2/27/08: Angels Hard As They Come (1971)We’re ambling back to things here at the site, starting with this tribute to Jack Fisk—who should’ve won an Oscar this past weekend for his Art Direction on
There Will Be Blood. It must’ve taken a lot of work to keep that film from looking like a puppet show between The Evil Face of Big Oil and The Evil Face of Organized Religion. Amazingly, this was Fisk’s first nomination, despite an impressive career that we dwelled on in our write-up of
Messiah of Evil.
The guy deserves an Oscar just for being married to the same woman for over 30 years—as further detailed in that
Messiah of Evil write-up, although you have to go to the comments to find our correction. We’re not sure why we originally thought the guy was divorced. One thing we got right was that Fisk also worked on
The Peace Killers. That means our hero worked on two 1971 classics about one of our favorite topics—mainly, violent war between hippies and bikers.
Angels Hard As They Come starts with a drug deal gone postponed. This leaves biker Long John killing some time with cohorts Monk and Juicer. Long John is played by Scott Glenn, and it’s a strangely laconic performance. He seems like a biker who turned to drug dealing after that audition for The Monkees didn’t work out. Anyway, the trio runs into some bikers from The Dragons, and accepts their invitation to join in crashing at a hippie commune.
This starts out with us liking The Dragons. One member takes pride in how his “precision machine”—everybody’s riding choppers here—“takes only the finest fuel.” Everyone agrees that premium gas is the only thing to put in a tank, and they all drink Coors (aka Rocky Mountain Kool-Aid).
Things don’t go as well when the Angels head over to the ghost town of Lost Cause. It turns out that the Dragons’ leader is a psycho called The General—played by Charles Dierkop in a true star turn. This will lead to a dead hippie girl, a mock trial for the Angels, and a big finish where the hippies finally take up arms—but only because their leader (played by a then-likable Gary Busey) is too stupid to notice that he found an important piece of evidence at the murder scene.
Until then, it’s a nice draw between the bikers and the hippies over who’s the most idiotic. Long John takes notice of hippie girl Astrid, and they start talking when he sees she’s been sketching the scene where he first rode into town. He asks which of the people in the drawing is supposed to be him.
“I can make you anyone I want,” Astrid sweetly replies.
“Well,” shouts Long John, “I’m not anyone—I’m
me!”
Astrid thinks that’s charming. She would’ve loved Jack Nicholson having that stupid argument about getting some toast in
Five Easy Pieces.
Their conversation ends up with Astrid complaining about Altamont and Long John accusing her of being part of the Manson Family. Other highlights include black biker Monk coming across racist swingers in a dune buggy, and plenty of moments where crazy Dragons and sensible Angels yell at the hippies. The General tells one to go “pick some flowers—do your thing, maaan!” Meanwhile, Long John lectures Busey: “They could do your own mother right in front of you, and you’d flash the peace sign.”
Sadly, the military doesn’t fly over and drop an atom bomb at the end. All parties involved are stoners, and they head off like the apartment inhabitants in David Cronenberg’s
They Came From Within. The gang members are riding amazing bikes, though, with plenty of chrome and other bright things to hold their attention. The hippies’ van—“a hippie motel,” says one biker—is a lot less interesting. Fisk strikes again.
Make it your own: Unlike
The Peace Killers,
Angels Hard As They Come is plentiful and cheap on home video. Take your choice of low-budget DVDs.
This print isn't bad, but there are plenty of other versions around for less than a dollar. Sadly, the biker-film bundle that includes
C.C. & Company is hard to find.
