Dawn Of The Dead Extended Version Part 17

Dawn Of The Dead Extended Version Part 16

The Wild One, Counterculture Invasion, and Clashes

    The image I see when the word biker comes to mind is of a long-haired heavyset man with a tattoo of helmeted bulldog riding his Harley on a lonely road, not Marlon Brando. Watching the 1954 biker film The Wild One however, I do begin to see where the material characteristics of the culture such as leather and mainstream views emerge. The Wild One set up the classic formula for the future biker films of the next two decades, it also was the introduction of another invader, not some monster, alien or Communist to mainstream family centered society: the nation's rising countercultures. I was surprised to find out that the early biker counterculture consisted of World War II veterans, yet not surprised to find that mainstream society viewed them as a menace. These were men that were expected to do a "patriotic duty" and I think this duty was extended to their personal lives and was defined as starting families and getting jobs, all together settling down. Bikers however wandered the open road, with no family commitments. They defied these values which during this time was regarded with fear. Another factor was that the national media used their influence over the national public to transform minor incidents involving bikers into the evidence of their danger to "innocent citizens", Hollywood included. According to Martin Rubin's biker counterculture even adopted the image. What's funny to me is that the 'menace' of the biker gang in The Wild One seemed only to playful if somewhat rowdy behavior, but then again this was a time where any 'strange behavior' was a threat. At first the movie seemed to predictably take on this perspective that this biker gang was harming poor helpless small town citizens, but this changed as some of the townspeople took action. I think this was just a way of enhancing the image of Brando's character Johnny as the lonely gang leader who's different from townspeople and gang alike. The townspeople later in the film predictably target Johnny as the cause of the gang's behavior and in the aftermath of the chaos, he is accused of killing an elderly bartender. Poor Misunderstood Johnny. What there is to understand though, I haven't a clue. Brando's character has this lack of emotion and ambiguity that makes him hard to understand and sympathize with. I think this mainly comes from him being in this grey alienated area of not acting like his fellow bikers nor following the social code of the citizens. Rubin states that this isolated gang leader was popular in the next two decades' biker films, although other leader characters also were used such as those that turned against their gang or were dangerously dedicated. In all of these cases, he makes it sound like that although there was this grey area between the sides of small town citizens, the gang was almost always the enemy. And why not? Other movies of past decades also have this habit; even if the leader/antihero can be somewhat good, what makes them "anti" is always the enemy.
     One of the responses to the film I've heard from others is "Johnny is emotionless-why is that"? I think one need look no further than both the statue he clings to and the female responses to him. In the beginning, Johnny steals a statue from a bike race. When he tries giving it to his female interest Cathy she rejects it because she learns its not something he won, its part of the "lie" she later identifies him as being. Other than being an amusing phallic symbol this statue represents Johnny's image as this biker gang leader, something he claims to be but in truth isn't. The same goes for Johnny's motorcycle. One female acquaintance tearfully recounts riding with Johnny; "Do you remember?" she asks. When Johnny "rescues" Cathy from his fellow riders they go on a ride, something she's never experienced. After getting off the bike Cathy almost looks tousled like she's been doing something other than just riding a motorcycle with Johnny. When he passionately kisses her, she is limp saying "I'm too tired" and when her own advances towards him are rebuffed she clings to his motorcycle. Both of these women seem to love the image of Johnny, they'd much rather ride and be with his motorcycle than him. Maybe that's what makes him so frustrated, everyone sees his image not him.  Is this  one of the messages the film and later the genre trying to sends; this biker counterculture is merely an image hiding one's own moral uncertainty? Or is it just a way of making the proantagonist look appealing to the audience?
    Bikers weren't the only counterculture for long, Beats and later hippies emerged as youth movements that similar to bikers, revolted against mainstream social expectations. The Wild One demonstrates this with Brando's jive talk, which just seems out of place. Rubin states that the biker and countercultures melded both in the biker films of the time and in reality, yet these unifications weren't always friendly. Rubin describes the meeting between Hell's Angels and Merry Pranksters as a peaceful drug-laden experience, and goes on to state that bikers began to frequent  Haight-Ashbury. There was a definite difference between these countercultures in viewpoints, behavior and attitudes which caused them to clash. Bikers unlike hippies possessed conservative views that were akin to those of mainstream social views. According to Rubin, movies reflected this with bikers engaging in hippie like behavior while continuing violent small town plunder. This trend suggests to me that the media somewhat lumped youth countercultures into one movement that threatened the calm and conformity of suburban/small town America, yet made bikers the face of the cinematic threat. In this sense then, Johnny's grey area identity foreshadows  of the biker culture. Like Johnny, the biker counterculture didn't belong in mainstream society, but neither did they fit with the dominant hippie counterculture.
    On a more amusing note, Rubin mentions the cult/camp references made to biker films after their popularity ended. One he didn't mention which stood out to me was Tom Savini's character in the original Dawn of the Dead. As you will see in the clip I'm posting, this is the wrong time for this character and his gang to threaten consumerism.