logo
VidMate
Free YouTube video & music downloader
Download
The Wild One (1953)

The Wild One (1953)

GENRESCrime,Drama,Romance,Thriller
LANGEnglish
ACTOR
Marlon BrandoMary MurphyRobert KeithLee Marvin
DIRECTOR
Laslo Benedek

SYNOPSICS

The Wild One (1953) is a English movie. Laslo Benedek has directed this movie. Marlon Brando,Mary Murphy,Robert Keith,Lee Marvin are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1953. The Wild One (1953) is considered one of the best Crime,Drama,Romance,Thriller movie in India and around the world.

Cop-hating Johnny Strabler is recounting the fateful events that led up to the "whole mess" as he calls it, his role in the mess and whether he could have stopped it from happening. The Black Rebels, a motorcycle gang of which Johnny is the leader, cause a ruckus using intimidation wherever they go, with their actions bordering on the unlawful. On the day of the mess, they invade a motorcycle racing event, at which they cause a general disturbance culminating with one of the gang members stealing a second place trophy to give to Johnny. Despite not being the larger winning trophy, it symbolizes to Johnny his leadership within the group. Their next stop is a small town where their disturbance and intimidation tactics continue. Some in town don't mind their arrival as long as they spend money. Harry Bleeker, the local sheriff, doesn't much like them but is so ineffective and weak that he doesn't do anything to stop them, much to the annoyance of some of the other townsfolk, who see the ...

More

The Wild One (1953) Reviews

  • "The Wild One" introduces the motorcycle as the symbol of youth rebellion...

    Nazi_Fighter_David2003-02-16

    The 1950's was a period of review and questioning, as a new postwar generation sensed that much was wrong but could not grasp what it was nor offer any solution... It was, in fact, a generation with a sensitive exposed nerve that gave constant pain... Marlon Brando, a young 'Method' actor (the "Method' was itself a manifestation of the times) began his film career with 'The Men' (1950) and continued with 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1951), 'Viva Zapata' (1952) and 'Julius Caesar' (1953), all roles concerned with rebellion... Then, in 1953, he made 'The Wild One' and his rebel image crystallized... Brando plays Johnny, leader of a motorcycle gang calling itself the Black Rebels, which terrorizes Wrightsville, a little American town... The gang members release their frustrated emotions by racing, overturning a car, and by vicariously participating in a savage fight between Johnny and Chino (Lee Marvin), formerly a part of Johnny's gang but now a rival club... Violence escalates when the town forms a vigilante committee, and inevitably there is an accidental killing... Johnny is saved from wrongful arrest by Kathie (Mary Murphy), a local girl who, in spite of herself, falls in love with him, as he does with her... She senses beneath his cruel exterior an innate gentleness, and is attracted by his sexuality, an element that was increasingly to become a factor in the evolution of the rebel hero... Johnny and the gang finally leave town and life returns to normal, but many questions that the film poses were left unanswered... Brooding, and compulsive, the film created a noisy tumult partly because it failed to show 'why' youths were this way, ending up, in the words of one critics "violent for violence's sake." However it is an important film... It reflected the problems of the period and it marked a step in the progress of the rebel hero... It also introduced the motorcycle as the symbol of youth rebellion foretelling such films as 'Wild Angels' (1966) and 'Easy Rider' (1969).

