Product Description

When he loses his job, gas station attendant Poet (Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson) falls in with a rough band of Hells Angels who terrorize Northern California in a hellraising frenzy of parties and gang fights. Choppers, drugs, sex, murder and mayhem ensue as Poet and gang leader Buddy (Adam Roarke) head down a dark road to danger. From acclaimed cult director Richard Rush (The Stunt Man) with cinematography by the legendary László Kovács (Easy Rider, Paper Moon) and music by Stu Phillips (Battlestar Gallactica, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15789 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2003-12-30
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
This pair of Joe Solomon-produced biker dramas are two of the better examples of the '60s subgenre. Jack Nicholson stars in Hell's Angels on Wheels as a moody cycle-riding gas station attendant adopted by Adam Roarke's gang when he jumps into a friendly bar fight. It's a fairly blatant rip-off of Roger Corman's The Wild Angels, but director Richard Rush (who next teamed up with Nicholson for the counterculture classic Psych-Out) offers up a lifestyle that's less nihilistic than simply meaningless and winds the unlikely friendship between restless Nicholson and rootless Roarke into an inevitable clash over basic philosophical differences (namely, Jack wants Adam's girl, and Adam wants Jack to kowtow to his leadership). William Smith is an unusual hero in Run Angel Run: he's a sellout on the run from vengeful biker clubs up and down the coast. Director Jack Starrett, a former actor in biker movies himself (Hell's Angels on Wheels, among others), creates a taut little picture highlighted by impressive stunts (Smith jumps onto the flat car of a moving train). Smith's brooding, taciturn performance mellows when he takes a job on a rural sheep farm and connects with a career farmer who used to be a barnstorming biker in the 1950s. "I gotta be free man, I gotta fly," confesses Angel, but at what price? Both pictures were cheaply made for quick playoff, but there's an interesting attempt to explore the tension between the thrill of the road and the hollow activity passing for freedom. The set comes in a cool-looking 8 by 12 tin storage container, but the tapes do not have separate video sleeves. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Good biker flick
I've seen this one three or four times on Speedvision. Kind of ruthless toward the women but conveys the style of the Hell's Angels. Too bad about Adam Roarke. He was a good guy, a pretty good actor, stunt man and.... well he died a little before his time. I could call myself a biker but my Kawasaki Z1R although quick doesn't quite fit the image of a Harley Davidson. Some how Jack Nicholson just doesn't fit in either. Sonny "Ralph" Barger sure does!

Pre-Easy Rider Nicholson
Please don't listen to the people making clueless comments about this film. It was theatrically released in the 1960s and was seen as a departure from the standard AIP biker fare. Directed by Richard Rush, years before "Stunt Man," and featuring members of the Hells Angels, this film featured Jack Nicholson as a potential member of the Angels. There's little "action" and the fluid camera movement have led it to be known as "Hells Angels On Quaaludes." Not as bad as the other reviews have made it out to be.

Adam Roarke has BIGGER Screen presence than Nicholson! !!!
This is One of Those TRUE GUILTY PLEASURES !!! This even Seems Better then Corman's The Wild Angels Which came out Earlier, This movie shows more of the True Brotherhood of what its like to be in a Real Outlaw Biker Gang !!! There are Even real Hells Angel Alums in this film Like Sonny Barger and Adam Roarke...The Ending seems a little Hurried though, thats my only Gripe...Over all a Great Ride of a Film !!! :)