The Wild One

MARLON BRANDO rides into town leading a pack of wild motorcycle riders who proceed to terrorize a hick town before LEE MARVIN shows up and gets into a drunken fight with Brando (as Johnny). Meantime, Johnny flirts dangerously with a cop's daughter (MARY MURPHY) who runs a cafe. Her father is played by ROBERT KEITH, a lawman who's reticent about using his authority with a bunch of motorcycle thugs.

Tension builds when Keith manages to haul Lee Marvin off to jail. Brando's buddies manage to get a hold of one of the town bullies and put him in the jail cell with the drunken Marvin who has passed out. They then go on a wild rampage but not before some of the town's men decide to form a vigilante squad and go after Brando. Brando has a brief romantic fling with the girl who realizes loving him is a lost cause.

***** POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD ***** The plot moves swiftly to a conclusion once the girl is able to convince the authorities that he wasn't responsible for the death of an elderly bystander hit by a motorcycle.

Stanley Kramer production has a nice, tense background score by Leith Stevens.

Summing up: Early Brando is impressive to watch, but much of the dialog is very dated and anchored firmly in the 1950s by the slang and be-bop expressions and overall concept of the film.

Famous for the moment when a girl taunts him with: "What are you rebelling against?"

Brando's terse reply: "What have you got?"

A peaceable town is taken over by motorcycle rowdies.

Despite the sometimes frat boy antics of gang members, the movie came across to audiences of the time as something of a 50's nightmare. For example, there's a small town taken over by motorcycle outlaws, a virginal girl (Murphy) surrounded by rowdies, a cop too meek to intervene, and a general breakdown of peace, quiet and conformity. In short, it's a challenge to the every day norms the famously inarticulate Johnny (Brando) is rebelling against. It's that sort of restlessness that takes the gang to the highway, and the excitement they seek. But it's also a nation recovering from the rigors of a big Depression and the disruptions of WWII. So the two are bound to clash. The movie may seem tame by today's graphic standards, but for the 1950's it was a barbarian assault against the decade's defining conventions. No wonder, the film was condemned in so many places.

Truth be told, Brando doesn't act so much as he poses. Nonetheless, it's an iconic pose in cap and sunglasses that shot him to the forefront of the decade's celebrated rebels. For example, catch how delicately he positions the sunglasses or how he slouches silently by while others cavort. Still, the movie really comes alive when Lee Marvin (Chino) and his gang hit town. He's the loudmouth opposite of Johnny, looking to knock him off his regal pose, which he tries in a well-staged fistfight. Then there's Mary Murphy's good girl, a perfect casting choice. When she flees down a darkened street just ahead of the motorcycle rowdies, I could feel frozen shudders all over the theater of that day. It was like small town America about to be ravaged. Of course, the tables are turned when some of the town's bolder elements form into vigilantes and chase Johnny down the same street. I guess violence, as they say, really is a two-way street.

Anyway, the movie's still a milestone worth catching up with. My only gripe is with the cheapness of the production. The town and the sets are bare bones, especially in the movie's latter half. Maybe that was intentional in order to highlight the story. But if so, it came at the expense of a realistic undercurrent, especially the atrocious exterior set for Johnny and Kathie's little get-away, appearing more like a stage play than a film. All in all, it's a signature movie for the young Brando, cementing his rebel image for a generation.

Brando is his archetypal mean and moody self, as the original rebel on a motorcycle terrorising smalltown America. The enduring iconic images from the film have weathered better than the film itself, however, but it still stands up as a paean to disaffected youth.

When Johnny and the boys ride into town all hell breaks loose, with a culture clash between themselves and the 'squares', resulting in tragedy and some reconciliation. These boys look tame compared to today's standards (they even pay for their own beer!) but they don't fit in and so are immediately ostracised by a grown-up world that doesn't understand their jive-talking, anti-social behaviour. Johnny's reply when asked, "What are you rebelling against?" says it all..."Whatta you got?", with a sneer for good measure.

Time hasn't been kind to the film, and it's hard to see why it was banned in the UK for 18 years (mainly down to the lack of any retribution for the gang), but there is still a tight story and strong characterisation. It's a pity the film descends needlessly into melodrama, losing much of it's credibility in the process.

Every so often that movie comes along that defies everything, everyone and all expectations. It reaches beyond the realms of mere big screen entertainment and constructs iconography and archetypes that are so enduring that to this day they are relevant and have an effect. Make no mistake about it, The Wild One is THE first movie to represent a youth culture of any description. People cite Rebel Without A Cause as the first youth culture movie BUT this movie came before and in my opinion, is by far the better movie

