Very well executed

It is a performances centric movie

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The ideals of the 40s and 50s are collapsing in 1966. "Misfits" join biker gangs, because they are bored with society. This movie couldn't be made today. The swastika is fully displayed, not necessarily for "white supremacists", but as a message to the older generation that they may have fought in a war but the younger generation doesn't feel that it has anything to do with their realities.Peter Fonda stars as the leader of a biker gang, who is shrewd, but having trouble accepting the death of his best friend, Loser (Bruce Dern), whom he feels to blame for his death. However, as gang leader he can't show any doubt or weakness. In the end, he mourns for his friend in his own way. The movie was interesting, because it showed that a lot of people were "lost", and looking for anything to identify with and belong to that was different from what they were raised to. In the end, the movie is inconsistent. The bikers become totally out of control, and persecute a preacher for trying to say words at the funeral of Loser. Fonda's character basically shows that he is a coward by selling out to the mob over reason. Then, we are supposed to believe that he would rather go to jail than not bury his friend. 1966 was a very interesting time. It was probably the last time in American history anyone could react with pure angst and rage at what was happening. Today, people are too divide and too propagandized to really believe in anything real. It reminds me that the 1960s was probably the last time people could really be enraged and protest in a way that wasn't completely marred by self-interest, cynicism, and parochialism.What I liked best about this movie, being born after this film was made, is that these bikers were the original punk rockers but with more of a clear cause. The Dern character showed how sick the younger generation at the time was of these World War Two movies, which glorified the war and distorted the reality of World War Two. The younger generation was bored, jealous, and alienated by the Post War Years that they grew up in. Yes, the Baby Boomers were often spoiled, but also grew up in a conformist time when their parents just worked all the time. In the Depression, there were real challenges to survive. In the 50s it was still a time when racism was all around. Dern's character wears a Nazi helmet to the constirnation of a middle aged oil rig worker who was a WWII Vet. It as if Dern's character cannot explain why he is being this provocative, but it is apparent he is alienated. Some people may not like the provocativeness of this movie, but 1966 was a time when there was still honesty left. As time went by, the late 60s and onward, the reactions by younger people became harder to figure out and to follow. This movie does a good job explaining how many young people felt at the time.

No one like Roger Corman has been able to get into the zeitgeist of any particular time, but that doesn't mean he comes out on top with every movie. This one, in particular, is not bi-winning, it's just a bi-polar mess. Does the movie glorify Hells Angels? If so, it definitely succeeds, with the iconic looking characters on their bikes. Does the movie vilify Hells Angels? If so, it definitely succeeds, with some pretty appalling (though not less famous) scenes of racist violence, rape and sacrilege. There's more to it, but long story short, their characters aren't complex - they're just written all over the place. Peter Fondas character has a famous speech where he yells that he just wants the freedom to do whatever he wants to do, but by the end of the movie, it's obvious that he doesn't know what to make of it all! You can argue that it's actually a pretty clever point, and that it's deliberate that these unlikable characters can't live up to their own ideals. That may in fact be so - but I still can't shake the feeling that we were supposed to sympathize with them, but that it just doesn't work.

"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.

The Wild Angels came out just a few years before Easy Rider was released. As much as I admire Easy Rider, I must say, this is a more entertaining watch. Yes, I know people may think I'm crazy for saying that. I liked seeing Peter Fonda as a confused bad-ass in this film. He has a quality to him that made him work as the leader of the gang. Fonda plays a biker named "Heavenly Blues" who has second thoughts about his life-style after a plan of his gets his best friend fatally shot. Bruce Dern does a lot with his small role and even Nancy Sinatra is decent. I thought Diane Ladd was great too. What Corman does that other known B-movie moguls don't bother with, is to cast good actors and that makes a huge difference. I also find Corman to be a decent director and it shows here. This is a decent pre-Easy Rider film.