Marlon Brando - The Wild One

The Wild One starring Marlon Brando is an loosely based adaptation of a real-life 1947 incident that happened during a Fourth of July weekend in Hollister, California, when a gang of motorcyclists converged on and overwhelmed the small town for two days.

The original story, by Frank Rooney, was published in Harper's Magazine in January of 1951 and titled "The Cyclists Raid." However, contrary to the sensational description of the events in the story, the cyclists, with the exception of some minor charge arrests, did no harm to the town or its residents.

The film itself created a great deal of controversy. Here in America, some viewed the film to be a shocking, Communist' themed portrayal of a revolting sub-culture that provided a bad model for an impressionable youth oriented audience and could be the cause of imitated behavior and delinquency. And it was worse in England as the British Board of Film Censors completely banned the showing of The Wild One until 1968.

During a time in Hollywood when new leading men and women were cultivated to appeal to younger film fans, casting Marlon Brando proved to be an historic choice. The method acting style of Brando captured the brooding, nomadic, black leather jacket clad, biker rebel character Johnny perfectly. The ruggedly individualistic, anti-social, personality of the character can be summed up in this brief bit of dialogue from a bar scene in Hollister where the gang is drinking:

Dancing girl to Johnny, "Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" His reply, "What have you got?"

In spite of the controversy, The Wild One went on to become one of America's most popular "cult classics" and literally set the stage for other anti-hero's like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1955), and the significant counter-cultural film classic Easy Rider (1969) starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper with a supporting role that established Jack Nicholson as a star.

With all the attention this motion picture garnered it's no wonder the sales of black leather jackets and motorcycles reached new heights and the films poster featuring Marlon Brando remains a best seller today.

The Wild One was Marlon Brando's fifth film, and although it would not receive any academy award nominations, Brando's appeal playing this character, along with the films cult-classic status, makes this one of the actors most revered roles of all time.
About the Author

Carl DiNello is a Blogger whose passion is Hollywood history and those movies from the 1920's - 1950's that make up this rich history.