Synopsis: The life, loves, fights and deaths of a gang of Hell's Angels
Director: Roger Corman
Actors: Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd,
Date: 1966
How viewed: Rented from Lovefilm
Rating: 3/5
David Meyer says:
Corman both romanticises the biker life and finds it bereft of worth. Corman understood anti-heroes like nobody's business.
I say:
My, we've come a long way in the last few decades! So, here we have a film about a gang of Hell's Angels in the 1960's, led by Peter Fonda (in almost an exact copy of his role in Easy Rider 3 years later). The gang 'want to be free' - free to ride their motorbikes and party and not be hassled. But it all seems pretty tame, even for the 60's - yes, there's hints of sex (consentual and non-consentual) and drugs, but no rock n roll (the sound track is completely out of place tinny surf music), and indeed the scenes of the gang riding through the fantastic Californian scenery and canyons at times looks like an impressive travelogue. There's a sense of disillusionment (Fonda feels his best friends death is 'all his fault') and an oblique reference to the ongoing Vietnam war, but generally it just seems to be about partying and fighting (it must have been galling for Bruce Dern to have to play dead during the drinking and orgy scenes!!). Interesting to see Diane Ladd looking exactly like her (and Bruce Dern's) daughter Laura Dern in David Lynch's film 'Wild at Heart', and the guy who plays the preacher (Frank Maxwell) looks awfully familiar as well. From a 21st century viewpoint the most disturbing thing now about the film is probably the widespread use of the swastika, and easily the most impressive is the scene at the end as the gang ride through town with the coffin to the cemetery as the townsfolk look on.
Corman both romanticises the biker life and finds it bereft of worth. Corman understood anti-heroes like nobody's business.
I say:
My, we've come a long way in the last few decades! So, here we have a film about a gang of Hell's Angels in the 1960's, led by Peter Fonda (in almost an exact copy of his role in Easy Rider 3 years later). The gang 'want to be free' - free to ride their motorbikes and party and not be hassled. But it all seems pretty tame, even for the 60's - yes, there's hints of sex (consentual and non-consentual) and drugs, but no rock n roll (the sound track is completely out of place tinny surf music), and indeed the scenes of the gang riding through the fantastic Californian scenery and canyons at times looks like an impressive travelogue. There's a sense of disillusionment (Fonda feels his best friends death is 'all his fault') and an oblique reference to the ongoing Vietnam war, but generally it just seems to be about partying and fighting (it must have been galling for Bruce Dern to have to play dead during the drinking and orgy scenes!!). Interesting to see Diane Ladd looking exactly like her (and Bruce Dern's) daughter Laura Dern in David Lynch's film 'Wild at Heart', and the guy who plays the preacher (Frank Maxwell) looks awfully familiar as well. From a 21st century viewpoint the most disturbing thing now about the film is probably the widespread use of the swastika, and easily the most impressive is the scene at the end as the gang ride through town with the coffin to the cemetery as the townsfolk look on. 
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