Angels Hard as They Come (1971)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jonathan Demme (Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs) impressed Roger Corman with his writing ability and was asked if he wanted to try a motorcycle movie. His idea? Rashomon on motorcycles. He turned to his friend Joe Viola, a commercial director, and created this film.Long John (Scott Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs), Juicer and Monk (James Inglehart, Randy Black from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!) get caught up in a busted drug deal before meeting up with the Dragons gang and heading to a ghost town. There, they meet a hippie commune, where Long John falls for Astrid. They argue over the bikers being evil because of Altamont while he counters that hippies have been tainted by Manson.The Dragons do, too. A fight ensues and Long John's girl gets raped and stabbed, with the Dragons framing the Angels. Their leader, the General (Charles Dierkop, the gas station attendant in Messiah of Evil) sentences them to fun and games, which means they all get dragged behind motorcycles. Monk escapes and organizes the rest of the gang, leading to a violent battle to end all biker battles.This movie is packed with long bike riding montages, sex, drugs, debauchery, mayhem and a young Gary Busey. It's talky, though and if you're not super into biker movies, this is probably not the one to start with.

Saw this on netflix when I looked up The Harder They Come. Really fun movie until the virginesque girl gets gang raped and killed but for some reason no one is really freaked out and the movie sorta continues on without missing her. There are some fun gems in this movie like the really smooth drug dealer guy in the beginning who seems half asleep and the funny dialogue between the bikers in the beginning. Also mixed in is a little racial conflict. Like when the dune buggying wasp couple finds the escaped good guy who happens to be black. The guy wasp admonishes the tired/thirsty man for being on welfare but then asks his girlfriend to have sex with guy, when he refuses they try to run him over with the dune buggy! The bad guys come straight outta sixties westerns except for the gang raping parts-which can be really upsetting but the fact that the movie was made by Jonathan Demme(Silence of the Lambs) sorta makes sense, as the late sixties and seventies B movies were training grounds for future directors("Duel"-Spielberg). This movie is basically a sexplotation and violenceplotation flick but it has its unique moments, netflix it now. And while your at it, get "Inglorious Bastards." When people say the 1970's was a focal point for which creativitey exploded away from itself into separate factions-I believe it when I see this movie.

What an awful movie ... A bunch of "hip" motorcyclists invade a California ghost town called "Lost Cause". There, they confront a rival gang of bikers and some hippies. The story has no real point to it, nor any theme that I could detect.There are way too many characters. And none of them are interesting. But they sure are "tough". They drink lots of booze. They smoke. They swear. They fight. They kiss their babes. They kick up a lot of ruckus. They emit dialogue like: "Lay it on me man" ... "I don't want a beer now, man" ... "Let's dig it, man" ... "I hope this works, man" ... "Make it good, man". They all act like rowdy ten-year-olds on a school playground.And that playground is not the least bit interesting. Lost Cause looks like the back lot of some movie studio. The film's color cinematography is dreadful. Some of the images are either blurred or out of focus. Interior lighting is too dim. You would think that the filmmaker could have at least inserted some good music from that era; alas, no.Just because it's a biker movie doesn't mean that viewers will tolerate a shabby screenplay, bad acting, or poor quality visuals. There are good biker films out there. "Angels Hard As They Come" is not one of them. At least the ghost town has an appropriate name. It's a good metaphor for this film.

Fans of 1960/70s exploitation movies will flip over this one! Jonathan Demme originally pitched the project to Roger Corman as "a biker Rashomon". Now that's not exactly how it ended up, but it's still terrific viewing for cult fans nonetheless. Demme co-wrote and co-produced and his pal Joe Viola directed. Viola and Demme were then involved with the women-in-prison movies 'The Hot Box' and 'Black Mama, White Mama' before they parted ways. Viola concentrated on writing for TV while Demme eventually became a major Hollywood director. Scott Glenn, who in the 90s co-starred in Demme's enormously successful 'The Silence Of The Lambs', plays Long John, a biker who gets invited to a ghost town where some Hell's Angels are partying with some local hippies. Unfortunately a girl is murdered and Long John and his pals are accused by the bikers leader The General (Charles Dierkop, of 'Police Woman' fame, and the Killer Santa in 'Silent Night, Deadly Night'). They face a kangaroo court and then... well, imagine your worst. Glenn and Dierkop are both great to watch but the real icing on the cake is the supporting cast which includes Gary Busey as an unlikely hippie, biker regular Gary Littlejohn, 'Vanishing Point's nude motorcycle girl Gilda Texter, James Inglehart (Randy Black in Russ Meyer's trash classic 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls'), Janet Wood (who as Sweet Li'L Alice featured in the unforgettable naked knife fight with Raven De La Croix in Meyer's 'Up!'), and even - get this! - the fat guy from Sam Fuller's 'Shock Corridor' (Larry Tucker) as a cat called Lucifer! Such a cast makes 'Angels Hard As They Come' essential viewing for all fans of psychotronic cinema! Don't overlook this forgotten biker gem.