Director: Sandy Harbutt
Written by: Sandy Harbutt, Michael Robinson
Cast: Ken Shorter, Sandy Harbutt, Deryck Barnes, Hugh Keays-Byrne

Year / Country: 1974, Australia
Running Time: 99 mins.

Somebody is knocking off members of the Gravediggers motorcycle gang and they must find out why! This Ozesome cult movie by Australian actor/director Sandy Harbutt is the ultimate biker movie and it will have you on the edge of your seat!

Beers, brawls, bikes and boobs. That is STONE! It provides an insightful look into the rough and heavy biker culture. All the members of the club are ex-Vietnam or Korea veterans and they chose to live a renegade lifestyle. Each member is different, but they share the same biker values. Something an outsider couldn’t understand. But when you see the crew riding around on their motorcycles, such as the legendary Kawasaki, you get a sense of what it may feel like to be part of a renegade gang like this.

In the opening of the film, one of the members of the club witnesses a political assassination, but he is tripping so hard on acid, he forgets to tell his mates. Then his fellow members of the Gravediggers motorcycle gang start getting killed one by one. Many classic scenes follow; the motorcycle cliff dive, the funeral scene, the image of Dr. Death stepping out of a coffin and many more. The rest of the story revolves around a cop called Stone who manages to win the bikers’ trust and helps them track down the killers.

In the time this was made, it was quite a radical portrayal of an outlaw society. Not only is there drugs and nudity on display, the bikers also make their own laws in the film, and refuse to adapt to the laws of society. I read something about a remake of this flick, but you just can’t do it. This feels way too authentic. Stone is the real deal.

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Biography: Sandy Harbutt (1941, Australia) is the one shot director of biker movie and cult classic Stone. Despite the box office success of that movie in Harbutt’s homeland Australia, he never got government funding again to direct another feature. Harbutt is also an actor. Apart from playing one of the leading roles in Stone , he was in various Ozzy television shows such as The Long Arm, Matlock Police and The Evil Touch.

Filmography: Jesus Christ Superstar (1972, TV-doc), Stone (1974)