    More
  • Brando vs. The Beetles

    krorie2005-08-20

    My son-in-law recently saw "Easy Rider" for the first time and became totally confused. "What's that all about?" he asked me. What could I say? I replied, "You just had to have lived through those times to understand and appreciate the movie." The same can be said of "The Wild One." Before "Blackboard Jungle," before "Rebel Without A Cause," before "Look Back in Anger," there was "The Wild One." "What are you rebelling against?" "Whatcha got?" That certainly sounds like James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" but, no, it's Johnny (Brando) in "The Wild One." I saw this movie for the first time when I was 13 and was mesmerized by it. Apparently it was distributed again after "Blackboard Jungle" and "Rebel Without a Cause" came out because I saw it the same year I saw the other two. As far as fascination of the three, this one effected me most. Almost as good as Brando is Lee Marvin. I've read conflicting accounts of how The Beatles came up with their name. One, they so admired Buddy Holly and the Crickets that they adopted Beatles as a replacement for Crickets. The other story is that John Lennon so admired "The Wild One" that he took the name of the rival bikers and gave it a new spelling. Whatever the case, Lee Marvin is a good foil for Brando. My favorite part of the movie is the opening. The open highway is a symbol for the movie. The highway is a means of passage for new ideas, new challenges, new life styles. The highway can bring evil as well as good. It is symbolic of freedom and a carefree way of life. It's not surprising that trucks began replacing freight trains as the major means of transport for goods and services following World War II. The highway also began replacing the rails as the major means of escape for the socially and spiritually oppressed among us. The viewer sees the blacktop for what seems to be several minutes. Suddenly, something appears on the horizon. Before the viewer knows it, rebels in the form of bikers are headed directly toward the camera. Then it seems they actually run through the camera and come out of the screen into the audience. What a piece of cinematography. Hungarian-born Laszlo Benedek mainly concentrated on television after this film. Being such a gifted director, one wishes he had done more films. There is actually not much of a story in this movie. Supposedly based on a true account of a biker gang taking possession of a small California town, it's mainly a comment on changing times and mores in post-war America. But from the first roar of bikes journeying down the pavement, the viewer is hooked and stays spellbound to the very end. One thing puzzles me about the film's history: How does a movie get banned in Finland?

    More
  • An influential classic

    Hanava2002-08-13

    Although it might look quite tame compared to todays standards at the time of it's release The Wild One was considered ground breaking stuff which upset it's fair share of people (it was banned in Britain for 14 years). However it helped inspire the era of rebellion which lead to such classics as the James Dean epic Rebel Without a Cause. It is also memorable for Brando giving one of his greatest performances as Johnny Strabler, leader of the rebellious biker gang the "Black Rebels". True he didn't receive an academy award nomination for his role but there's still no doubting the standard of his performance. At the start of the film we are introduced to Johnny and his gang as they interrupt a race taking place. This leads to a confrontation with the local sheriff which results in them leaving elsewhere to cause trouble. However just as they leave one of the members of the gang steals a trophy that would be presented to the runner up of the race (the first prize trophy was too big to steal)and gives it to Johnny. This represents the respect the gang has for Johnny. Soon after the gang arrives in the small town of Wrightsville, it is here that the film divides into two stories. The first one focuses on the relationship that develops between Johnny and a local girl called Kathie. At first it appears that the two couldn't be anymore different, he's a rebellious free spirit and she's lead quite a sheltered life going by rules and discipline. But it is through Kathie that we get to know the real Johnny as it is revealed that behind all the macho bravado he is quite a lost insecure soul unable to emotionally communicate with anyone, which explains why he behaves as he does. It is a credit to Brando's performance as to how he is able to draw sympathy from the viewer for his character. As Kathie has lead a sheltered life she has always been looking in from the outside, she has a father who is the sheriff of the town but isn't respected by the other residents and is considered something of a joke.It seems he is just there to make up the numbers and shows no signs of law enforcement skills when called to deal with a problem. Kathie sees him as a fraud, just as she sees Johnny. The second story focuses on the conflict that develops between the residents of the town and Johnny and his gang,during which it is the residents of the town who come off as the bad guys and not the black rebels. As i previously mentioned while this film might look quite tame compared to todays standards it is still worth a look if you get a chance. If not to see what all the fuss was about at the time, then just for Brando's performance which really is in a league of it's own.

