The Wild One

THIS IS A MUST HAVE CLASSIC BIKER MOVIE. THIS IS ONE OF IF NOT THE FIRST RECOGNIZED MOTORCYCLE GANG MOVIE.IF YOUR A BIKER FAN YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE.

Another in a long line of wrong roles for Brando, as well as a ridiculous collection of gentrified cycle rats, but despite this basic silliness, there is the girl--Mary Murphy whose conflicted desires stole the show--and the music...fun West Coast jazz featuring Kenton graduates, Shorty Rogers and Shelly Manne (aka Manny Shell and Roger Short because of recording contract issues).

Sadly it was Marlon Brando who recovered from the train wreck rather than Mary Murphy.

This movie made in 1954 starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin was the first of the "biker" movies.

The film loosely depicts the 1947 biker melee that really happened and virtually destroyed the northern California town of Hollister. The script was a little weak for me.

Marlon Brando stars as Johnny, the leader of a biker gang (the Black Rebels) that invades a small town, Wrightsville.

The movie begins where the gang takes a road trip and crashes a motorcycle race and push race officials around. They are eventually thrown out but one of them ends up stealing the first prize trophy and gives it to Johnny, who straps it to his bike like a hood ornament. The gang then rides into Wrightsville where they cruise up and down the main street and end up going to the local bar. The owner of the bar is happy to let the bikers spend their money and does nothing to break up any fights. Johnny likes the girl who works there, but she is the sheriff's daughter but he still tries to impress her with the trophy. Then a rival gang rides into town, headed by Chino (Lee Marvin) and the havoc begins.

The movie's language is severely dated, but I wasn't around then, so I imagine that's how some of the younger people spoke. The movie has a great quote though. When one person asked Johnny (Brando) what he was rebelling about he replied, "Whatta ya got".

This film also was believed to inspire Sonny Barger the undisputed leader of the Hells Angels.

While I'm an avid motorcyclist, I don't condone being in a "biker" gang and I'm not a member of the "1 percenters", so to see bikers destroy a town wasn't entertainment to me especially when there was no motive. The head of the American Motorcycle Assoc. made a statement saying that 99% of motorcyclist are law abiding citizens, the Hells Angels claim that they are the remaining 1 percenters.

But, when you ride a bike it is the most exciting thing you can put between your legs and you get the feeling of total freedom and it's pure fun.

With all its flaws, this film will appeal to you if you love bikes and besides that you get to see the start of biker clothing---the leather jacket.

This is the movie that started it all for the outlaw biker. Everyone including Sonny Barger (the most famous Hells Angel) saw this movie and wanted to become an outlaw. Unfortunately most bikers who gained their inspiration from this film identified more with Lee Marvin's character Chino then with Brando's Johnny. My personal interest in the biker lifestyle came more from Easy Rider than this flick, although I did use a Brando line from this film when I was a teenager and was called to the vice principal's office. He had the nerve to ask me what I was rebelling against to which I answered in my best Brando imitation, "Whatta ya got?". This film is a bit cornball with the dialogue and storyline but I give it 4 stars on the impact it had on the American Biker mystique. 1%ers forever!

The Wild One is the Stanley Kramer film that influenced not only movies, but an entire generation of brooding teenagers. The film starring a young Marlon Brando, is the chronicle of the violent escapades of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in a small, sleepy California community in the 1950's. It is overtly the story of redemption, but it is also a tale of innocence lost perhaps forever. Brando is the iconoclastic Johnny,the leader of the club, replete with leather and attitude. Responding to someone's query regarding what he was rebelling against, he replies "Whadda ya got?" Which pretty much sums up the mantra of the next generation of film goers. Despite Brando's signature style and commanding appearance, I personally got a kick out of Lee Marvin's performance as Chino, leader of a rival gang. Marvin, all legs and wise cracks, reminds me of an early rendition of Kesey's Merry Pranksters. His gang is dressed in costumes that would not look out of place in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco a decade later. Marvin is less an introspective outcast longing for acceptance, like Brando, than he is simply an outcast, dedicated to partying and hitting the road.
The Wild One is the best of the teenage angst genre films and Brando is a more assertive and optimistic figure than his copycat, James Dean. It is interesting to note that Brando was the original actor set to play the lead in Rebel Without a Cause,the Dean classic, when the film had a totally different story line. The Wild One is an important addition to film history, and certainly an entertaining one.