The Wild Angels (1966, Roger Corman)
This movie is probably only a 'classic' in the sense that it drew the attention of major Hollywood studios to the flourishing counter culture, culminating, three years later, in Easy Rider, an immensely popular movie as well as a cultural milestone. It's often said that Easy Rider might be the better movie, but that The Wild Angels offers a more realistic view at the biker life. I don't know if that's true (I know next to nothing about biker life actually). Posters as well as the credit sequence tell us that some real-life Hells Angels appeared in the movie, but the Angels later sued the film makers for presenting a negative view of the movement . The film had at least this quality that it enraged both the Bourgois community as well as those revolting against it. Like virtually every movie signed by Roger Corman, The Wild Angels is a cheap affair. It was made on a budget of no more than $360,000 and feels under-produced, under-written and under-...
