The Wild One (1953)

Synopsis:

A motorcycle gang arrives at a small town and instantly creates panic among the population. The locals try to get the bikers out of town to no avail.

Reaction & Thoughts:

Mildred: “Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?”

Johnny: “Whadda you got?”

 It’s generally accepted that Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is the best Hollywood movie about the 1950s youth culture. However, this odd biker gang movie about youth rebellion and alienation is praiseworthy as well — The Wild One deserves a place alongside the decade’s most interesting movies about disaffected young people.

What’s so unusual about The Wild One is that despite the presence of superstar Marlon Brando, this is, at its core, a B-movie. The movie looks and feels like a B-movie. Produced by Stanley Kramer (Judgement at Nuremberg), The Wild One is, however, more intriguing than a dozen of Class A Hollywood movies put together.

Admittedly, John Paxton (Crossfire) and Ben Maddow’s (The Asphalt Jungle) script is short on plot complications. All the same, Paxton and Maddow are able to craft a fascinating character study of a “rebel without a cause.” The story focuses on the emotionally aloof leader of a biker gang, Johnny Strabler, superbly played by the always magnetic Brando, an intriguing protagonist for many reasons.

Johnny wages a war against anything and everything that reeks mainstream America. This is a non-violent war, though. Unlike most movies about rebels, Johnny isn’t a man of action. He simply refuses to obey any rules, and, in doing so, the young man demonstrates that nothing frightens the status quo more than non-compliance.

The idea of aloofness as a deadly weapon is conveyed by Brando brilliantly. I don’t know how he did it, but he doesn’t have to say anything for you to know exactly what he is thinking — nobody is as good as Brando when he is quiet. It’s all the more amazing to find such a smart performance in what is essentially a little biker movie.

The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, except for actor Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen), who is terrifically menacing as Brando’s ruthless nemesis. There is a memorable fistfight sequence between Marvin and Brando, which serves to establish the personalities of the two characters. And that’s another reason why I liked the movie — The Wild One doesn’t waste a single frame, every moment is here for a specific reason.

Conclusions & Final Thoughts:

There is no rhyme or reason why some things are seared into the collective pop culture memory and others fade into obscurity. I wouldn’t say that The Wild One has been completely forgotten, but it has been overshadowed to a degree by Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The Wild One invents some biker movie clichés while tackling many serious issues. It isn’t as good as Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969), but Marlon Brando’s superb performance is not to be missed. B&W, 79 minutes, Not Rated.

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