Angels Hard as They Come

1971 "An eye for an eye... a piece for a piece."
4.6| 1h25m| R| en
Details

A group of crazy bikers meet up with a group of drug-addicted hippies in a small town, but the two roving factions are soon at odds with one another and chaos ensues.

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Reviews

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
JD Yes, I'm admitting I was there, and enjoyed the entire film process. Yes, the director included the rape scene, and filmed an "Insert" close-up shot of the girls face just for dramatic effect. The young lady in question was placed against a tree trunk, and four of us held her down while she thrashed about dramatically. Great performance, kudos. As I recall, I was stationed on her right hand, and great fun was had by all.The party scene, took at least two tries, due to the over enthusiastic performance by all in the room. The beer was warm, and spewed all over the place. Some of the girls needed to be paid additional money to go topless, and others needed to be paid to leave the top on. We filmed at the old (now closed) Calabasas movie ranch, some on the El Mirage dry lake, some at the still operating "Rock House". The entire production was supported by "Cinemobile Systems" and I drove the small Cinemobile Ford truck with all the equipment aboard.The second unit I believe was near Glamis CA. for the dune-buggy stuff. (I was not on the second unit crew) I recently found this entire film on YouTube.com and enjoyed watching it again.
Woodyanders Several members of the outlaw biker gang the Angels are framed for the rape and murder of hippie gal Astrid (a solid and appealing portrayal by the fetching Gilda Texter, who was the nude motorcycle rider in "Vanishing Point") by psychotic rival biker gang leader the General (fiercely played with fire-breathing ferocity by Charles Dierkop).Director Joe Viola keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains a gritty tone throughout, makes neat use of the dusty desert ghost town main location, and delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity. The clever script by Viola and Jonathan Demme makes valid points about loyalty, betrayal, the abuse of power and authority, and the failure of the 1960's hippie love generation, with the passive pacifist mentality embraced by the hippies being taken cruel advantage of by the more hostile and aggressive bikers. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Scott Glenn as the confused, but basically decent Long John, James Iglehart as the amiable Monk, Gary Littlejohn as the traitorous Axe, Gary Busey as easygoing longhair Henry, Janet Wood as the friendly Vicki, Dirty Denny as the scrappy Rings, Don Carrera as the addled Juicer, and Brendan Kelly as the sarcastic Brain. The rough'n'tumble fight scenes deliver the exciting goods. The funky-throbbing score by Richard Hieronymous hits the get-down groovy spot. Best of all, the bikers are drawn with some depth and come across as the genuinely grungy article. A worthwhile grindhouse item.
Scott_Mercer As a biker movie, this is great. As an action film, it is pretty good. As a drama, it's awful.But if you want sleazy 60's style biker action, this film delivers in spades. I've seen most of the biker films from 1965-1973 (the original era), and I'd put this one near the top. These bikers are convincingly dirty, scummy and backstabbing (in more ways than one). They are some of the most bearded, shower-needing, dirt-eating, denim vest wearing reprobates that I have seen on film. I had the DVD of this film for a long time before I watched it, and I'm sorry I waited so long.You get sleazy, evil bikers lured to a ghost town and challenged and put upon by some other, even more sleazy, supremely evil bikers. There's also some hippies there, but they are basically pawns in the power game between the two biker factions. Soon enough, things move from drinking, sex and drag racing, to fist fighting, injuries and murder, as things get more and more intense and people's "honor" comes into play more and more.The bikers here don't meet up with with straight society; such people are barely seen in this film (a few police cars pass by a few times). There's just an arena, and two groups of gladiators doing combat with each other. Pure conflict between two wild animals, with no outside influences coming in to complicate things.I'd put this film right up there with The Wild Angels and Hells' Angels 69 for biker movie thrills. Also check out a crazy over-the-top biker thing, The Tormentors, if you can find it.I'd like to add that this film is Public Domain due to some idiot at Roger Corman's company failing to place a copyright notice on it. Therefore, you might be able to find a DVD of this film for as little as $1, or part of a multi-pack for cheap. If you do find this film for a dollar, then you have no excuse to avoid picking it up. It's a don't miss recommendation at that price, unless you don't like biker movies at all.
phil-lynch I mistakenly watched this DVD thinking it would offer something slightly different from the usual Hell's Angels road movies. The fact that the title suffixes "As hard as they come" I was literally expecting a proper blood & guts flick-instead I got a 2nd rate movie length version of a staple A-Team story line! The basic premise is Long John (Scott Glenn) is seen arranging a shady drugs deal out in the desert with his buddies Juicer (Don Carrera) and Monk (James Inglehart). They get tailed by the police but eventually lose them and end up at a petrol station.Here they meet fellow road warriors "The Dragons" and are invited to a hippy commune that the Dragons have gatecrashed-for a party.Basically, we discover that the Dragons are a little heavy handed with the hippies, climaxing in the attempted gang rape of one of the hippy chicks that Long John has taken a liking to. Long John intervenes and in the melee the hippy chick gets stabbed.After a Kangaroo court presided over by the Dragons leader "the General" (Charles Dierkop) the Angels are found guilty and sentenced to "fun & games" (dragged around on the back of the Hogs) and eventually death.Monk escapes and alerts the rest of the gang and the Hippies finally get some backbone to help the Angels. The movie's finale is of the Angels whupping the Dragons and everyone going their separate ways.The "violent" scenes are marred by terrible lighting and really bad 70's fisticuffs, the movie is clichéd and doesn't work on any level-it's not even amusing from a nostalgia point of view.Rent/Buy this movie at your peril!