The Wild Angels (1966)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (writer)

Release Date:

20 July 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Tagline:

Their credo is violence...Their God is hate...and they call themselves 'The Wild Angels'

Plot:

Peter Fonda plays 'Heavenly Blues', the leader of Hell's Angels chapter from Venice, California while Bruce Dern plays 'Loser'...

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Hell's Angels | Gang | Funeral | California

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Peter Fonda	...	Heavenly Blues
Nancy Sinatra	...	Mike aka Monkey
Bruce Dern	...	Joe Kearns aka Loser
Diane Ladd	...	Gaysh
Buck Taylor	...	Dear John
Norman Alden	...	Medic
Michael J. Pollard	...	Pigmy
Lou Procopio	...	Joint
Joan Shawlee	...	Momma Monahan
Marc Cavell	...	Frankenstein
Coby Denton	...	Bull Puckey
Frank Maxwell	...	Preacher
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Suzie
Gina Grant
Art Baker	...	Thomas - Mortician

Also Known As:

All the Fallen Angels (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for drug-related material.

Runtime:

Germany:86 min | USA:93 min | USA:87 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (uncut) (1973) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1990) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (1992) | Finland:K-18 (heavily cut) (1973) | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | West Germany:18 (f) | Netherlands:12 (2008) | UK:15 (video) (2008) (uncut) | UK:18 (video) (1993) (uncut) | UK:X (theatrical release) (1972) (cut) | Canada:R (Canadian Home Video rating) | Norway:18 (1971) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

The Hells Angels brought a $5-million defamation lawsuit against Roger Corman for what they perceived as a negative portrayal of their image.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A nurse that is assaulted by a biker wearing wraparound sunglasses is asked to identify him by looking through a book of mugshots. She finds his mugshot and he's wearing the same wraparounds in the photo. No police department would ever allow someone to wear such a disguise while being photographed.

Quotes:

Medic: [said jokingly to girl dancing] Hey, don't get none of that on me!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Wanderlust (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Wild Angels Ballad (Dirge)

Classic Motorcycle Western

This early Roger Corman (thus, low-budget) biker film is a classic because it was made before all sorts of film-making conventions were established and became calcified and inviolable. It also gives an interesting look at California before urban sprawl destroyed it. But most of all, it is wildly amusing with lines that simply can't be taken with a straight face nowadays.

This movie breaks all the rules. The glorification of Nazi regalia is just plain over the top. Not only does the title actually include a Swastika (!), but the climactic funeral is adorned with quite possibly the largest Nazi flag in the State of California. Forget simple innocuous Iron Crosses, this film goes all the way and practically brings Goering and Himmler back to partake in the festivities. And Peter Fonda, as the leader of the pack, is made to look as Germanic as possible. Why? Well, that must have been the biker standard in 1966.

The dialog is just hilarious. "We have the power," Fonda yells to nobody in particular. "It's the Man," the Bruce Dern character Born Loser warns the others when the cops arrive during a weird gang fight. Every other line of dialog is a classic, lines delivered in completely un-ironic fashion that can't possibly be said with a straight face now. But the best is the impassioned speech the Peter Fonda character gives at the concluding funeral, when he sums up his gang's credo as, "We want the right to be free. Free to go where we want without being hassled by The Man. Free to have fun. And get loaded." And he says this as if he is demanding the right to vote or something! It's hysterical! I realize times have changed, but the film is chock full of treasures like that.

But it doesn't end there. Nowadays, you couldn't possibly have a rape scene where the rapists aren't punished and the social niceties observed. But here, just the opposite happens, and instead of the obligatory they-must-be-punished conclusion, everybody just goes on with their activities, which happen to be a wild orgy in a church. There is early drug use, primarily amyl nitrate, that presaged the more open view put forth in Fonda's later "Easy Rider." If you want to see a film that truly is not politically correct, and not one that pretends to be but actually still observes all the unwritten laws of Hollywood, this one fits the bill.

The story itself is pedestrian, sort of an updating of "The Wild Ones," where the outlaw biker gang goes around terrorizing quiet little towns because, you know, they just want to be free. It could have been filmed with horses and stagecoaches and been just as logical set in the 1880s. And despite all the now-forbidden imagery such as the rape scene, there really isn't anything truly offensive beyond that, no graphic nudity and little swearing.

I know some folks probably revere this film as reflecting the times and such, but modern viewers without any investment in the history of the 1960s will probably find this film a hoot for all sorts of unintentional reasons. And there's nothing wrong with that. It also provides an interesting counterpoint to the much more laid-back "Easy Rider." A great unconventional film for a quiet night.