I love you, Johnny. I've been looking in every ditch from Fresno to here hoping you was dead.

13. Watch 26 movies I’ve never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet (2/26)

The Wild One (1953, Laslo Benedek)

I've had this movie from Netflix since the end of August and I finally, FINALLY watched it this week. Sometimes I wonder if Netflix is worth the money I spend... I could have bought that movie at least twice by now... My queue just grows and grows and grows. Even my instant view list never seems to dwindle. For a film studies graduate, I don't do so well with actually watching movies. Especially ones that people deem I should see, and that I'm a bad film major for having not (think The Godfather, Scar Face, It's a Wonderful Life, etc). 

The Wild One is a 1950's, pre-destruction of the Hayes Code, teenage rebellion film. It was the precursor to Rebel Without a Cause and without Marlon Brando, there'd be no James Dean (who we all know is on my list). Without it, Black Rebel Motorcyle Club (BRMC) would still be known as The Elements and The Beatles might have gone by MopTops who knows?

Basically, the film is about a motorcycle gang, headed by Brando, who stop at a small town on their wanderings. There, Brando falls for the Sheriff's daughter and the gang takes over the town. There are fights, motorcycle stalking, and disorder. Brando is nomadic, brooding, and "cool," and is one of the representations of "bad boys" girls still swoon over, 50 years later. But he's troubled and confused, saving Kathie from his gang buddies, pining after her all day, but then running away from her when she finally returns the feelings (sound familiar?). He's never seen as the instigator of the chaos, but his hot temper is quick to jump in out of defense; his character is much like the stolen trophy he proudly displays: he is all performance and show. In essence, he doesn't quite fit in with his gang, or with the "squares" he so despises, and if he lived in today's society, he'd be plugged as emo.

The 1950s were characterized as the "birth of the teenager," and these "rebellions" were feared by the older generations. The beginning of the movie warns:

"This is a shocking story. It could never take place in most American towns - but it did in this one. It is a public challenge not to let it happen again."

But it did. 1955. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray). And that was just the start.