ddecarlo-63344 Love the show but just cant seem to understand why they had everyone in the show drinking Budweiser a St louis beer when they were in Milwaukee the beer capital of the US at the time....... thought it would have been Schlitz Beer......????

gocarter-1 As a motorcycle history buff this series was SO BAD I barely got through the first episode. BIG GLARING ERROR shows the third factory building of the Motor Company, not built till 1908, as the factory from the beginning. Also the same factory with the sign that says Davidson Motorcycles never existed. Hendee of Indian was not the PT Barnum of Motocycles, but a businessman from the beginning. Pretty much the only thing they got right was the names of the founders of the Motor Company.This is one of those shows that is called BOATS: Based On A True Story(over heard in an elevator on an express run down).

reallaplaine Harley and the Davidsons was an excellent film rendering based on the true story of the start and growth of the Harley Davidson MC covering over 30 years of its beginning. It was well-acted, the attention to detail, the spicy human interaction and complexities, along with, of course, the trials and tribulations of testing and losing and testing again until the Harley finally came into being, kept me glued. It was also interesting to see just how fast the motor industry exploded at the turn of the century, how many MC brands suddenly appeared and how crazy the world became over motorcycles. I think this is a very human story, quite inspiring and just easy to watch. And, having seen it, I want a Harley more than ever!

grizzledgeezer Conflict is the essence of drama, and "Harley and the Davidsons" is "balls to the wall" conflict. Hardly one issue is (perhaps) settled before another rears its head. Every combination of "conflictors" is explored: brother/brother; father/children; mother/children; capitalists/little guys; creeps/decent folk, etc, etc, etc. It's an absolute model of a conflict-driven story that will keep the script reader turning the pages, until he or she collapses, screaming "We've got to green-light this one!".To the extent I can unscramble things (I'm not an expert on the history of motorcycles), it seems that great liberties have been taken with the lives of Messrs. Harley and Davidson (such as introducing fictional characters and ignoring real ones (eg, Evinrude)). It's suggestive that there are separate credits for the story and the screenwriter.The production values are impressive, and the film is first-rate eye candy, on multiple levels. The shot of Walter Davidson riding the prototype * across the green, green hills of... Romania?... is beautiful. The period costumes must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And best of all is the recreation of early motorcycles. One can imagine -- and applaud -- the work that went into it. (Who doesn't like motorcycles?)But the whole seems less than the sum of its parts. It just doesn't ring true. It comes off more as an example of how to write an exciting script that will get produced, than any veracious insight into what H and the Ds went through.I'm always critical of modern films projecting modern attitudes on historical events, so I was especially annoyed when Walter said he wanted their motorcycle to project an outlaw spirit. He might very well have said that, but bikers were not seen as "outlaws" until after WWII.----------------------------------------After watching the appalling episode 3, I've lowered my rating from seven stars to three stars.The episode's principal elements are Indian's lawsuit against H-D for patent infringement, and Walter's son's rebellion. Though H-D had infringed patents, they were actually Robert Keating's. (I've been unable to confirm the film's claim that Harley had neglected to patent several inventions, and another company had patented them, which Indian used to "destroy" H-D.)Walter Jr's rebellion might have occurred, but it's recounted as if the writer is running down a checklist of how one dramatizes such things. Walter Jr joins a group of poverty-stricken bike lovers, one of whom is a young woman wearing designer rags, the other a black man. The latter appears to be in the story for political correctness, but it seems he was a real person who went on to own an H-D dealership. Of course, everything is so overblown that one doesn't know what to believe.The capper is Mrs Harley's bone cancer. Without telling anyone why, Harley takes increasing time off from work to go on picnics with her. Of course, it all ends semi-happily when the doctor discovers she actually has a treatable non-fatal disease.I was expecting a documentary on the history of Harley-Davidson. What I got was a hyperbolic drama with little regard for the facts. The best thing about this series is its strongly negative view of capitalists and businessmen.* It was actually the second prototype, as the first had to be pedaled to get uphill.