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Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Sam Panico 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.

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.

MisterWhiplash On the one hand, after watching Angels Hard as They Come, I could understand why it's not higher rated or even been seen anymore than the common garden-variety B-movie biker flick, as it is true shamelessly Corman-style. On the other hand, I ended really liking how it was executed. The collaborators, Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme, wring out plenty of dirty fun out of such violent and twisted material without 'softening' it up like some biker movies of the period. It's got almost no characters from the 'outside' world, just bikers, and maybe a few hippies (and yes, one of them an out-of-place and amusingly one-note Gary Busey). So part of the entertainment comes from bikers just being as rough and crazy as possible. But with this the writers come up with some unexpectedly funny moments, some more harsh than others, and sometimes even commenting on some of the absurdities of the Dragons. This is done dialog-wise many times- as Viola's style isn't nearly as strong or affecting as Demme provides- and sometimes through ideas shown and it all being realistic even as its crudely artificial.One such scene, as a quick example, is when the leader of the pack General (Charles Dierkop as a well-played maniac) is seen from the waist up having short moment of pleasure, then as the camera pans down his motorcycle is getting a cleaning (pun intended, but then the title itself is almost there just for a goof). Or in having one of the side characters, the one black character of a story, adrift in the desert, almost putting to a stop the Corman rule of there being almost constant danger &/or fights &/or sex/nudity/et all. Other ideas abound in the crazy extremities that the Dragons go through against the three Angels (one being Scott Glenn in maybe the best 'acting' of the film), including a final idea that never does come to fruition. All through, the filmmakers basically acknowledge what kind of film they're making, and don't skimp out on the early biker movies might not have dealt with, at least as much. Rape, racism, torture, pure decadence and decay in the devastation. But the factor of it all having practically a Western-movie element to it, a B-Western at that, is not thrown away for a story without focus.It's arcane and simplistic in music, usually exploitative in themes and character, and it's got the cinematic flavor of a beer soaked ashtray. But to hell if it isn't one of my favorites of its kind, if only on the most guilty-pleasure level.

Infofreak 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.