Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Wild Angels Blu-ray Movie Review

Put some helmets on, for crying out loud.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 22, 2015

The allure of biker gangs has been a staple of both film and television for decades, as evidenced by everything from The Wild One to Sons of Anarchy. Something about the combination of America’s wide open spaces with (typically) very bad boys speaks to something universal and has tended to spark a significant amount of interest from audiences. Easy Rider (also available from Criterion in America Lost and Found: The BBS Story) is traditionally recognized as the paradigm of “biker movies,” even if it subtly altered some of the tropes of this subgenre, making its anti-heroes at least relatively sympathetic and palatable. Three years before Dennis Hopper’s film pretty much reinvented the movie business (at least for a little while), Hopper’s co-star Peter Fonda appeared in what might be seen as Easy Rider’s cinematic father, or at least stepfather, the 1966 Roger Corman opus The Wild Angels. The Wild Angels was yet another kind of weirdly unexpected feather in American International Pictures’ already distinctive cap. As I recently mentioned in our Muscle Beach Party Blu-ray review, for such a relatively small studio, American International had a remarkably vital impact on 1960s cinema, from the vaunted horror films (many from Corman himself) to the odd “beach party” franchise that sprung up at around the same time. The Wild Angels became a huge hit for American International Pictures, ushering in a wave of films featuring desperados on hogs, usually in a viscerally graphic manner that made earlier efforts like Marlon Brando’s 1953 biker opus look positively quaint by comparison. The Wild Angels is a pretty turgid experience from a dramatic standpoint, but it contains some fantastic second unit location work (reportedly done by Corman acolyte Peter Bogdanovich, who also evidently contributed to the screenplay) and of course offers the chance to see a coterie of fascinating performers like Fonda, then real life marrieds Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, and Michael J. Pollard (about to explode in another counterculture zeitgeist capturer, Bonnie and Clyde) at relatively early points in their careers.

There’s absolutely no question about moral shades of gray in The Wild Angels—this particular biker gang, or at least several members of it, are bad to the bone, as evidenced by their love of Nazi memorabilia (even the film's credits alter the orthography of the film's title to include a graphic of a swastika). The one seemingly decent individual is Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda), who motors out to what looks like an oil rig to tell his buddy Loser (Bruce Dern) that Loser’s stolen bike has been found. Loser is wearing an Iron Cross (and later dons a somewhat ridiculous looking soft helmet with a swastika emblazoned on it), something that sets off one of his co- workers. Loser, well, loses it when confronted by this “square,” and soon finds himself without a job. That in turn upsets his girlfriend Gaysh (Diane Ladd), though she cheers up when Loser informs her he can get his bike back and the two can hit the road.

That sets a chain of events into motion that sees Loser mortally wounded, giving Bruce Dern the chance to play one of the most extended death scenes ever caught on film (this is really not that much of a spoiler). The Wild Angels tries fitfully to proffer Blues as a relative good guy, as evidenced by him stopping a rape by one of his gang at the hospital where Loser is ferried after having been shot by the cops. But there’s a kind of smarmy ambience that overhangs much of this film, not the least of which is the reliance on the Nazi memorabilia angle.

The film pulls few punches in detailing the sordid lives of these desperate characters, an aspect that is nowhere more visceral than in Loser’s supposed funeral service, where once again Nazi imagery prevails and soon the eulogy gives way to a bacchanal that includes more sexual aggression and some probably unintentionally hilarious monologuing that offers a hollow rationalization for the biker lifestyle.

The Wild Angels can’t quite escape the weight of its more unseemly elements, nor can it ever quite overcome the inadequacies of Nancy Sinatra as Blues’ girlfriend, Mike. Sinatra, whose limitations as a singer are rather disastrously detailed by none other than John Barry in some of the supplements included on the You Only Live Twice Blu-ray, is similarly curtailed by a lack of authenticity in her acting in this film. She kind of stumbles through the film with a bouffant hairdo and little else. That ironically tends to put the focus on Diane Ladd, at least in terms of the distaff characters, and Ladd offers what is probably the closest thing The Wild Angels comes to a nuanced performance.

The Wild Angels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Wild Angels is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Once you get past the really grainy credits sequence, this is by and large a very commendable looking transfer, though elements have a bit of age related wear and tear, with "usual suspects" like small specks of dirt and white flecks. There's also a very slight fade in evidence, tending to push flesh tones slightly toward brown at times. There's a bit of an overall color space difference between the bulk of the film and some of the second unit footage, which is notably cooler looking. Detail is very good, though some sequences, like the day for night party scene that plays like a biker version of one of those "beach parties" in American International's other films featuring wayward youths, are pretty murky looking. There are no issues with compression artifacts, and Olive's typical "hands off" approach provides an organic looking presentation that should please the film's fans.

The Wild Angels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wild Angels' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track provides ample support for the roaring hogs and the propulsive score. Credits aficionados may get a kick out of the fact that this film's music supervisor was Mike Curb, the former MGM Records executive who shepherded acts like The Osmonds into superstardom and who made headlines in the 1970s for dropping a bunch of artists from his label whom he felt were drug users, two facts that seem somewhat at odds with this particular film's ambience. (Curb became Lieutenant Governor of California later in his career.) Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is wide in this problem free track.

The Wild Angels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

The Wild Angels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wild Angels may have helped to usher in a rather unlikely subgenre in American film, and it could be seen as either the witting or unwitting cinematic parent of Easy Rider, but the fact remains it's a fairly turgid and at times distasteful exploitation flick that nonetheless does offer some fantastic second unit footage and an especially good performance from Ladd. Technical merits are generally quite strong for those considering a purchase.