MovieChat Forums > The Wild Angels (1966) Discussion > And At 12 I Thought It Was The Best Movi...

And At 12 I Thought It Was The Best Movie EVER

posted 9 years ago by he88
4 replies | jump to latest

I saw this a few times when it came out, and when I look back now it's prime proof how easy it is for kids to get influenced by movies. I got the sound track (And listened to it over and over.....I actually thought it was good back then). I tried ti look and dress like a biker, I even did a home version of chopping my pedal bike (Big old butterfly handle bars and all), and just knew I too was going to be an Angel some day. Whew! I'm sure glad I grew out of all that.

I hadn't seen the movie or heard the music for around 47 years or so. I saw it available on one of the movie channels and recorded it. I almost tapped out when Fonda meets Dern at the oil derrick, but thought I'd hang in a while just to see what I might remember....I tapped out about 15 minutes later after they came back from Mecca.

This is really a stinker. The dialog is some of the worse. The acting was stiff, and the actors looked like rich kids playing bikers, but definitely not bikers (Even though Fonda did seem to handle his bike pretty well). I understand the real Angels tried to sue the producer and gave death threats because they thought the movie portrayed them as too violent. They should have been doing that for making a movie so bad that was supposedly related to them at all. I'd say more embarrassing than a bad rep.

Anyway it sure is amazing how things look so many years later. I had somewhat the same reaction about the Hippies I was accoiating with a few years later when Woodstock came out. I saw it again in my 50's and had a great laugh at those great "Words of Hippy Wisdom" in the film that seemed so damn right back then, but know I could see it for what it was....Kids who knew little, but thought they knew how it really was......I've said for many years.....If I ever got as smart as I thought I was as a kid I could probably move the stars....

[–] Ironman54 8 years ago

Did you ever see 'Wild In The Streets' (1968) ? Richard Pryor was in that one. I was one of those kids with a 'chip' on his shoulder. Thankfully I made it through that era without killing anyone or myself. Even more 'thanks' that it didn't come true as you and I would be on an old folks farm fed a diet of acid and sharing the place with a stoned out Shelly Winters ha ha !!

[–] he88 8 years ago

"Thirteen or fight." Yes...Another gem that I too thought was so cool when I was maybe fourteen myself.....What a dumb movie.....I'm surprised they found actors with screen credit to do the film

[–] ridge-m-1 8 years ago

Your impressions of the film as a kid are more valid than your revised opinion since now you have been "socialized". Look deeper and one finds the film is an authentic social commentary on the generation gap of the Sixties. There is none of the political correctness we find society mired in at present. This aficionado finds the movie to be an enjoyable time capsule of earlier times when there was till hope for the now declining Empire.

[–] he88 8 years ago

I'd except that with the likes of Easy Rider that may have been a bit cheesy too, but the actors made the difference. Even Fonda did well with Hopper co staring and Nicholson on board for part of the film.

Angels basically had Dern who could act, and Fonda who was stiff as hell in the roll. The writing was down right silly, and pretty much off base in many ways. If there was a deeper social message it was lost in such a low quality presentation