The Wild One
Screening on Film
Directed by László Benedek.
With Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Mary Murphy.
US, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 79 min.
With Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Mary Murphy.
US, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 79 min.
Banned in many countries upon its release, The Wild One is the first film about 1950s youth rebellion, preceding films like Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle by several years. It features Marlon Brando as the leader of a motorcycle gang – the Black Rebels – that disrupts a legitimate motorcycle race and then rides into a small town where they terrify the residents and fight with a rival gang. The Wild One crystallized Brando’s rebel image and helped establish the motorcycle as the ultimate symbol of freedom and non-conformity in popular culture.
