“Unrestricted hooliganism”: the classic Marlon Brando movie that was banned in the UK for 13 years
Marlon Brando emerged on screens in 1951 in a white T-shirt, sweating in the heat of a New Orleans summer, screaming for his wife in A Streetcar Named Desire.
It wasn’t his first time playing the character – he’d already perfected him on Broadway – but it was, for most, the first time people were able to see the strength and the vigour that this new star possessed. He was unmistakable.
The actor soon went on to a western, Viva Zapata!, and then a historical drama, Julius Caesar, quickly racking up leading roles off the back of Streetcar’s success. Crime dramas, musicals, war films, adventure dramas, comedies, thrillers – you name it. Brando could do it all, and he even stepped into the role of the filmmaker when he directed One-Eyed Jacks in 1961, while also casting himself in the lead.
Brando was on fire, and he quickly ascended the ranks of stardom to become more than just an acclaimed actor, but a cultural symbol… You can put him up there with the likes of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe – actors whose iconic status led them to become commodities, in a way.
They were symbols of the machinations of Hollywood, where captivating figures who represented something – whether that be youthful rebellion, the power of sex, or a new vision of masculinity unlike anything people were used to – were made. Brando fit into all of these categories.
One of his most rebellious roles came in 1953, when László Benedek directed him in The Wild One, which saw Brando play a member of an outlaw biker gang. All these years later, it’s still one of the most recognisable visions of Brando that comes to mind when you think of him – the leather, the sunglasses, the hat, the rolled up denim jeans. You can even see images of him in The Wild One within Kenneth Anger’s seminal gay biker film Scorpio Rising, a figure of worship.
When the film was released in the United Kingdom, however, there was immediate anxiety among censors. Could this film about rebellious leather-clad bikers cause genuine damage to the general public by influencing bad behaviour?
That was the consensus among the members of the BBFC, which subsequently banned the film entirely. Arthur Watkins, who worked for the BBFC, put it simply enough. “Our objection is to the unrestricted hooliganism. Without the hooliganism there can be no film, and with it there can be no certificate.”
It was submitted for classification in 1954 and 1955, and it was rejected both times. 13 years on, however, the movie was reconsidered by the censorship board, and finally things changed. The Wild One was granted an X certificate and released in cinemas in 1967, over a decade on from Brando’s initial performance as Johnny Strabler.
Interestingly, when the movie was considered for home video release in 1988, it was given a measly PG. How can a movie go from an X to a PG? If this isn’t the clearest indication of how British society has evolved over the years – and cinema as a whole – then I don’t know what is. What was once deemed dangerous was absolutely fine for a child to watch a few decades later. Times change fast.
