THE WILD ONE
(Marlon Brando)
1953
While his fellow bikers are out on the street, Johnny is attracted to the young good-looking, neat cafe waitress, Kathie Bleeker (Mary Murphy) in Bleeker's Cafe/Bar - the local eatery and bar owned and operated by her uncle. Following her into the restaurant, Johnny whistles coolly as the prize trophy hangs from his arm. He sits at the counter, watches her carefully, and commands a bottle of beer:
Kathie: Do you want something?
Johnny: (inhaling) Yeah. I'd like a bottle of beer.
Kathie: The beers just in the bar. (She twists her head in the bar's direction.)
Johnny: Oh, alrighty.
In the adjoining bar, he puts money in the jukebox and selects a jazzy tune (while snapping his fingers), as she follows him and serves him a bottle of beer. Acting coolly, he drinks his beer straight from the bottle, and follows her back into the restaurant. Outside, Kathie's father - Sheriff Bleeker refuses to honor Art Kleiner's complaint to arrest any of the bikers:
Art - that's silly. Your car's OK, you're OK. And that's lucky - the way you drive.
The discussion between Kathie and Johnny reveals a lot about their two contrasting lifestyles (a square, stable hick vs. a hip wanderer). He offers her his stolen trophy, eager to impress her, but she declines, even though she is fascinated by his outlawed freedom:
Johnny: Say, you live here all the time?
Kathie: All my life.
Johnny: We've been over to Carbonville at the meet.
Kathie: A bunch of motorcycles came through this way yesterday. They didn't stop. (Gesturing toward his trophy) Is that what they give you in those races for killing yourself?
Johnny: That's right. You want it? Hmm?
Kathie: No.
Johnny: (He pushes it towards her on the counter.) Well, go on, take it, go ahead.
Kathie: No!
Johnny: Go on.
Kathie: Can't do that. You won it. You have to get your name engraved on it, or whatever you do. It's important to you. You don't - you don't give something like that away just like that, not unless you knew a girl real well and, well, you liked her.
When one of his gang members asks if they are going to stay around town or leave ("Are we gonna get out of this dump?"), Johnny tells them that they will remain a while longer - and then looks up at Kathie, obviously attracted to her and interested in spending more time to get to know her better.
His posse drinks and carry on outside (pogo-stick races, and slaloming around beer bottles on their motorcycles). The bar proprietor encourages their beer-drinking and invites them into the bar and eatery: "Plenty more where this came from. It's ice-cold too...We'll take good care of ya." At the bar, the bikers are entertained by Jimmy and his conservative, old-fashioned, small-town attitudes. For example:
- "What do you hicks do around here for kicks?"
- "The roses grow. People get married. Crazy as anyplace else."
- "What about TV? Do ya like TV?"
- "Oh, pictures! No, no pictures. Everything these days is pictures. Pictures and a lot of noise. Nobody even knows how to talk. Just grunt at each other."
Johnny talks to Kathie in the restaurant, pressing her for a date that nightfall and an invitation to Carbonville's dance. In reply, the innocent waitress questions the uncultivated leader of the posse about where the bikers are going, and what they do when they ride around. He is skeptical as he teases her about her conservative lifestyle and attitudes:
Kathie: Where are you going when you leave here? Don't you know?
Johnny: (scoffing) Oh man, we just gonna go.
Kathie: Just trying to make conversation. It means nothing to me.
Johnny: Well, on the weekends, we go out and have a ball.
Kathie: And what do you do? I mean, do you just ride around? Or do you go on some sort of a picnic or something?
Johnny: A picnic? Man, you are too square. I'll have to straighten you out. Now, listen, you don't go any one special place. That's cornball style. You just go. (He snaps his fingers.) A bunch gets together after all week it builds up, you just...the idea is to have a ball. Now if you gonna stay cool, you got to wail. You got to put somethin' down. You got to make some jive. Don't you know what I'm talkin' about?
Envious of his ability to move on whenever he wishes, Kathie tells him she knows what he means: "My father was going to take me on a fishing trip to Canada once...We didn't go." Her life has been one of stultifying, small-town repression, denial, and restriction.
As he and his guys are slamming beer and boogying with some of the girls in the bar, one woman dance partner questions Johnny:
Hey, Johnny, What are you rebelling against?
While tapping out a glitzy beat on the top of the jukebox, he raises his eyebrow and drawls his vague reason for rebellion:
What've you got?
"The Wild One "
MATERIAL USED: Cold press surface (15" x 20") illustration board of medium weight oil pastels, oil based colored pencils.
PAINTING SIGNIFICANCE: Young woman in bar to "Johnny", played by Marlon Brando: "What are you rebelling against?" Brando: "What'ya got?" -The Wild One (1954)
"The Wild One close up view"
