Mark Honhorst I have recently had awful luck with picking out good movies to watch. Movies like The Wolfman remake, The Thing With Two Heads, and Reptilicus are just three of my unfortunate viewing choices, and they really make me wonder why I even continue to collect DVDs. Sadly, this movie, "The Wild Angels" is just the most recent in the string of trash I have unwittingly subjected myself to. It is simplistic and stupid, and can be summarized in one short paragraph. Ready? Here we go! (SPOILERS!!!) Peter Fonda and a gang of idiotic bikers are riding around Mexico or somewhere, and along the way, one of them gets shot. He is taken to the hospital. Peter and his pals take him away from the hospital and he later dies. At his funeral, Peter and friends trash the church and have a party. Later at the burial, a small boy throws a rock at one of the bikers. Everyone gets mad and attacks the crowd of townspeople. The police come and all of Peter's chums run away, and Peter is left alone to bury his friend. The end. Was that short enough? Anyway, the characters were all obnoxious punks that I couldn't possibly root for. Fonda looks atrocious in his biker punk get up, and the whole film is less interesting than watching an old lady knit for 86 minutes. This is the worst film I've seen in quite some time, and that's saying a lot from me, considering the stuff I watch.

lastliberal Hard to believe that this film went up against The Battle of Algiers at the Venice Film Festival in 1966. Roger Corman is responsible for starting the biker flicks phenomenon with this film.Peter Fonda is the essence of coo as he performs a role that he made even more popular in Easy Riders three years later.He is accompanied by Nancy Sinatra as Monkey, Michael J. Pollard as Pigmy, and Bruce Dern as Loser; along with three time Oscar nominee, and Golden Globe and BAFTA winner, Diane Ladd in her first credited movie role.Radical scene in the church where Fonda debated the preacher (played by Frank Maxwell, Det. Lt. McAllen in one of my favorite films, Mr. Majestyk).Exciting action, but missing the gratuitous bits featured in other biker films. PG at best.

Coventry "The Wild Angels" provides further evidence that producer/director Roger Corman wasn't just a clever businessman, but primarily a genuine pioneer of cult-cinema. When people are listing the greatest & coolest biker flicks from the late 60's and early 70's, they're always talking about "Easy Rider", the Aussie classic "Stone", "Cycle Savages" and perhaps a handful of others. "The Wild Angels" rarely ever gets mentioned but it actually predates all these films, so one could really claim this obscure puppy was the prototype of biker-exploitation. In the fifties already, there was the biker classic "The Wild One", with Marlon Brando, but this is the film that almost single-handedly launched the popular trend of exploitation movies in which heavy thugs in leather outfits are cruising across the American countryside and getting in all sort of trouble. Corman's film features pretty much all the essential aspects that determine a biker movie. Nihilistic and crude male characters on their bikes, docile women following them around no matter what, gang conflicts, confrontations with the police, a ritual funeral parade and a whole lot of wild parties with booze, drugs and rape. Peter Fonda depicts, for the first time of many, the ruthless gang leader of a biker gang called The Angels. They wear Nazi symbols and fill their days with smoking weed and complaining how "The Man" doesn't allow them to live freely. When they head out to the Mexican border to recover a stolen motorcycle from a rival gang, Blues' sidekick Loser gets killed after a chase with the police. His funeral escalates into an anarchistic orgy in which the Angels demolish a church, rape their own women and provoke a fight with an entire community. "The Wild Angels" may have been very influential, but it's nevertheless understandable why it never became an authentic cult classic. As said, all the necessary plot ingredients are present, but it too often feels as if they are completely ignored. Multiple potentially compelling sub plots and intriguing character drawings are left unprocessed whereas the film does contain too many tedious and pointless sequences that shouldn't have been there. The atmosphere is effectively nihilistic, with the gang members even continuously fighting and cheating on each other, but there are too few genuinely memorable moments. The acting performances are pretty neat, with a few great names still at the beginning of their careers, like Peter Fonda, Diane Ladd, Michael J. Pollard and Bruce Dern. "The Wild Angels" isn't a classic, but nevertheless essential viewing if you like the rough-n-tough cult cinema of the late 60's.

copper1963 Bad. Wretched. Depressing. Shame! And it's racist to boot. If Peter Fonda had any political ambitions, this film would torpedo them in a hurry. I found myself rooting for "The Man." Or just anyone to come along and kick their rear ends. Fonda has one good non-conformist speech during "Losers" funeral, which is then ruined by the subsequent trashing of the church--all because the minister had the nerve to invoke the name of god in his eulogy. Go figure. This poor display of social grace is reminiscent of the juvenile delinquents in Blackboard Jungle: when they trash the teacher's priceless blues collection. I had the same sick feeling after that. Just then I looked over at my girl friend and saw a scowl creased in her face. She was in total disbelief at the way these nihilistic nitwits treated the minister. So was I. And she likes The Born Losers and "Billy Jack." It's truly amazing that Fonda, Dern, Ladd and the others survived this debacle. I know Frank Sinatra must have been appalled that his daughter would appear in such cinematic rubbish. I had a devil of a time collecting my thoughts in writing this review. I needed a long shower afterward. Or a drink stiffer than "Loser."