Friday 5 August 2011

I wish I was going someplace. I wish you were going someplace. We could go together.

The Wild One (1953)
Chosen by Lauren Parker who had this to say: 'My favourite Brando movie ever! I have such an affection for this film and I can't entirely justify why. I still remember the first time I saw it and my friends thought it was outdated and boring and yet I saw something completely different to them. Yes there are some extremely outdated effects evident right from the opening frame and yes the wild one is actually pretty tame compared to today's hooligans. But at the centre of it all is one of the coolest characters in cinema, the whole film rests on Brando's performance and aesthetic. It's ultimately a film about someone being cool, have that not give a damn attitude you secretly wish you could have. He's just plain awesome and I hope Dave agrees!'


Brando is very, very good in this but I found the film a little too slight (though the swerve from a 'pesky bikers' to 'we should give these kids a chance' movie was interesting) and silly - Lee Marvin is pretty terrible, seemingly playing a 12 year old pretending to be drunk.
Brando doesn't look as foolish as LaBeouf did in that hat but frankly it diminishes the coolness of the character by a great degree.
Oh and the Simpsons use of 'What are you rebelling about?' 'What have ya got?' is actually better than the one here which I find out is delivered to some floozy in a bar rather than to an authority figure (Lisa sticks it to Principle Skinner - now that's sticking it to the man).

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