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source: Hells Angels on Wheels

For what this film is, it's great. No better 'genre' film exists. One of the reasons is that Sonny Barger himself, founder and still President of the Hell's Angels, is in the film's opening scene, kicking over his bike and proceeding to run over a flower bed in a city park! That's how bad these guys are! Barger is in the film throughout, and the producers probably had to pay Sonny and his 'club members' a pretty penny in order to use them and their official 'colors' (the H.A. logo, etc). Sonny also "starred" in "Hells Angel's '69", about an Angel's attempt to rip-off a Vegas casino, and appeared in almost any film where the "Angel's" name and logo were needed. Barger is still alive and runs and owns 'Sonny Barger Harley-Davidson' in Oakland, Ca, where the Hell's Angeles were born. He's probably been in in prison for 35 of the last 40 years. Barger is the nice fellow who got the'club' into drugs, gun-running and other nefarious money-making schemes, though for the most part ALL the Angels were true scum of the earth. Notice there are no apparent people of color in the movie, though Barger himself is Hispanic. "HA" has been a white-supremacist group since it began, arguments claiming otherwise notwithstanding. They are still associated with the "Aryan Brotherhood" in California prisons. Using "real" Angels means we get to not only see them in their usual habitat (acting stupid, drunk, stoned and, mostly, violent) but we also get to see their bikes, true relics of another age, some of which are probably in the Smithsonian, or at least Harley museums around the world. I was amazed that none of the bikes appeared to be of the extreme "chopper" variety with extended front forks allowing the rider to hang from the "monkey bars". As much as corporate Harley-Davidson said they officially hated these 'clubs', they took care of Sonny throughout the years. This film was made in San Francisco during the infamous "Summer of Love", 1967. As the other poster mentioned, Nicholson and Roarke also star in "Psych-Out!", with Nicholson as an LSD dealer whom the Feds are hot to catch.

Despite the downbeat ending, this movie gives off a clear feeling that the cast really enjoyed making it. There is a sense of fun and playfulness about the bikers' way of life, in stark contrast with the grim, depressing storyline of Corman's The Wild Angels. The conventional views of straight society are expressed by different characters bewildered by the bikers' aimless lifestyle. The go go dancer argues with gang leader Buddy about jobs and marriage, which he casually shrugs off with the remark that he's tried that already. Jack Nicholson's leading character Poet is continually ridiculed by biker girl Shill as being a square with a middle class set of values, when he tries to have a serious relationship with her. The movie honestly portrays both the attractions and the negative aspects of the freewheeling biker way of life without judging. Ultimately, Poet becomes disillusioned with the Hell's Angels and clashes with Buddy, as it becomes clear that Buddy expects unquestioning obedience from his followers, and imposes his own rules on them, not unlike the Establishment he's supposedly rebelling against. This movie is a fascinating time capsule of a time and place most of us never knew in real life. Adam Roarke as Buddy and Jack Nicholson as Poet turn in two excellent performances in a meandering, casually thrown together movie that seems almost a documentary of the Hell's Angels lifestyle in the Sixties. Worth seeing, even if you don't care for biker movies in general. More than one viewer has commented on the movie's strange, indefinable quality, as if the whole thing were a dream. See it and decide for yourself.

Directors office 1967: "Let's make a cool movie.." "Yeah.. What kind of movie" "What about a road-movie?" "Mmm.. A road-movie with motorcycles?" "Sounds good.. With some bad boys?" "The baddest boys in the world.. HELLS ANGELS!" "Oh no.. Don't be kidding me.. Not the ANGELS?" "Oh yes.. With a lot of bitches too." "Sounds good. But.. How can we make those guys look very cool?" "Hey.. This is the late sixties.. It's very easy to look cool: Drink and drive, never change your clothes, smoke some pot, take bath in beer and grow beard." "This gonna be sooo cool!" No.. It was a big mistake, instead. "Hells Angels on wheels" are a total waste of time.

Most reviewers miss the point. Rush's film is a cinematic moment in time. The focus is a linear journey about certain events that take place over a very limited time frame of perhaps 4 or 5 days cinematically. In terms of plot it aims for a certain moment in time & it hits the mark. The choppers R first rate classic 60's builds, the scenery is great, Kovak's DP work is outstanding, Adam Rourke is the stand-out here, he holds his own easily against Jack in all the acting chops departments & Sabrina Scarf is amazingly sexy. Stu Phillips & The Poor provide excellent musical coverage & every player does a great job at being who thy R supposed to be. The fights R fun & the magical moments R numerous, for instance, Poet's decision to go with the Angels under a distant moon while sitting on his chopper at a carnival, ambient street sounds & conversations abound around other character interactions just like in real life. If U like biker flicks this is the real deal. The ending is rushed (no pun intended) that's the bummer part but the ride there is great fun. One of my personal favorites maybe cause my parents had me n my sister in the back seat of the Drive-In while we saw this many years ago the very first time. I forgive this film a lot perhaps but it's right up there in my top 5 BIker films of all time.

