Marlon Brando's lengthy career wasn't without its controversies, and one of his earliest hits from the 1950s was even banned in the United Kingdom for almost 15 years. The Hollywood legend put in work onstage honing his craft for several years before he brought his method acting style to the big screen. It immediately paid off in films like A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, where Brando's performance was a far cry from the acting seen in contemporary Hollywood. The actor always strove to bring an element of realism to his works, for better or worse.

Marlon Brando's brushes with controversy started early in his career, and his list of exploits ranged from positive troublemaking for social justice to questionable behavior on set. He was a champion for civil rights during the 1960s, and stirred up plenty of good trouble for those causes. Brando's method acting would sometimes prove to be an issue, and the notoriously troubled production of Apocalypse Now was exacerbated by Brando's antics. However, one of Brando's earliest controversial films wasn't even his fault, and it proved to be too much for the censors in the United Kingdom.

Why The Wild One Was Banned In The UK

The Movie Tapped Into The Teen Panic Of The 1950s

This also happened around the same time as profound social changes swept across the US and UK, and along with the teens came the disaffected youth.

After the end of WWII, a brand new social class emerged that had largely been dormant before. The newly-minted teenager was born out of post-war economic security, and the youngsters suddenly had disposable income that they never had before. This helped to drive the rise in consumer culture in the United States after WWII, and the teen market was a new way for businesses to make money. This also happened around the same time as profound social changes swept across the US and UK, and along with the teens came the disaffected youth.

1953's The Wild One starred Marlon Brando as a tough-as-nails biker gang leader named Johnny who leads his posse into a small California town. The bikers proceed to cause a commotion, and Johnny runs afoul of a local sheriff who wants to run him in. The movie was intentionally salacious and edgy, exposing viewers to the dangers of young people, and generally casting the younger generation as a threat to the safety and security of small town America. Brittain wasn't without its own teen fears, and The Wild One was promptly banned across the pond.

The the movie was banned for being too incendiary, and there were fears that it could inspire juvenile delinquency. The movie was only screened in the UK in select areas that had overturned the ban, and wasn't officially released until 14 years after its debut in 1967 with an X certificate. When The Wild One eventually found its way to home video in 1988, the movie was downgraded to PG. By then, it was obvious that the juvenile delinquency crisis wasn't quite the crisis that it was made out to be.

The BBFC rejection letter stated:

spectacle of unbridled hooliganism… with no more than a mild censure from a police officer, would be likely to exert a harmful influence in that very quarter about which anxiety is felt and would expose the Board to justifiable criticism for certificating a film so potentially dangerous on social grounds

The Wild One Remains An Important Movie In Marlon Brando's Career

The Movie Is So Much Bigger Than Its Controversy

The censors in the UK missed the point when they banned The Wild One, and all they did was deprive the public of one of the greatest films of the 1950s. Brando's turn as Johnny was one of his star-making performances, and he combined charm and savagery with equal aplomb. Brando practically made his big-screen debut as the star attraction, but The Wild One was the first time that he was able to shine as something separate from the material. A Streetcar Named Desire is an excellent illustration of his prowess, but the play already had a reputation before Brando.

The Wild One properly placed Brando in his own time and place, after several of his earliest roles were period pieces and historical dramas. This allowed him to speak to a contemporary audience, and in the US at least, they were listening loud and clear. Like the movie Rebel Without A Cause, The Wild One isn't necessarily just a warning about the dangers of teenagers and disaffected youth, but more of an exploration of the mentality of their newfound attitudes towards authority. There were plenty of teen-run-amok movies from that time, but The Wild One digs so much deeper.

The Wild One was loosely based on Frank Rooney's news story, "Cyclists' Raid", which was published in Harpers.

Besides Brando's amazing performance, the movie's plot is engaging and tells a classic star-crossed love story as well. Few movies from the early '50s intrinsically understood the shifting social dynamic in the post-war years as clearly as The Wild One, and that's why it still holds up today. It isn't a cheesy portrait of 1950s fears, but is actually a window into what was happening in the United States after the war was over. Marlon Brando made a heap of great movies, but The Wild One might be one of his most important because of what it represented.