Rebel Without a Cause
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| Rebel Without a Cause | |
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| Directed by | Nicholas Ray |
| Produced by | David Weisbart |
| Written by | Nicholas Ray (story) Irving Shulman (adaptation) Stewart Stern (screenwriter) |
| Starring | James Dean Natalie Wood Sal Mineo Jim Backus Ann Doran |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Editing by | William H. Ziegler |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 27, 1955 |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,500,000 (est) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teenager who comes to a new town, meets a girl, defies his parents, and faces the local gang. It sought to portray the existing decay of youth in middle America, critique parental style, and expose the rift between two generations. The title is taken from psychiatrist Robert Lindner's 1944 book, Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath but has no other relationship to the book.
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[edit] Plot Summary
The main plot centers around Jim Stark, a 17 year old. Stark and his two parents move to Los Angeles, where he enrolls at Dawson High School. The film begins with Stark brought into the police station for underage drinking. We then are introduced to his mother and father, who come to get him, and become aware of the film's central dilemma. Jim's parents are frequently quarrelling, both in front of him and behind his back. Often the father is the one who tries to stand up for Jim, however, Jim's mother, a naturally pushy woman, easily overpowers him and always wins out; Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and by his father's lack of backbone, leading to feelings of unrest and displacement.
While trying to fit in at the school, he gets himself involved in silly games with a local bully and tough guy named Buzz Gunderson. While he tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a 13-year-old boy named Plato. Plato is very misguided in life, constantly getting into trouble and dealing with the police. He looks up to Jim as a role model, because his real father abandoned his family. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for a place in life and dealing with parents who "don't understand."
Jim meets a girl named Judy who is also often in trouble with the police. She belongs to the gang of Buzz Gunderson. The thugs defy Jim to play "chicken" with Buzz, which means rushing with cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and deemed a chicken. The "game" foreseeably ends in tragedy and Jim has to flee from the gang. Judy and Plato join him in the garden of an abandoned villa, where they act out a sort of "fantasy family", with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. The thugs soon discover them however and they have to flee again.
Plato hides in an observatory and Jim and Judy follow him. Jim gives Plato his red jacket. Plato has a gun but Jim looks at it and silently takes away the bullets. By this time, the police have surrounded the building. When Plato steps out of the observatory, they see the gun, he is then shot by the policemen. Jim Stark takes this very hard and his father finally understands him.
[edit] The Book
The book Rebel Without a Cause followed the hypnosis and psychoanalysis of a young criminal psychopath by the author. It contains full transcripts of 46 sessions where the author claims to scientifically determine the causes of his subjects' behavior. The analysis uses free association and the concept of repressed childhood memories to explain how the boy became a criminal. Lindner concluded that young criminals and psychopaths derive their behavior from "a profound hatred of the father," including both biological fathers and the fathers of society (male authority figures).
[edit] Pop Culture References
- The 80's pop group The Smiths quote a line from the movie for the song Stretch Out And Wait: "As we lie, you say : Will the world end in the night time? (I really don't know) Or will the world end in the day time? (I really don't know) And is there any point ever having children? Oh, I don't know. What I do know is we're Here and it's Now".
- Devil Without a Cause is the name of Kid Rock's 1999 album with the hit Bawitdaba.
- US TV series The OC makes many references to this movie and its characters in its episodes.
- The main character, Ryan Atwood, is based on Jim Stark, playing an outsider of the community and a loner. His image and attire in the first season is completely like Stark's, right down to the use of cigarettes.
- The scene where Stark tries to talk to "the girl next door" is also referenced in The OC pilot episode, with the girl next door being Marissa Cooper. The exchange of dialogue is different, however, between the two characters.
- Seth Cohen, whose nerdy image makes Ryan his only friend in the community during the first season, is similar to Stark's only friend in the movie, Plato.
- In an episode in the first season, Ryan, Seth, and Marissa hid away in a Mansion that was under construction by Seth's mother, Kirsten's company. This was very similar to the hiding away of Jim, Judy, and Plato in the abandoned Mansion.
[edit] Trivia
- The Griffith Observatory is featured prominently in the film and is the site of the movie's climax.
- The man wearing a trenchcoat and carrying a briefcase and walking towards Griffith Observatory at the end of the movie is director Nicholas Ray.
- All three of the main stars (James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo) died relatively young under tragic circumstances. Dean was killed in a traffic accident on September 30, 1955 aged 24, Wood drowned on November 29, 1981 aged 43, and Mineo was murdered on February 12, 1976 aged 37. In addition, Nick Adams is often linked to the urban legend surrounding this film. Adams, often considered "The Poor Man's James Dean", attemped to let the spirit of Dean live vicariously through Adams in his work, which was notably most successful with The Rebel (TV series). But following an Oscar nomination for Twilight of Honor, his career began to decline and he allegedly died of a drug overdose on February 7, 1968 aged 36 (although several people, including his own daughter, believe he may have been killed).
