|
“What are you rebelling against Johnny?”
“What have you got?”
These are the immortal lines taken from The Wild One, an innovative biker picture which brought to fruition the public’s fascination, distrust, and fear of bikie gangs who are viewed as modern day Vikings that swarm from town to town like locusts on metal horses whilst destroying everything in their path.
The Wild One focuses on one particular bikie gang who call themselves The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club. They are led by Johnny (Marlon Brando), a quiet yet volatile young man who has a disdain for authority.
In his leather clad outfit Brando cuts an imposing figure while also putting on an acting exercise on how to play a subtle, introverted character in what is really an exploitation film. Brando plays quiet so well, with every nod and gesture speaking a thousand words which his character is to proud to say.
The plot begins when the …Rebels hit a small conservative town in anywhere U.S.A., and Johnny unexpectedly falls for Kathie (Mary Murphy) the daughter of the towns passive Sheriff (Robert Keith) who cannot get a handle on the bad blood between the …Rebels, another bikie group known as the Beetles (led by a hilarious Lee Marvin), and the townspeople who have formed a militia. As can be imagined, Hell ensues, with Johnny and Kathie stuck in the middle.
With the opening bars of Leith Stevens score warning of an impending doom (accompanied by a disclaimer describing the films shocking content), director Laslo Benedeck has crafted a powder keg of a movie for the 1950s which contains palpable danger and cryptic sexual innuendo between Johnny and Kathie, as the virtuous virgin melts the heart of a man who hates everything.
Admittedly it’s hysteria is rather silly, yet The Wild One is an entertaining morality play which also serves of an instructional film on 1950’s greaser culture for square parents of hipster kids at that time. Every generation has there own film depicting their youth gone wild, but none can match the glorious pomp of this classic.
|
