The Wild One

It may seem odd in this age of Jeffrey Epstein to remember America is a puritanical society. The Scarlet Letter is worn by every American. Sexuality not only results in humiliation, it’s predicated on it. Shame was the 2011 Michael Fassbinder movie about a sex addict. America isn’t the only country where transgression fuels arousal. Catholicism and fascism were the cocktail that formed Pasolini’s sensibility, but America is a secular society where there's at least the illusion of freedom. So the outlying forces, the attraction between positive and negative plus and minus in fact create the buzz. In The Wild One (1953), Marlon Brando auditions as America’s great heartthrob by leading a motorcycle gang into town. James Dean, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and their female counterparts Janet Leigh, Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe all become stars by defying the mores of society.

Read "Boudu Saved From Drowning" by Francis Levy with a painting by Hallie Cohen in The East Hampton Star