- Warner Brothers had bought the rights to the book, intending to use the title for a film. Attempts to create a film version in the late 1940s eventually ended without a film or even a full script being produced. When Marlon Brando did a five-minute screen test for the studio in 1947, he was given fragments of one of the 1940s partial scripts. However, Brando was not auditioning for Rebel Without a Cause and there was no offer of any part made by the studio. The film, as it later appeared, was the result of a totally new script written in the 1950s that had nothing to do with the material Brando screen-tested with. The screen test is included on a 2006 special edition DVD of A Streetcar Named Desire
- There is a brief moment of meta-humor when Jim Stark verbally mocks his father in the voice of Mr. Magoo. (Jim Backus was the voice of the famous cartoon character.) Backus later said that the studio was upset by Dean's insistence on doing the line in the voice of Magoo (a character owned by the UPA studio) and actually made the absurd suggestion that, "since this is a Warner Brothers film, couldn't he do Bugs Bunny instead?"
- The cliff edge chicken scene has been imitated in numerous films and TV programmes, including the video of Paula Abdul's Rush Rush and an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Quantum Leap.
- The film is one of the earliest and most infamous uses of the gay subtext. A large portion of the homoerotic content surrounds the relationship between James Dean's Jim Stark and Sal Mineo's Plato. Plato has a picture of Alan Ladd, later discovered to be homosexual himself, in his locker. According to a Vanity Fair article, both director Nicholas Ray and Dean urged Mineo to portray Plato as homosexual, insisting Mineo draw upon his own bisexuality for the inspiration. In a 2005 Entertainment Weekly story covering the 50th anniversary of the movie, Dean also insisted there be a gay kiss between Jim and Plato and Ray approved, but screenwriter Irving Shulman would not allow it, because he wished not to "alienate the audience". Nonetheless, Mineo often boasted that he portrayed "the first gay teenager on film", which may actually be a valid statement. There were also many behind-the-scenes rumors, involving Dean and his relationships with the cast members. While Ray reportedly entered a sexual relationship with Natalie Wood, inquiries about Dean's bisexuality began to emerge. He allegedly had trysts and/or relationships with Mineo, Nick Adams, Corey Allen, Jack Simmons (who played Cookie), and perhaps others. Mineo stated years later that Adams "bragged about an affair" they had to him. During that time, Dean was once questioned publicly regarding his orientation, to which he replied "I'm not gonna go through life with one hand tied behind my back." It is unclear whether that remark is an admission of his open-minded perspectives on sexuality or simply a gay pun. Most speculate, however, that he and Simmons were involved with one another on a serious level before his untimely death.
- The film is one of several films examined in the 1995 documentary about how Hollywood films have historically depicted homosexuality titled The Celluloid Closet.
[edit] Cast
- James Dean – Jim Stark
- Natalie Wood – Judy
- Sal Mineo – John "Plato" Crawford
- Jim Backus – Frank Stark
- Ann Doran – Mrs. Stark
- Corey Allen – Buzz Gunderson
- William Hopper – Judy's father
- Rochelle Hudson – Judy's mother
- Edward Platt – Ray Fremick
- Nick Adams – Chick
- Dennis Hopper – Goon
- Jack Grinnage – Moose
- Jack Simmons – Cookie
Award nominations:
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – Sal Mineo
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Natalie Wood
- Best Writing, Motion Picture Story – Nicholas Ray
- BAFTA Award for Best Film
- BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor – James Dean
[edit] Famous dialogue from the film
Nobody talks to children. No, they just tell them.
If I had one day when I didn't have to be all confused and I didn't have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know?
You're tearing me apart!
What would he know about 'man alone'?
Wanna' see a monkey?
Jim, do you think the end of the world will come at nighttime? (Referenced in the Tiger Army song "Last Night")
Buzz (to Jim): "You know, I like you.
Jim: Why do we do this?
Buzz: Well, you gotta do something.
[References both the male posturing (arguably, the theme of greatest relevance in the film) and the aimless or perhaps "causeless" nature that inspires their behavior.
[edit] References
- Frascella, Lawrence and Weisel, Al : Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause. Touchstone, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6082-1
[edit] External links
- All Time Rebel {1955-2005: 50th Anniversary}
- Jack Grinnage's Homepage (he played "Moose")
- Behind the Scenes of 'Rebel Without a Cause': James Dean, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood—Living Fast, Dying Young, in Life and Onscreen
- "The Making of Rebel Without a Cause" by Sam Kashner A Vanity Fair piece about Nicholas Ray with a particular focus on Rebel.
- The Expression 'Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Good-looking Corpse' at h2g2