The story centres on Johnny Strabler (Marlon Brando) and his motorcycle gang who terrorise a small California town alongside another motorcycle gang led by Chino (a young Lee Marvin). After Chino's arrest for out of hand antics, the gangs run wild during the night, doing with the town as they please, from attacking the telephone operator, freeing Chino from prison to attacking a citizens house whom they believe responsible for Chino's arrest and accosting just about every female in the town. While Johnny is not totally blameless for this he is most definitely NOT the instigator that everyone makes him out to be. This does not stop the townspeople adopting a mob mentality and going at Johnny with all guns blazing. However while they are planning this there is a love story unfolding between Johnny and the daughter of a cop, a love story that is never truly consummated. The cops daughter had intrigued Johnny since the beginning since she had appeared untouchable. He saves her from the wrath of the rest of the B.R.M.C. (the name given to Johnny's motorcycle gang) and takes her to a forest where, after some heated Academy Award flavoured dialogue and a kiss and a slap, the cops daughter runs from Johnny, although not FROM Johnny. The running stands for a metaphor related to suburban societal entrapment. Johnny is later caught and battered by the mob until the towns cop unknowingly stalls the mob for Johnny to escape. Johnny grabs his motorcycle and attempts to ride out when something (a tyre iron) is thrown at the wheel of his moving bike and causing is to fly out of control and into an elderly citizen. And when it seems that Johnny is going to go to jail for an extremely LONG time, a couple of towns people including the cops daughter decide to tell a few truths that help Johnny get out of it. Johnny and his boys leave town never to return.

The mere storyline of this movie is simply not enough to translate exactly what it is that this movie stands for and is responsible for. A scene that is, and forever shall be ingrained into the Hollywood psyche is when Johnny is standing by a jukebox and one of his gang members is dancing with a girl and she asks, `B.R.M.C., what does that stand for?'. Johnny's gang member replies `The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club' and she replies `Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?' and he replies, in what could very possibly be the most career defining sentence that has ever been uttered on-screen, `Whaddya got?'. Now in this day and age that comes across as incredibly trite and corny but in those days, in that social environment that existed in Western Culture, that movie was called incendiary and ran into censorship troubles (cue The Hayes Code) and in England was banned outright until sometime in the mid 70s. While watching this movie one must remain totally and utterly aware of the context of this movie.

Another the scene that was the cause of many a raised eyebrow and was exactly what makes every kid on earth that's ever been condescended to by teacher and parents and the like, totally empathise is the scene where the cops daughter and the cop have saved Johnny's life and Johnny is being read the riot act by the Sheriff and he just sits there, looking at the floor (c'mon guys, u know you've been in that position before) totally listening but appearing as if he isn't. As Johnny is strutting out of the room the cop stop him by asking if he has anything to say to these people who have basically saved his life (at least from jail). The cop even prompts him so far as to say `You could at least say 'Thank You'. Johnny doesn't move, doesn't turn to look at them, doesn't speak. This silence is broken by the cops daughter who says `It's OK, he doesn't know how'. This on it's own cements John Strabler and the most archetypal rebel. The key here is in relating to the character. Everybody, from your typical f***ed-up suburban teenager, to your urban delinquents to a three year old can understand the complexities and the moral stand that is taken by someone when they decide that they will not do things like apologise or thank people.

Youth rebellion was a complete and utter non entity in the 50s, no one could fathom kids doing things like this. Kids up until the 50s merely did what there parents did. This movie was the first to challenge all this, to challenge class oppression and gender roles even, as there are women (shock, horror) as members of Chino's motorcycle gang. This could be the most exceptional piece of filmmaking that EVER happened. I guarantee you that in no matter what town you live in that if you walk down the street you will see some degree of influence from this movie on the people you encounter. Without this movie the following things would not be the same in society:

1) There would be no Rockabilly music of the same fashionable kind 2) There would have to be ANOTHER image of the rebel, possibly the James Dean created image of the rebel because this one would not be 3) There would be no movies the way they are today in terms of youth rebellion (this movie challenged censorship sensibilities) 4) The punk rock movement would be utterly different (Jesus Christ, Sid Vicious has Marlon Brando's jacket, not to mention The Ramones) 5) A lot of modern music, The B.R.M.C. for instance would not be the band they are

The point being made here is that the effect of this movie is beyond mere moviedom. It defined a times, it defined an actor (Marlon Brando), is was fresh and vibrant, it was a kick in the ass for those censors, those self appointed guardians of morality who dare to tell us what to watch and how to watch it and when to watch it. Since this movie a million movies in its vein have emerged, all defining their era. For the 60s there was Easy Rider and Head, for the 70s there was Stayin Alive, and Saturday Night Fever, For the 80s there was Falling Down and for the 90s there was a torrent of them, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Human Traffic BUT, The Wild One was the first, the unadulterated masterpiece that is now an indelible mark on Hollywood, no American, no Western Culture that will for ever stand testament to the fact that, WE ARE SO F***ING COOL!!! (kids that is JJ)

From what I understand this movie was one of the first films about biker gangs and due to its well-deserved reception resulted in a number of similar movies since then. Essentially, "Johnny Strabler" (played by Marlon Brando) is the leader of a motorcycle club known as the Black Rebels which just happens to ride into the small California town of Wrightsville. Upon entering the local café he spies a young waitress by the name of "Kathie Bleeker" (Mary Murphy) and decides to get to know her a little better. Not long afterward another motorcycle gang called the Beetles also arrives and their leader, named "Chino" (Lee Marvin), decides to provoke Johnny into a fight in the middle of the street. One thing leads to another and Chino is eventually arrested which causes both motorcycle clubs to spend the night in Wrightsville. That's when all hell breaks loose. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that although this film is rather dated it still manages to entertain fairly well. I especially liked the performances of both Marlon Brando and Mary Murphy who both played their parts quite well. In any case, I recommend this movie to all of those who might enjoy a film of this nature and rate it as above average.