The Wild One

A motorcycle club of about forty rides into a small California town. At its head is Johnny: a young man who says little, wears a leather jacket and does not himself know what he wants. The town is tolerant at first, then frightened, then forms its own lynch mob. When a rival club turns up as well, the night gets out of hand. The film's entire effect gathered into one line: Johnny's answer when he is asked what he is rebelling against. The story never explains why these young men are as they are, and the refusal is deliberate; the town wants a reason and the film declines to supply one. Laszlo Benedek directed. Marlon Brando plays Johnny and Lee Marvin plays Chino, who leads the rival club. The premise came from a real event: the crowd of motorcyclists at Hollister, California, in 1947, and the press coverage that followed. In Britain the censors rejected it in 1954 as a spectacle of unbridled hooliganism, and it could not be shown for fourteen years, finally opening in 1967 with an X certificate. When it was reviewed for home video in 1988 it was passed PG. Who it is for: anyone curious about fifties youth pictures and early Brando. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. The film is short, the plot is thin, and by today's measure the gang does almost nothing.