In Search of History - Hell's Angels (2005)

Are they romantic figures of rebellion, or traveling, rowdy misfits? Jump on you "hog" and ride along as we reveal the history of this motorcycle club with a punch! From inception by a former pilot from the "Hell's Angels" squadron, to the true incident on which "The Wild One" is based, to today, it's a ride you won't want to miss.

Interesting but does not give credit to the movies

I saw this documentary on TV, and have two criticisms.
First, the growth and transformation of the Hells Angels from a local motorcycle club to a multi-national organization that spans at least five continents (North America, Europe, (South) Africa, South America and Australia) has an interesting history.
This growth was caused in large part by interest in the group overseas sparked by lwo budget films such as "Wild Angels" and the whole slew of drive-in quality "biker flicks" that lasted from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. (Members of the Hells Angels appeared, usually as extras, in several of these including "Wild Angels," "Hells Angels on Wheels," and "Hells Angels '69."
It was an odd merging of myth, movies and reality with an increase in one giving a boost to the other two aspects of the group.
Second, as someone who collects these (odd) films, I was astonished to see how much of the footage shown in this documentary came from various drive-in biker films.
Again we have the odd melding of myth, movie and reality merging in this documentary.
Much of the other footage, including interviews, came from the documentary "Hells Angels Forever," a film that was produced by the Angels themselves as a public relations effort.
Therefore I felt this documentary gave about half the story and tried to exaggerate what it had in the way of information.
Still, it was interesting. I enjoyed it, but I think people who really enjoyed it might enjoy digging deeper as most of the footage came from sources that are already available to the public. April 29, 2008

Hell's Angels History Channel.

Great documentary. Great story of the Hell's Angels. Complete and good item for anybody like the story about this motorcycle club. A+A+A+A+A+. December 12, 2007

Hell Bound

This was a pretty good overview of the club, but of course only scratches the surfaces of the worlds most powerful outlaw biker gang. More footage of the gang in action in Nevada would of been nice as they stood thier ground and went toe to toe with the Mongols. November 19, 2007

Entertaining but mostly a re-hash of information available elsewhere.

The best part of this DVD is Sonny Barger telling the clubs history from his point of view. Had the whole DVD been based on Sonny and his version of history and then it would have been worth it.

The rest of it is middle class reportage of a rehash of what Hunter Thompson wrote and Yves Lavigne re-reported in their books.

The vintage photos seem to have been lifted from said books.

The videos of Altamont, restaurant and street scenes were interesting though. July 27, 2007

So-So documentary

Informative, But overpriced and not in- depth and complete according to other accounts. If you want to know about the HA, I would suggest reading Sonny Barger's book "Hells Angels". March 18, 2007

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