Michael Ledo The film takes place in Australia in the 1970's. Following a political assassination, the Grave Diggers bike club become targets, Stone (Ken Shorter) a cop joins the group in order to find the killer. They know he is a cop.The film spends a lot of footage of guys riding bikes with a bad soundtrack. This production was directed, written, and starred Sandy Harbutt and has become a cult classic in his native Australia. It was been compared to "Mad Max" but I failed to see any significant similarity, a comparison I would suggest was created by the promoters and blindly followed by fans.I thought this was just another era biker's film, nothing special Guide: F-word, nudity.

Chase_Witherspoon After a member (Keays-Byrne) of the well-hard bikie gang known as the Grave Diggers witnesses a political assassination whilst in an LSD induced haze (and consequently fails to recall the event until much later), his companions are systematically murdered. Motorcyle detective Stone (Shorter) is reluctantly accepted to embed with the gang until the culprit is caught. Fearless leader the Undertaker (director, creator, star Harbutt) takes a temporary shine to Stone, allowing him into the gang's inner sanctum where Stone learns their origins and the fabric that binds them in their cause. Meanwhile, sinister interests plot their demise.Technically creative (the title sequence is a highlight), the performances range from amateurish (e.g. Shorter as the title character) to inspired (Keays-Byrne as the macho Toad) and the supporting cast is peppered with future talent that should be familiar to Australian audiences (e.g. Bill Hunter, Rebecca Gilling, Helen Morse, Garry McDonald, Helen O'Connor). There's an awful lot of bare backsides (male & female) exposed here (which was a feature of Australian movies in the seventies), and in one memorable scene, the gang descends into the waves sans clothes for a mass skinny dip (so expect T&A and a few pickle shots).At times ultra-violent (a couple of severe beatings and a decapitation) yet strangely sincere, depicting the bikies as essentially loyal individuals attracted to one another through disadvantage and troubled life experiences. Great location work of Sydney will serve as nostalgia for locals, and not necessarily a picture just for motorcycle enthusiasts. I saw the 90-odd minute edit (as opposed to the full 132 minute version) in which a couple of scenes looked chipped and consequently lacked narrative context, but this didn't diminish the overall enjoyment of what is an important film in the maturity of Australia's motion picture industry and probably inspired "Mad Max" a few years later.

triumph1 The seventies hold a special place in time for me. 1974 was all about (in no particular order) Motorcycles, beer, LSD, marijuana, underground comics (freak brothers), Hawkwind, my girlfriend Karen and of course Stone (the movie).Outlaw Motorcycle clubs were a lot different in Sydney back then, riding motorcycles (and drinking beer) was our only purpose in life. Back then only an idiot would ride a Harley and the dream bike was the Kawasaki Z1 900 that had only just been released. So imagine a film like Stone blasting it's way onto the screen resplendent with custom painted Kawa 900's! We were mesmerized, personally I remember seeing it 6 times at the local cinema.Watching it today opens the gates to memory lane, those that use the F3 freeway north of Sydney will appreciate the shots of the road in the funeral procession scene; the road was brand new then! And the shots of the lower North Shore and Pittwater are truly a piece of Sydney's history. Note the absence of traffic.Forget the acting, when you're 18, off your nut on drugs and that Z1 starts up with the baffles removed at the beginning of the movie, it's mind blowing!!! Non bikers can turn off here :O) Midnight's black Kawa 900 was my favorite, come to think of it, how many indigenous Aussies had a real part in a movie before this? Not many I'd say...I've now been riding bikes for 35 years now and Stone still holds a special place in my heart. 10 outa 10 for Sandy.Cosmic flash, and there ya go...Mick.

ksaelagnulraon Apparently a "cult favourite" all over the world, STONE is a low-budget crime-thriller centred around a bikie gang whose members are being murdered one-by-one by a political assassin (that's not a spoiler because we're told this during the opening sequences). Before seeing this film, I expected this to be a true bikie cult classic - instead it's rather soft, with very few expletives, sex scenes, and not much violence, particularly given that it's rated "R". Unfortunately, the film became more of a "let's make the bikies accessible to everyone else" film, as they were portrayed as misunderstood alternatives (thank goodness for the climax!!). The film COULD have been a "cult favourite" but somehow I find it hard to believe that it is... Rating: 5/10