During the late 60s and early 70s, biker films became one of the most popular staples for drive-ins and grindhouses. They were essentially a reinvention of all the Westerns that moviegoers loved made for a new generation. These movies told stories of modern rebels and outlaws who roared across the country on two wheels instead of on the backs of four legged beasts. The films delivered all kinds of thrills while taking viewers on wild adventures with the rambunctious gangs of cycle savages who lived life on their own terms. The anti-hero bikers fought the Fuzz, brawled in bars, drank in droves and got high as hell as they rode the open roads on their hot steel hogs. While the humdrum hippies of the era promoted peace and love, the boisterous bikers seemed to be all about anarchy and mayhem. The roving bands of badass papas and mamas brought their own kind of outrageous counterculture escapism to the silver screen and it was met with much fanfare.
The Wild Angels (1966)
If The Wild One was the film that gave birth to the biker gang genre, this 1966 production was the spark that ignited the fire to the massive wave of biker films that would come out in the late 60s and 70s. American International Pictures became interested in making a film about the Hell's Angels after seeing a photo on the cover of Life magazine for a biker funeral. They approached Roger Corman, who hired Charles B. Griffith to write a screenplay. Griffith's first draft was a near-silent movie which contrasted the bikers with the story of a police motorcycle cop.
Corman did not like it and later gave it to Peter Bogdanovich to rewrite. The result was The Wild Angels. Peter Fonda plays Heavenly Blues, the head of the Venice California chapter of the Hell's Angels. Blues, his best friend The Loser (Bruce Dern) and the other members confront a group of Mexicans for stealing one of their bikes. The two factions get in a rumble after which the cops chase The Loser (who takes off on one of their bikes) and end up shooting him. This leads Blues, his faithful girlfriend Mike (Nancy Sinatra) and The Losers' old lady Gaysh (Diane Ladd) to set up a plan to bust Loser out of the hospital before he’s thrown in jail by the pigs. This film was particularly groundbreaking in its depiction of the Vietnam era anti-establishment attitudes of the day. It also featured a supercool fuzzed out rock and roll score by Davie Allan and the Arrows.
Hell's Angels on Wheels (1967)
The Angels first take note of "Poet" (Jack Nicholson) after one of them inadvertently damages his motorcycle and breaks its headlight. Poet, with far more guts than brains, challenges the Angel that hit his motorcycle. This is an act that would traditionally result in every Angel present participating in a group beating of the attacker. "When a non-Angel hits an Angel, all Angels retaliate." But the leader of the Angels, Buddy (Adam Roarke), intervenes and tells Poet that the Angels will replace the headlight. In the meantime, he's welcome to ride with them while they take care of business—which turns out to be going to a bar and beating up the members of another club who previously beat an Angel. Poet is allowed to ride with the Angels and is eventually elevated to "prospect" status. He is attracted to Buddy's some-time girlfriend (Sabrina Scharf) who toys with him while remaining hopelessly committed to Buddy. Much of the story that follows consists of scenes of the Angels partying or being provoked to violence by "squares." Eventually, Buddy's girlfriend succeeds in provoking a confrontation between Buddy and Poet with only one surviving. Look for an appearance by the real Hell's Angels at the beginning of the movie.
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