The Wild One (1953)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

From what I understand this movie was one of the first films about biker gangs and due to its well-deserved reception resulted in a number of similar movies since then. Essentially, "Johnny Strabler" (played by Marlon Brando) is the leader of a motorcycle club known as the Black Rebels which just happens to ride into the small California town of Wrightsville. Upon entering the local café he spies a young waitress by the name of "Kathie Bleeker" (Mary Murphy) and decides to get to know her a little better. Not long afterward another motorcycle gang called the Beetles also arrives and their leader, named "Chino" (Lee Marvin), decides to provoke Johnny into a fight in the middle of the street. One thing leads to another and Chino is eventually arrested which causes both motorcycle clubs to spend the night in Wrightsville. That's when all hell breaks loose. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that although this film is rather dated it still manages to entertain fairly well. I especially liked the performances of both Marlon Brando and Mary Murphy who both played their parts quite well. In any case, I recommend this movie to all of those who might enjoy a film of this nature and rate it as above average.

Otherwise a forgettable movie, totally transformed by Marlon Brando.Johnny (Marlon Brando) rides with his gang into a quiet little town inhabited by all right, but rather quaint, and parochial minded folks. On top of his gang, another group of bikers headed by Lee Marvin arrives in town just as a coincidence. All of them are not about behave as good citizens, and the two mixes up into an explosive chemistry. Johnny is kind of keeping good manners, but since he's the boss, he gets singled out to face the blunt end of the supposedly good fellas of town.This seemingly simple story gets high voltage boost by the presence of Marlon Brando. I was born after he was famous already, so I didn't rediscover Marlon Brando until recently. He was good in the God Father, but his performance from the '50s is simply off the chart. Brando was labeled a rebel, but when I see him, he's one of the most grounded person in Hollywood. His sensibility comes through in this movie's character, and you can't help but agreeing with the character Brando plays. Maybe that's the magic he had. A movie worth watching only because Marlon Brando is playing the lead. If he wasn't in it I doubt if the movie even worth 4/10. But this movie is superb, and deserves 8/10 because of Brando's performance.

Laslo Benedek directed this melodrama about a rogue motorcycle gang led by Johnny Strabler(played by Marlon Brando) who, after crashing a motorcycle race where they stole the second-place trophy, turn their sights on a small-town, where they overwhelm the local populace, whose weak sheriff is unable to prevent, though his strong-willed daughter(played by Mary Murphy) is intrigued by Johnny, and wants to get to know him better. Meanwhile, a rival gang led by Chino(played by Lee Marvin) also arrives in town, leading to a major clash that threatens to tear the town apart... Popular in its time, with a memorable Brando performance, but today seems silly and unbelievable, with actors who look too old for the roles they're playing! At least it's short(and there is that classic line about what Johnny's rebelling against!)

This movie opens with a caption that reads "THIS STORY IS SHOCKING." Well, I suppose that was true by the standards of 1953. By the standards of the 21st century, this isn't really that shocking, and with respect to the title, Marlon Brando's character of Johnny isn't really all that wild. This is actually pretty tame by modern standards. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie; it just means that it is dated, and probably wouldn't be of much interest to younger viewers today.Johnny is the leader of a motorcycle gang. As the movie opens, the gang is run out of town by the local sheriff after disrupting a motorcycle race. They end up moving on the a neighbouring town, are joined by a rival gang and eventually wreak havoc on the place, including one very tragic incident near the end of the movie. The "havoc" is mostly getting a bit out of control at the local bar, forcing a few girls to dance with them and breaking a few windows. As I said, not exactly "havoc" by today's standards. There were, however, a couple of things that I found very interesting about this movie.First was, in fact, the character of Johnny. Brando did well with the part. He makes Johnny an almost sympathetic character. Aside from getting into a fist fight with the leader of the rival gang, Johnny doesn't really participate in much of the havoc, and by the end of the movie seems to only want to get out of town. Johnny was almost likable in this. The other interesting part was the way in which the townsfolk responded to the gangs, eventually reversing roles and becoming themselves an out of control mob who are actually the ones responsible for the tragedy that happens near the movie's conclusion.Because of the expectations we have of modern movies, this doesn't come across as especially exciting or suspenseful, and the "gangs" come across more as troublemaking kids than what we today think of as members of motorcycle gangs. Still, there are those interesting aspects of the story that I mentioned above. (6/10)