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The Wild AngelsRating:
Release Date: 20 February, 2001 Retail Price: $14.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
The Wild Angels Reviews
CheeseFest '66
"The Wild Angels" is no "Easy Rider." TWA is chock full of bad acting, bad dialogue, badly-delivered dialogue, and more teased hair than you can shake a can of Aqua Net Extra Super Hold at. Three stars for numerous and unintentionally funny scenes that reek of every biker cliche imaginable. I became interested in the genre after reading Joan Didion's analysis of biker movies in "Notes Toward a Dreampolitik," but I must say I'm pretty much over it now.
The Preacher was right.
Like most people I've seen "Easy Rider" (1969), Peter Fonda's infamous drug-culture biker flick, but I haven't seen any of the other biker films from the '60s. Since "The Wild Angels" was available cheap I decided to enlighten myself to this Grade B film genre.
The first 30 minutes or so is quite good. The Southern California locations and cinematography are great and the story is compelling. In fact, the film's worth owning for these elements alone. The last 55 minutes are tedious, however, not to mention morally reprehensible. This latter portion of the film involves the death of Fonda's best friend, "The Loser," and his funeral & burial. The movie really bogs down during these segments wherein the only thing that catches your attention (or wakes you up) is the utterly mean-spirited and criminal behavior of the "Angels."
I'm a big Marlon Brando fan so I've seen "The Wild One" from 1954, the original biker flick; but the worst that Brando & his gang do is brawl, drink and chew gum (gasp!). This may be "wild" perhaps but certainly not mean-spirited or criminal.
"The Wild Angels" was filmed only 12 years later, so I'm thinking 'How "wild" can they be?' Surprise, surprise as Fonda's gang members are WAY beyond merely wild & free (which is how they're depicted in the first half hour), they're totally wicked imbeciles (although Fonda himself, I should point out, doesn't really do anything that bad and is merely portrayed as the epitome of 'cool').
Want proof? The Angels break into the hospital to "free" the Loser and he ends up dying for lack of proper medical care for his critical wounds. They make sure to get him high before he dies though. While breaking into the hospital one Angel savagely attempts to rape a nurse. And guess what kind of thanks the Angels give to the minister who kindly perfoms The Losers' funeral? They beat him up and trash his sanctuary. Guess what kind of comfort two Angels offer to The Loser's mourning girlfriend? They cruelly rape her. To top it all off they outrageously abuse The Loser's corpse at the funeral party(!!).
As you can see, the Angels aren't just anti-heroes in this film, they're the SCUM OF THE EARTH. Not only that, but they're a bunch of LOSERS who, as Fonda points out, just "want to get loaded." Hey, everyone needs to let loose and celebrate now and then (God even commands it in the bible -- Deuteronomy 14:26), but if the whole purpose of your life is to just "get loaded" you're not gonna look very good when you hit 35 (the Angels in the movie are all in their 20s), and you're certainly not going to have any energy, drive or charisma. Yeah, the "party animal" life gets old real quick, and then ya gotta grow up (every one grows older but not everyone grows up!).
Regardless of the screenwriter's (term used loosely) moral confusion, I would give this film a better rating if the last hour of the story was remotely compelling, but it's not -- it's dreadfully soporific. Not to mention Fonda's deeply philisophical speech regarding his answer to life ("We just wanna get loaded") is laughable and awkward.
Despite what other reviewers say, Nancy Sinatra does a fine job; she would later renounce the film due to it's twisted immorality, however (smart girl).
In my teens I went through a "party animal" phase and "partied" with real bikers on quite a few occasions (the Outlaws). These were some bad dudes, to be sure, but they were generally pleasant and fun-spirited; I never experienced anything that remotely resembles the Angel's heinous conduct in this flick. So I very seriously doubt the realism of the film. In other words, knowing that controversy sells, Roger Corman made the film this way for the simple sake of shock value. Most people, I'm sure, realize this.
FINAL ANALYSIS: "The Wild Angels" is only worthwhile as a period-piece and as an oddity. If taken seriously (which it shouldn't be) the film is actually encouraging! It reveals that our culture hasn't degenerated in the last 40 years as some bemoan; we've actually evolved quite well as a species and as a society in these past four decades. After all, they don't make moral garbage like "The Wild Angels" anymore.
Oh, what did the preacher say in the movie that was so right? "Woe to those who say good is evil and evil is good."
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