Starring: Adam Roarke, Jack Nicholson, Sabrina Scharf, Jana Taylor, Richard Anders Directed By: Richard Rush Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only) Binding: DVD Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: U.S. Films Inc. Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 30, 2003 Running Time: 95 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1967-06
Description: When he loses his job, gas station attendant Poet (Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson) falls in with a rough band of Hells Angels who terrorize Northern California in a hellraising frenzy of parties and gang fights. Choppers, drugs, sex, murder and mayhem ensue as Poet and gang leader Buddy (Adam Roarke) head down a dark road to danger. From acclaimed cult director Richard Rush (The Stunt Man) with cinematography by the legendary László Kovács (Easy Rider, Paper Moon) and music by Stu Phillips (Battlestar Gallactica, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls).
Amazon.com: This pair of Joe Solomon-produced biker dramas are two of the better examples of the '60s subgenre. Jack Nicholson stars in Hell's Angels on Wheels as a moody cycle-riding gas station attendant adopted by Adam Roarke's gang when he jumps into a friendly bar fight. It's a fairly blatant rip-off of Roger Corman's The Wild Angels, but director Richard Rush (who next teamed up with Nicholson for the counterculture classic Psych-Out) offers up a lifestyle that's less nihilistic than simply meaningless and winds the unlikely friendship between restless Nicholson and rootless Roarke into an inevitable clash over basic philosophical differences (namely, Jack wants Adam's girl, and Adam wants Jack to kowtow to his leadership). William Smith is an unusual hero in Run Angel Run: he's a sellout on the run from vengeful biker clubs up and down the coast. Director Jack Starrett, a former actor in biker movies himself (Hell's Angels on Wheels, among others), creates a taut little picture highlighted by impressive stunts (Smith jumps onto the flat car of a moving train). Smith's brooding, taciturn performance mellows when he takes a job on a rural sheep farm and connects with a career farmer who used to be a barnstorming biker in the 1950s. "I gotta be free man, I gotta fly," confesses Angel, but at what price? Both pictures were cheaply made for quick playoff, but there's an interesting attempt to explore the tension between the thrill of the road and the hollow activity passing for freedom. The set comes in a cool-looking 8 by 12 tin storage container, but the tapes do not have separate video sleeves. --Sean Axmaker
Hells Angels fight then ride then fight then ride.......... First of all, this movie was worth 10 bucks. If for no other reason than to see young Jack Nicholson talking the talk and hitting the road with some real and genuine Hells Angels. Sonny Barger wrote that Jack fit right in with the boys and even had a perfect San Quentin shuffle. Roark's lead role, however, was a bad charicature of the 1960's slow talking "Hey, man," motor scooter types. With nearly no script, and even less of a story line, it's all about these mean dudes banding together like a brotherhood should, rolling through towns and tangling with the local good old boys, or service men, partying with body paints and getting hassled by "The Man." The very serious ending actually made me laugh out loud! Dont expect art with this film. BUT, its quite entertaining to us Red Wing wearing motorcycle enthusiasts.
Hells Angels on Wheels A great movie, really fun and captures the feeling of the time
Casual Biker Movie Nicolson could have been a real Angel. A classic for your library. Most enjoyable.
Great entertainment This is the best Biker movie I have seen so far. Once again, Jack proves he can do it all. Pretty raw for a sixties movie, and they didn't do much to squash the perception of the Outlaw Biker. I am a Biker, and at times can be pretty critical of Biker movies, but this was a very entertaining flick.
One of the Best Biker Flics Hells Angels on Wheels is, by far, one of the best examples of a sixties biker movie. Right from the opening credits where we see various California Angels getting on their bikes and heading off through the streets of San Francisco, to the big meeting up of Sonny Barger's Oakland crew and our own film gang, headed up by Adam Rourke. Jack Nicholson, as Poet, is the movie's standout performance, and, by all accounts, Jack blended in with the real Angels on the set to the point of being mistaken for one. The film does fall apart at the end, almost as if, after 90 minutes of action and continuity, the director just lost interest and wanted to wind it up as fast as possible. The bikes in this one are heavily featured and there are many examples of mid sixties choppers lovingly photographed by the great Leslie (Laslo) Kovacs. You can see the seed of many Easy Rider (also photographed by Kovacs) shots in Kovacs work on this film. This movie is probably the closest portrayal of the California Hells Angels ever made- even Sonny Barger doesn't completely hate it.
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