    More
  • Symbols and Bongos

    BrandtSponseller2005-06-18

    One of the more famous early films depicting youthful rebellion, The Wild One is as interesting now for its embrace of past cultural tokens, which provides an odd mixture for modern viewers, as it is for its more timeless, universal themes. It is a mostly successful film that only avoids getting a 10 because of its embrace of some filmic stereotypes of the era. Marlon Brando stars as Johnny Strabler, the leader of a leather-jacketed motorcycle gang called the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club (the backs of their jackets say "BRMC"), in one of his early, iconic roles. The film begins with the BRMC wreaking havoc with a motorcycle race in a small town. They ride into the middle of the "track" (really just the town's streets), they harass the crowd, and eventually they even harass the officials. A cop finally kicks them out, but not before BRMC members they steal a trophy meant for the motorcycle race and give it to Johnny. Amusingly, it's a second place trophy, but Johnny still ties it up to the front of his bike--which happened to be Brando's real-life Triumph motorcycle. Wanting to avoid trouble with the law, and acting like they're bored anyway, they ride on to a nearby town, Wrightsville, which is even smaller. The citizens of Wrightsville seem a lot more amenable to the BRMC, even though they cause a minor car accident when they first arrive. The sole Wrightsville policeman remains cordial, and the townsfolk mostly seem to be happy to have "tourists" who might boost business a bit. Johnny quickly falls for Kathie (Mary Murphy), who works at Bleekers, the local bar/diner, and so decides to stick around in Wrightsville for a bit. When a splinter group of the BRMC shows up--the Beetles, led by Chino (Lee Marvin)--an old, semi-friendly rivalry flares, leading to rowdiness and resentment from the citizens of Wrightsville. The situation goes from bad to worse. Brando deserves all of the accolades he's received over the years from this role. He could have easily carried the film on his own. He's charismatic, cool, and complex, and he only becomes more complex and darker as the film goes on. Eventually he says more through silence than most actors do through long monologues. A lot of this is aided by good direction from László Benedek and a good script by John Paxton and Ben Maddow, adapted from a short story by Frank Rooney about a real-life motorcycle club known as the "Booze Fighters". The script, and Benedek's direction, is chock full of subtle symbolism. One of the more obvious symbolic elements is the trophy. It may seem corny at first that Johnny would tie this to the front of his motorcycle, but we learn later that he wants to surmount his present position in life, or his present disposition in life. The trophy represents that hoped-for transcendence. It's also fitting that it's only a second place trophy. That speaks both to Johnny's psychological roots (we learn about this in more detail later), which perhaps won't allow him to reach the transcendence he craves, and to his need to be a perpetual underdog. This is also tied in with him being a rebel. It's something he both needs and desires--it confirms his self-imposed martyrdom. The rightfully famous exchange of dialogue where a girl asks Johnny what he's rebelling against and he answers, "Whaddya got?" isn't just a glib remark. That's Johnny's character in a nutshell. More subtle symbolism can pop up in the most seemingly innocuous shots--such as Johnny slamming his beer down on the bar and having it bubble up and brim over. There is both a general emotional symbolism there--Johnny feeling the desire to burst out of his present reality, or transcend his present boundaries, and a sexual symbolism because of the context. He's at the bar where Kathie works. He's pining for her, but she's basically brushing him off. Similarly, take a close look at Kathie's fondling of Johnny's motorcycle when they're in the park. If you made a mental note to watch with this in mind, you could probably catch additional symbolism in most nooks and crannies every time you rewatched The Wild One. Even though Brando could easily carry the film on his own if he needed to, he doesn't need to. There are plenty of other fine performances, including Marvin, Murphy, Robert Keith as the Wrightsville Sheriff, and some fun bit part appearances by people who later became quite famous, such as Alvy Moore and Jerry Paris. If The Wild One has a flaw, it is its slight "corny" embrace of rebel stereotypes. There is a twinge of Reefer Madness (1936) or the later Blackboard Jungle (1955) in the film's portrayal of the bikers. But some of what now seems to be a bit of goofiness is part of the attraction, too. Since this is the early 1950s, the bikers listen and dance to jazz, not rock 'n' roll. They also embrace beatnik culture, particularly in their lingo. At one point, two BRMC members start doing a kind of jive-talking' beatnik rap. At another point, Brando plays bongos on a jukebox. It may be goofy, but it's a lot of fun. I often jokingly say, "It's a love story!" no matter what kind of film I'm watching, as the vast majority of films have some kind of love/romance subplot. The Wild One is no exception. It could be seen as a romance as much as a film in any other genre. As such, it is notable in that while it doesn't exactly have a happy ending for a romance film, it certainly has a poignant ending, as Johnny gives up two symbols of martyrdom and rebellion (the less obvious symbol given up arises in how he travels), perhaps indicating that he's transcended his previous self after all.

