Review of The Wild One (1953) by Anastasia B — 15 Jun 2010

I'm probably going to make enemies throughout the cosmos for this, but...I'm not impressed with Marlon Brando. Never have been. I will admit that he has put in some great performances -- I'm not a moron -- and he did have a few moments here that I liked, but for the most part I find him mannered and pretentious, and his voice mannerisms and inflections are irritating. As a result, this film didn't really do anything for me.

It was good but not great, for a number of reasons. First, I had the problem of being distracted by Brando. Next, the dialogue is incredibly dated. I'm a fan of older films and period pieces, and generally I can get into the rhythm of the time period with little problem, even films set in previous centuries. But for some reason, this "coolspeak" came across as really fake, as if it was written by older people who THOUGHT that's the way the kids talked, but didn't really understand it themselves.

Finally, I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to take away from it. I thought the theme was going to be that when the townspeople decided to take justice into their own hands, their behavior was no better than the biker gang. But that wasn't really explored enough. Was I supposed to be angry at the bikers for being jerks to the townfolks? Angry with the town for not being tolerant of the bikers, who were just out to have some fun? Sympathetic to Johnny because he is just "misunderstood"? If some reason for his behavior had been given, such as a traumatic childhood, I might have bought it more. Whatever it was, it didn't do it for me.

Maybe the relationship between Johnny and Kathie was the important theme. But no. That didn't really go anywhere either -- good or bad. She seems to want to escape from her boring little life, and Johnny seems to be the ticket out -- note her expression of bliss when she is riding on the back of Johnny's bike with him -- but there didn't seem to be any moment of revelation where she made a decision to go with him or not.

One thing to the film's compliment -- Lee Marvin as Chino, the head of the rival biker gang. He put in the peformance that I was expecting out of Brando -- believable and real.

Am I the only one who thinks this film is basically a retread of a Western? I can't place from where, but I know I've seen this story with horses. I probably would have enjoyed it better in that genre.

Oh, and the "riding" scenes are obviously a film running in the background behind Johnny & Co.