This film is a wonderful example of how writer/director/producer Roger Corman had a knack out of making cheap films that made lots of money. Oddly, of all his MANY credits, apparently only one of his films lost money--and, even more oddly, it was one of his best films! Here with "Wild Angels" you have essentially a crap film with some actors who later became famous--and it made a fortune. Corman must have laughed himself silly with this one!!
Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra was all members of the Angels--a sort of biker 'club'. For 1966, they were a pretty scary and tough bunch--though compared to some of the biker films that followed (such as "Satan's Sadists"), they are a relatively mellow group. Sure, they have gang fights, rapes, drug use and altercations with the cops, but otherwise they are all relatively clean-cut thugs with swastikas bedecking practically everything! Early in the film, the gang is having a friendly rumble with a Hispanic gang. After a bit of eye-gouging and the like, the cops show and try to catch the fun-loving guys. One of them (Dern) is eventually caught--and in the process he's very badly hurt. The gang of braniacs decide to break in to the hospital and rescuing them. In the process, the critically injured Dern dies--I guess unplugging him from all the equipment was a bad idea after all! This leads to a lovely funeral sendoff at which time the gang runs amok--destroying a church. In a case of HEAVY padding, this sequence seems to go on and on and on--mostly to stretch the film to full-length and to shock the viewers. It literally makes up almost half the film with the various sacrilegious activities that occur there (including a rape--which, fortunately, is implied and not shown in any detail) and at the grave site. I think the padding is so bad that I frankly found most of this pretty boring!
All in all, it's a film in search of a plot--which, sadly, it seems to lack. A gang fights, a leader dies, they fight some more...end of story....and Corman laughing all the way to the bank since a lot of kids went to see this bilge with one-dimensional characters. Now I am not anti-biker film--I just want to see a good one, which this is not.
Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra was all members of the Angels--a sort of biker 'club'. For 1966, they were a pretty scary and tough bunch--though compared to some of the biker films that followed (such as "Satan's Sadists"), they are a relatively mellow group. Sure, they have gang fights, rapes, drug use and altercations with the cops, but otherwise they are all relatively clean-cut thugs with swastikas bedecking practically everything! Early in the film, the gang is having a friendly rumble with a Hispanic gang. After a bit of eye-gouging and the like, the cops show and try to catch the fun-loving guys. One of them (Dern) is eventually caught--and in the process he's very badly hurt. The gang of braniacs decide to break in to the hospital and rescuing them. In the process, the critically injured Dern dies--I guess unplugging him from all the equipment was a bad idea after all! This leads to a lovely funeral sendoff at which time the gang runs amok--destroying a church. In a case of HEAVY padding, this sequence seems to go on and on and on--mostly to stretch the film to full-length and to shock the viewers. It literally makes up almost half the film with the various sacrilegious activities that occur there (including a rape--which, fortunately, is implied and not shown in any detail) and at the grave site. I think the padding is so bad that I frankly found most of this pretty boring!
All in all, it's a film in search of a plot--which, sadly, it seems to lack. A gang fights, a leader dies, they fight some more...end of story....and Corman laughing all the way to the bank since a lot of kids went to see this bilge with one-dimensional characters. Now I am not anti-biker film--I just want to see a good one, which this is not.