I really found this to be quite a joke of a movie. Even Jack Nicholson can't save this meandering, plotless dreck from the 60's. I'm assuming most people who have seen this movie did so only because Jack's in it, not counting anybody who saw it during it's original theatrical run (Did it have one?). Jack's character gets caught up with the Hell's Angels after he meets them at his dead end gas station job. They fight, party, harass locals and ride their bikes for the first half hour of the movie it seems. One brawl scene in a bar early on in the movie seems to take forever and it appears to be almost entirely ad libbed. Jack's character falls for the leader of the Angel's girlfriend, which sets up the climactic finale. It is mostly a cheap throwaway flick meant to glorify the freedom of bike gangs while at the same time trying to chastise their violent image. I would only recommend it to Nicholson fans because at times it is so bad, it's good, ala "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Okay, maybe not that bad.

'Hells Angels on Wheels' is a surprisingly tough and entertaining b-grade 60s biker movie. Jack Nicholson plays a gas attendant named Poet who becomes involved with some Hells Angels. Their leader Buddy (Adam Roarke) takes a shine to Poet, and Poet is attracted to Buddy's old lady Shill (Sabrina Scharf). Nicholson went on to movie superstardom, Roarke to cult status and an untimely death, and Scharf a bit part in 'Easy Rider' and then a career in politics. Most people will probably watch this to get some cheap laughs out of early Nicholson. He is actually pretty good here, better than the material deserves, but the real star performance in the movie is from the seriously underrated Roarke. Roarke was often the best thing about the sometimes awful movies he had to appear in (see 'Dirty Mary Crazy Larry' for example), and he exudes charisma and intelligence here. Director Richard Rush obviously valued him, as he reteamed him with Nicholson in the hilarious 'Psych-Out' and even gave him a small role in his masterpiece 'The Stunt Man'. 'Hells Angels on Wheels' obviously isn't anywhere near as good as the latter, but it is much better than you'd expect and definitely worth tracking down.

Wow, of all the silly motorcycle gang movies of the 1960s and 1970s, this one is THE WORST, and that's saying a lot, since most all were just awful. Jack Nicholson was lucky his career survived this nonsensical slop, especially since he kept being referred to as a "kid", even though he was 30 years old but looked 40, with a deeply receded hairline and a forehead with so many wrinkles it looked to be made of linen. But everybody loves Jack now so we can forgive him this junk. Jack's career somehow survived and kept on growing. The same cannot be said for anybody else involved in this cinematic abortion. The director, whose name I've already forgotten in the last two minutes, seems to have limited his directorial efforts to telling the actors to "act zany and whacky until I say 'Cut!'". There's not much plot beyond the premise of Jack joining up with the Hells Angels until he rubs the leader the wrong way, then yet another very poorly choreographed fight scene ensues, which ends with the death of one of the absolute worst stunt dummy's ever seen on screen. It doesn't even look as life-like as a store mannequin. The script is ludicrous, the acting is tediously bad, and all the filler scenes of bikers and hippies "making the scene" in the legendary sixties are nothing but boring and goofy. I guess you had to be there to have fun because watching others act like idiots is not entertaining. The use of "real" Hells Angels added nothing to this movie. They surely cannot act and they have a hard time struggling not to look at the camera. They are self-conscious when it comes time to show off and act bizarrely, so it's hard for the viewer to believe this comes naturally to them. There's one hopelessly plotted scene where Sonny Barger (who was out of prison for a change while this junk was filmed) jumps off his bike at a red light to deeply kisses the Angel sitting on the bike next to him. It's supposed to be shocking to the "squares", but it just comes off as forced and pointless. And Sonny acts like he obviously is aware he's performing for a camera. The several fight scenes in this movie are very poorly executed and unrealistic - especially when somebody ends up dead (beaten to death, we are told) in a fight any Girl Scout could have skipped away from. Most of the fights involve compliant stunt men patiently waiting for an actor to wind up and throw a big punch that anybody else could have easily blocked, ducked or slowly walked away from. There's minimal blood considering all the alleged violence, and there's even a fatal car wreck that didn't appear to have wrinkled a fender because the car just went off the road and rolled down a hill. The driver was an old man, so maybe he had a heart attack. But that doesn't stop Jack Starrett from making his obligatory appearance, as he did in all biker films of the day, as the menacing cop with a deep, smooth voice who is always showing up to spoil the fun and threaten the happy-go-lucky bikers with all sorts of imprisonment. In this flick he gets his man (his second choice, anyway) but doesn't hold on to him long. I never did understand how the Angels thwarted the motorcycle cops who were supposed to be escorting the evil Angel to jail, but the cops did roll down a hill for some reason. And the Angel rode off on his bike. Were cops really that stupid back then that they'd arrest someone for causing the death of an innocent and then let him ride his motorcycle to jail while they rode along as escorts? And all the cops in cars took different routes? Wow, it must've been great to be a criminal 50 year ago. Then at last there's the final fight and a fake dummy dies, and the movie very suddenly ends. Really strange way to end this thing. I'm willing to bet everybody just got bored and wanted to go home.

Juxtapose Nicholson's biker boy with his character in "Easy Rider" and see how they'd play face to face. He of course has his sweet face and reasonable voice going for him even in this early film. And there are even a few great lines to bring you up short when you think of the 'freedom' enjoyed by biker gangs. "I don't your rules or your uniforms", he finally blurts out to the leader. Ah, so in its' own way, the bikers are as ruled by bullies as the corporate world. And their treatment of women calls for a psychoanalysis of it's own. But I really wish I hadn't wasted my time or money on this movie. Cut and edited terribly.