The Wild One (1954)
April 8th, 2008
Iconic motorcycle pic. Gang of bikers terrororizes California town. Stars Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin.
Brando, 30 at the time, is already puffy and double-chinned and Johnny, his character, is dull and emotionally shut down. It’s hard to understand why the small-town waitress (Mary Murphy) falls for him.
Johnny does have one great line. When asked, “What are you rebelling against?” he replies, “What’ve you got?”
Lee Marvin, by contrast, is loose-limbed and energetic, like a hot jive spider. His performance is a lot better than Brando’s.
Some say this movie created the beat generation, but surely it’s James Dean who gets the credit for that, not Brando. Physically out of shape and playing an uninspired character, he really doesn’t have much going for him here except for his natural sullen, heavy-lidded, Elvis Presley-like charisma. He doesn’t do anything that you might call acting.
You should watch this if you haven’t, if only to fill in a corner of your film education, but be prepared to be disappointed. It’s probably the first biker movie, and it’s seminal Brando; but while it’s interesting, it doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny at all.
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