    More
  • Period Piece, Better Than Expected

    lshurr2006-08-20

    I heard about this movie off and on for over 30 years before seeing it. It was described by various people as "trashy," "glorifies violence," "portrays motorcyclists as violent nihilists" as well as "cool." As a kid in 1970, I rode my "5 brake horsepower or less" (which allowed me to be licensed to operate it at age 15) motorcycle, a 2-stroke Italian import sold under the Harley Davison name and immersed myself in biker lore. In hindsight, I made a laughable biker -- about 5 years ago my mother sent me a picture of me with that bike and what a hoot to see again that scrawny, nerdy kid with his little 50cc bike. But I thought I was cool! And I was taken for cool because I actually owned and rode a motorcycle. I guess I was cool, in a way. That dopey little bike gave me a peer identity as... well, not merely a good drone maybe. But rebellious? Hah! My parents APPROVED of my motorcycle... helped me buy it and everything. Some rebel! Without it though, I would only have been another of the school's "brainiacs," a know-it-all smart kid and suckup to the adults who ruled our lives. Wow! I was leading a double life, good boy and bad boy (though more of a pretend one) at the same time. Cycle Magazine was my bible and in its pages I 1st heard about The Wild One. One writer published an essay about being a teenager with a bike not unlike mine at the time of the movie's release or perhaps its later rerelease. He wrote of how the movie reinforced a badboy sense of themselves amongst his peers and of relishing the disapproving stares they received outside the theater as they revved their little bikes at the curb, playing at being "Black Rebels" themselves. I also recall an Episcopal priest who wrote of his Honda 90 and how his bishop received a disapproving call about the "company he was keeping" merely because he was seen riding behind a group of outlaw-looking guys on much larger bikes. It's funny but it shows how people see what they want to see. So now I've seen the movie and it's actually more than I expected. Yes, it has elements of a "Reefer Madness" style screed against motorcyclists. Yes, the acting is often wooden and the characters hokey. Yes, the story barely hangs together. Yes, it's dated. And yet, and yet, it turns out to be more sophisticated than expected. The gangsters are disorderly, disruptive and destructive, but not truly menacing until they chase Kathie on their bikes. Before that, they are mostly just annoying. Johnny's affected nihilistic cool, famously summed up by his answer "Whatayagot?" to the question of what he's rebelling against, is pierced but not annihilated by his attraction to Kathie. The townspeople are not merely the innocent victims of the big bad motorcycle gangsters. It is they who form a vigilante committee and take the Rebel Johnny into a back room and beat him up even though it turns out that he's done very little other than stonily defy authority and behave rudely to anyone who tries to penetrate his affected cool. It is they who cause Jimmy's death by throwing a tire iron at Johnny on his motorcycle. It is they who refuse to listen to Kathie, the only one who knows what's going on. The bikers are certainly not the "good guys," but the townspeople come off as worse in the end. Don't forget that when this movie was made, the good guys were always supposed to be good, the bad guys were always bad and the story had to have a happy ending, or, failing that, it had to have a "moral" ending in which the tragic consequences of evil winning the day were made abundantly clear. In the end, Johnny does not settle down or cease to be a rebel. He never says another word to her, but he does show up one last time and leaves the emblematic trophy with Kathie bestowing a smile upon her, his first and only friendly expression, before riding away for good. This defiance, if that's the right word for it, of American cinematic norms was innovative for its time.

    More

Hot Search