Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Directed by Nicholas Ray

Film Review

The most important and influential film about adolescent rebellion in American cinema, Rebel Without a Cause is also known as the film that transformed a relatively inexperienced film actor named James Dean into a cultural icon.  It is not a perfect piece of cinema but it retains the power to engage with and shock a modern audience with its brutality, its directness and its astute grasp of teenage psychology.   The contrived plot and simplistic characterisation date the film somewhat, but it nevertheless remains highly relevant, more than fifty years after its initial release.  Watch this film and you may get some inkling as to what is wrong with our society today.

One of things that most shocked audiences in 1955 was the film's portrayal of juvenile delinquency amongst the affluent middle-classes.   Previously, it had been taken for granted that delinquency was caused solely by economic factors, so it was a surprise when newspapers began reporting that such behaviour was being seen amongst the offspring of the better off.   The deeper, psychological causes for teenage rebellion were becoming apparent and were traced to problems in the home.   One of the reasons why children turn to delinquency in their teenage years is because of lack of moral support from their parents at the time when they most need it.   Rebel Without a Cause makes this case very plausibly, showing us how the inability or unwillingness of parents to communicate with their children as they approach maturity can have devastating consequences, for individuals and for society as a whole.

Rebel Without a Cause is essentially a dark reinterpretation of the Peter Pan story, in which the protagonists appear incapable of growing up.  Three unloved adolescents are drawn together through a mutual need for love and understanding and form a new kind of family unit, removed from the unsympathetic adult world around them.  Jim's frustration over his inability to communicate with his parents is what fuels his personal rebellion, to which his parents' response is merely to move house every time he gets into trouble (which presumably makes Jim very popular with estate agents).  Plato's angst at not having a father is aggravated by what appear to be latent homosexual tendencies, which manifest in a compulsive hero worship for the older Jim.  Judy cannot understand why her father doesn't pet her as he used to, and sees this as a sign that he no longer loves her, so her reaction is to walk the streets after curfew in the hope of picking up a stranger who will love her.  All three of them are victims of their parents' neglect of their emotional needs.

The film is best remembered - and rightly so - for James Dean's tour de force performance as an impetuous 17 year old whose inability to communicate with adults drives him almost over the edge (literally, as it turns out).   It has been remarked that the character Dean plays is a reflection of himself.  The actor lost his mother when he was aged nine and his father subsequently abandoned him, handing over the responsibility of parenthood to an aunt and uncle.  It is hard to say how much of his own personal experiences Dean manages to bring to the part, but his performance is extraordinary in its realism, intensity and pathos.   The iconic image of James Dean as a rough boy with a tender interior is fashioned largely on his portrayal of the likeable teenage rebel in this film.

When he made this film, James Dean was destined for a great career as a major Hollywood star, in the same league as his contemporary Marlon Brando.  This was just his second film role - his first being in Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955) - but already he had made a name for himself, largely on the strength of his appearances in several television dramas in the early 1950s.  Dean was an overnight phenomenon.  He had wealth, fame and status.  The one thing he did not have was a future.   A month before Rebel Without a Cause was released, James Dean killed himself in a car crash on a California highway.  He had just completed work on his third and last film, Giant (1956).   When James Dean the man died, James Dean the legend was born.   An actor who appeared in just three films, who died at the age of 24, must have had something really special to be remembered with such fondness and respect.  He did - a genuine talent and passion for his art.

Dean was not the only cast member on this film to meet with a tragic end.  His two co-stars also died prematurely.  Sal Mineo, who played Plato, was stabbed to death in 1979 by a stranger.  In 1981, Nathalie Wood (Judy) was on a yachting trip with her husband Robert Wagner when she fell into the sea and drowned.  Both Mineo and Wood enjoyed prolific acting careers after Rebel Without a Cause, and both are sorely missed.

Film Synopsis

17-year-old Jim Stark is at war - with the world, with his parents, with himself.  Whenever he gets into trouble, he and his parents move to a new neighbourhood.  He resents the fact that his father is a dull middle-aged man who is completely dominated by his frostily prim mother.  His parents are so busy arguing with one another that they hardly notice him.  No matter how hard he tries, he can't get through to them.  They are not on his wavelength.   And so here he is again, his first day at a new school, in a new town.  The day doesn't start well - he is jeered at by a gang of adolescents his own age.  Jim strikes up a friendship with one member of the gang, a girl named Judy, who is also having problems with her parents.  A younger boy nick-named Plato also turns to Jim for support.  The gang's aggressive leader, Buzz, challenges Jim to a chicken run.  They are to drive stolen cars towards a cliff edge and the first one to jump out loses.  The game ends in disaster, with Buzz killed.  Troubled by his conscience, Jim tries to explain what happened to his parents and then to the police - but no one takes him seriously.  Despondent, he meets up with Judy and they head for a deserted old house where Plato likes to hang out.  Believing that Jim has betrayed them to the police, the other members of the gang go after him, intent on revenge.  The most eventful day of Jim Stark's life is rapidly heading towards its terrible climax...