Angels Hard as They Come (1971)

Why so much hype?

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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.

I, John Hand, was the editor of CUSTOM CHOPPER Magazine in 1971 and I had a car and bike painter friend named Bill Carter who was appearing in the movie with his Harley. So I went out to the desert and watched them shoot some scenes. I put a report of this movie in my magazine but I have to admit that I never saw the movie later. Mr Demme the director sent me a letter with some clarifications about the movie and I put the letter in my magazine. Jonathan Demme, the director also told me to keep my eye on Scott Glenn, because he was going to go places. Well, as it turned out, they both went on to make and star in the big blockbuster and award winner SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Who would have thought?

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.

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.