxon somehow got a hold of his stepfather’s service weapon and shot his assailant to death. While Saxon cannot remember these scenes of childhood violence, the director cut short bursts of these episodes into scenes of his current life to suggest that the abuse he experienced is channeled towards making him a convincing biker whose anti-authority/anti-cop pathos was born in these events.
1992
108 minutes
Beyond the Law is a made for TV crime movie first broadcast on HBO in 1992. The film depicts a small-town Arizona police officer named Dan Saxon (played by Charlie Sheen), who goes undercover into the world of outlaw bikers. Saxon, whose biker alias is Sid, consistently topped the bikers of the Jackals MC in terms of outrageous behavior and became such a trusted ally to the club that Jackals president, Blood, made repeated requests to sponsor Sid for membership.
Saxon/Sid enters the biker underworld after his dismissal from the police force of his small town. The scene that leads to his firing also demonstrates his suitability for assuming the pose of a biker outlaw, as he gets into a fight with his commanding officer after an episode of insubordination. Saxon also struggles with repressed memories relating to abuse he experienced as a child. His stepfather was a motorcycle cop who handcuffed him to a chair in the basement and beat him. This abuse ended when the young Saxon somehow got a hold of his stepfather’s service weapon and shot his assailant to death. While Saxon cannot remember these scenes of childhood violence, the director cut short bursts of these episodes into scenes of his current life to suggest that the abuse he experienced is channeled towards making him a convincing biker whose anti-authority/anti-cop pathos was born in these events.
Saxon is tutored on the ways of the outlaw biker by a Jackals hang-around named Virgil, a mechanic who, with Saxon, builds a motorcycle out of spare parts. He also creates a patch for the fake club Saxon will claim membership to, the Pythons, out of Cleveland. Virgin creates situations for Saxon that force him to behave violently and without fear, although Saxon quickly exceeds the limits of what his tutor can teach him on this front. Saxon proceeds to meet with bikers and earn their respect by out-crazying them at every turn (lighting a stick of dynamite and holding on to it until the last second, spitting on a federal agent) and he does it all without changing his facial expression (frozen as a crazy-eyed scowl for most of the movie).
The film is pretty much a character study of Saxon, who unleashes his id as he enters the biker world. The thing that you would expect to be the creator of tension in a film about an undercover biker, the potential revelation of his cop status, is not really an issue that comes up. Instead the film is more about Saxon’s identification with the outlaw lifestyle, which allows him to indulge his subterranean anti-authoritarian urges. Additionally, the film has a romantic subplot, wherein Saxon meets a woman named Renee Jason, a photographer who is working on a story about outlaw bikers. Together, the couple represents the dual forces of law enforcement and journalism who seek to expose deviant and criminal activity.
The bikers who make up The Jackals are stereotypically hairy, weird, and crude, aside from the Jackals leader, Blood (played by Michael Masden who, in 2008, played The Gent, another atypical biker outlaw in the film, Hell Ride) who is clean cut and coldly violent. The Jackals are explicitly a criminal enterprise engaged in drug production and trafficking, as well as weapons trafficking. They also occasionally commit other crimes like murder and armed robbery just for the hell of it. Saxon’s life is saved by Blood in one scene, and in the next he witnesses Blood kill a grocery store cashier. Blood’s character is intended as the epitome of the cruel criminal mind, and the senselessness of the violence that is so often associated with outlaw biker culture.
The film is pretty much a character study of Saxon, who unleashes his id as he enters the biker world. The thing that you would expect to be the creator of tension in a film about an undercover biker, the potential revelation of his cop status, is not really an issue that comes up. Instead the film is more about Saxon’s identification with the outlaw lifestyle, which allows him to indulge his subterranean anti-authoritarian urges. Additionally, the film has a romantic subplot, wherein Saxon meets a woman named Renee Jason, a photographer who is working on a story about outlaw bikers. Together, the couple represents the dual forces of law enforcement and journalism who seek to expose deviant and criminal activity.
The bikers who make up The Jackals are stereotypically hairy, weird, and crude, aside from the Jackals leader, Blood (played by Michael Masden who, in 2008, played The Gent, another atypical biker outlaw in the film, Hell Ride) who is clean cut and coldly violent. The Jackals are explicitly a criminal enterprise engaged in drug production and trafficking, as well as weapons trafficking. They also occasionally commit other crimes like murder and armed robbery just for the hell of it. Saxon’s life is saved by Blood in one scene, and in the next he witnesses Blood kill a grocery store cashier. Blood’s character is intended as the epitome of the cruel criminal mind, and the senselessness of the violence that is so often associated with outlaw biker culture.
An intrepid Youtube user has uploaded the film in a series of segments. Click here for part 1, and the other parts will follow.
And as a final note, the film is apparently based on a true story as told in an article titled Undercover Angels that appeared in Playboy magazine during the early 1980s.
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