Marlon Brando is one of the most acclaimed actors in the seventh art. Whether it was his unstable and brutal Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) or his superb Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), this big man with deep eyes and a charming face knew how to conquer the audience in each and every one of the performances he led. out during his career. In 1953 he starred in Salvaje (The Wild One), a film in which he played the maverick leader of a motorcycle gang. It may not be his most notable role or his most famous film, but the context in which it was developed and the message he was trying to convey deserve a few lines.
From Hollister to 'Savage'. The Rise of the Bikers
In 1945 the surrender of Japan marked the final end of World War II. Many American soldiers who had fought on the European front or in the Pacific were able to return home and heal their wounds (physical or not). Many of them, who had ridden motorcycles during their service, realized that they were not able to adapt to the new well-thinking society that was being born in the United States. They were still thirsty for adventure and excitement and that's how the first motorcycle clubs emerged.
We now come to July 3, 1947. The small and quiet Californian town of Hollister hosted the Gipsy Tour of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA for its acronym in English) on the occasion of the celebrations of the 4th of July throughout the weekend. Although the AMA had registered around 1,600 motorcyclists at the rally, sources at the time estimated that in total there were more than 4,000 vehicles gathered there. Amid such an accumulation of people, a small group of bikers lost control and started riots in which premises were vandalized, there were fights, illegal races were held in the city streets and alcohol flowed in abundance. The problems continued until the 5th and ended with 50 detainees and 60 minor injuries. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the following statements from a member of the local government: “Luckily, it appears that there is no serious damage. The bikers did more damage to them.
However, what could have become a sporadic event in which (luckily) there was not much to regret was seen by the press of the time as a gruesome and scandalous story? Publications such as Life magazine or Harper's Bazaar and newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, told a different version of events in which they spoke of the bikers having "taken over the city". The sensationalized view of events in Hollister spread like wildfire and snowballed among motorcycle clubs. Within a few weeks, those groups that had been ignored and unnoticed in society were one of the gravest dangers facing American society, and any town could fall victim to a massive attack by these modern Huns.
Cinema as a moralizing tool
In 1953 film producer Stanley Kramer decided to make a film based on what the media had reported about the Hollister riots. Faced with a society that truly feared the possibility of violent rebellion by non-conformist youth, who embodied their fears in the figure of motorcycle clubs, Kramer and his team wanted to give the story a moralizing element in the style of old fables. or stories.
In Salvaje, we follow the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, led by a young and charismatic Marlon Brando in the role of Johnny Strabler, who arrives in a small town where they encounter a rival gang. After a fight between Strabler and the leader of the other gang (Lee Marvin), the latter is arrested and both clubs decide to take the city and cause chaos. While the rest of the bikers are represented to us as simple brutes who just want to destroy the place, Johnny's character maintains a broader spectrum in which certain grays can be appreciated and his plot arc focuses more on the relationship he has with the young woman. Kathie (Mary Murphy) who in riots and destruction. In the end, after narrowly escaping being unjustly lynched by the townspeople, Johnny is released and warned by sympathetic policemen that he still has time to change.
The message the film was meant to convey was that the nonsense and violence inherent in motorcycle clubs only bring trouble and that one must make the decision to change and redeem oneself before it is too late. So far it is understood what was intended with it, but some aspects make it confusing. First, the character played by Marlon Brando stays away from the riots (distancing him from that rage that should characterize bikers) and is presented as an attractive, sensitive, and tormented person with whom it is very easy to identify. On the other hand, we find an excessively permissive police chief who seems more concerned with saving himself from problems than with protecting the town and some inhabitants who do not hesitate to take justice into their own hands and end up looking like the bad guys in the movie. Poor Kathie, a decent girl who works at the bar, ends up entangled in Johnny's charms and becomes the figure of his salvation in the purest style of Doña Inés and Don Juan Tenorio.
The backfire
The project that hit theaters was not the same one that was born in the mind of Stanley Kramer. The producer met with real biker gangs to learn his way of thinking and acting, and much of the dialogue in the film was taken verbatim from those conversations. The story had authenticity but pressure from the Breen Office (as Hollywood's self-imposed censorship body was known) caused problems for the studio due to certain dialogues or scenes, which they considered unacceptable. Brando himself would say the following about the film: “We started by doing something worthwhile, which would explain the psychology of hipsters. But at some point, we got off track. The result was that instead of finding out why young people tend to join these groups looking for meaning, all we did was show the violence.”
Salvaje was released in theaters in the United States on December 25, 1953. Its producers wanted it to be the reason for the youth of the country to direct their lives and the rest of society to become aware of the dangers of these gangs that only sought to sow terror, but the reality was very different. The film was one of the most controversial of the decade and many claimed that what it was actually doing was extolling the life of the biker and idealizing it. The British Board of Film Classification refused to give it a certificate and kept it banned from release throughout Great Britain until 1967 (and even then it was licensed "over 16").
But not everyone saw it that way. Biker gangs had leaped from obscurity to magazine covers and movie screens; they had become rock stars. Huge Harley-Davidsons roaring down the road, bandanas blowing in the wind, tattoos, and leather jackets becoming fashionable, turning them into the new champions of freedom and individualism that are so ingrained in the United States. They were given that romantic rebellious aura that the lone rangers of the Wild West or pirates once enjoyed. After the premiere of Savage, the sale of Triumph motorcycles (those carried by Marlon Brando's club) skyrocketed and the film gave rise to a new film genre that would soon be joined by Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Wild Angels (1966). , Hell's Angels '69 (1969) or Easy Rider (1969).
