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The Wild Angels (1966)
In producer/director Roger Corman's and American International
Pictures' (AIP's) action thriller (a production studio known for
films that appealed to teenaged, drive-in audiences) - a highly-successful,
almost plotless, cheaply-made exploitational B-movie; the anti-establishment
outlaw biker film jump-started the careers of Peter Bogdanovich (an
uncredited writer, cinematographer and actor, and assistant to the
director) and Bruce Dern (actor) - it was one of the very first 'biker'
films, and a precursor to Easy Rider (1969) and
other counter-cultural, permissive, sexually-liberated biker movies
at the time, such as Anthony Lanza's The Glory Stompers (1967) and
Richard Rush's Hells Angels on Wheels (1967); it was controversial
for its violence, anti-social nihilism, and a presentation of a negative
stereotypical view of bikers in the mid-1960s:
- the Nazi swastika symbol in the opening title screen,
accompanied by a guitar soundtrack
- Peter Fonda as Heavenly Blues, the alienated leader
("Mr. President") of a violent, hedonistic, devil-may-care
leather-clad biker gang of Wild Angels (modeled after the Hell's
Angels) from the San Pedro chapter (Venice Beach, California) mounted
on Harleys, and his girlfriend or 'old lady' Mike aka 'Monkey' (Nancy
Sinatra); Blues' iconic appearance included a black leather jacket,
a black turtleneck, a Nazi Iron Cross pendant around his neck, dark
shades, and moppish brown hair
- the sequence of the gang's search for the missing
stolen chopper of Blues' buddy Joe Kearns, aka Loser (Bruce Dern)
- with his girlfriend Gaysh (Diane Ladd, Dern's real-life wife);
Loser was recently fired from his oil-rigging job; the bike was rumored
to be in the desert town of Mecca, California (in the 'Inland Empire'
desert, in the Coachella Valley in the southern Palm Springs area)
where some of the gang taunted Mexican bikers in a chopper repair
shop with ethnic slurs ("taco benders") and then engaged
in a fist-fight brawl with them
- during the melee, Loser stole a cop's Electra Glide
in Blue parked motorcycle; in pursuit, a second Highway Patrol cop
on a bike - "The Man" - shot Loser in the back, although
the officer lost control and crashed down a cliffside; Loser suffered
serious injuries and was arrested at a roadblock
- the Mecca group returned to the rest of the gang
- engaged in rowdy dancing and drinking at a desert oasis (they were
watched over by the Highway Patrol from the road above), where some
of the females (in their bras) used their discarded tops for a game
of motorcycle 'bullfighting,' rabbits were chased in the scrub-brush,
and some bikers jousted with long palm fronds
- the scene of the gang's attempt to rescue Loser
from an emergency ward/hospital after surgery was performed; Mike
posed as Loser’s distraught, 'straight' middle-class sister
from Los Angeles to fool the hospital police guard (Frank Gerstle);
during the misguided escape plan, hot-headed gang member Joint (Lou
Procopio) molested innocent black Nurse (Kim Hamilton) on duty
- during transport, Loser's IV and bottle drip were
removed, and he slowly died; he was able to express to Gaysh and
the gang his final request to smoke a joint ("I just wanna get
high"), and then exclaimed: "You all really busted me out" before
expiring
- the lengthy ending sequence of Loser's chaotic and
depraved funeral in a small-town church, where his casket was draped
with a swastika flag; Blues interrupted the religious eulogy from
the sanctimonious Bible-quoting Preacher (Frank Maxwell), and delivered
his own famous rambling and inarticulate statement of life principles
and the desire for freedom - "We don't want nobody tellin' us
what to do. We don't want nobody pushin' us around...We wanna be
free. We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to
ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled
by the Man! And we wanna get loaded! And we want to have a good time!
And that’s what we’re gonna do! We're gonna have a good
time. We're gonna have a party!"
- the funeral degenerated into blasphemous anarchy when
the gang became violent - it destroyed the church and its pews, and
Blues knocked out the Preacher trying to flee; gang members began
to party to the beat of bongos, fueling their violent orgy with alcohol
and drugs; Dear John (Buck Taylor) and Frankenstein (Mark Cavell)
assaulted Loser's 'widowed' Gaysh, forced her to inhale cocaine,
and then gang-raped her behind the organ; one person carved a swastika
into a broken wooden pew
- two gang members pulled Loser's corpse from its coffin
and propped it upright against a wall with a joint in its mouth ("I
think the Loser looks better than the Preacher") and then placed
the tied-up preacher into the casket; Blues cast aside Mike and took
Momma Monahan (Joan Shawlee) behind the coffin for sex, but then
punched out a fellow gang member for dancing with Mike
Loser's Debauched Funeral Service
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Rape of Gaysh
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Desecrating Loser's Corpse
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Sex Behind the Coffin
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- further disturbances broke out after a processional
of bikes to the nearby local Sequoia Grove Memorial Cemetery for
the coffin's burial in the ground, when one of the townsfolk (Peter
Bogdanovich was in the crowd) threw a rock at the pallbearers and
ignited a scuffle
- the final image of Blues at his friend Loser's open
gravesite, as police sirens blared; Blues delivered his final words
to Mike as he abandoned his gang and stayed behind in the cemetery
to take the blame: "There's nowhere to go"; he grabbed
a shovel and began filling in the gravesite with dirt as the film
ended
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