Rebel Without a Cause<\/em> is such a film. A quintessential piece of 1950s cinema (perhaps the <\/em>quintessential piece of 1950s cinema) it demands to be seen entirely though that lens – and through that of its star, James Dean, whose tragic death less than a month before its release made it more than a movie from its first unspooling. The live-fast-die-young outcome of its star meant it could never be something as simple as storytelling; it was, from 1955 forward, myth-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He makes a memorable first impression, sprawled on the pavement, drunk and disheveled. He\u2019s brought in to the police station, a scene which serves dual functions: we learn about him (his name is Jim Stark, and he\u2019s new in town), and we meet the other Troubled Teens we\u2019ll spend the movie with. Judy (Natalie Wood) is hanging out with the wrong crowd and wearing revealing outfits, mostly to get the attention of her father (\u201cAnd he called me\u2026 he called me a dirty tramp!\u201d she cries. \u201cMy own father!\u201d). And Plato (Sal Mineo) has been all but abandoned by his parents, spending all of his time with the housekeeper and sending up giant red flag cries for help (he\u2019s at the police station for shooting a litter of puppies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also meet Jim\u2019s dysfunctional family: a simpering father, grouchy mother, and battle ax grandmother. \u201cWe just moved here, understand, and the kid hasn\u2019t got any friends,\u201d explains his father (Jim Backus, better known to later generations as The Millionaire on Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em>). We get the feeling that the family is new in town because of Jim\u2019s troubles fitting in wherever they were previously; \u201cYou coulda gone to juvenile hall,\u201d a (comparatively) sympathetic cop warns him, to little effect. That\u2019s what you want, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Desperate to lash out, and with the cop\u2019s encouragement, Jim just beats the hell out of a desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim is suffused with the kind of middle-class suburban ennui that was uncommon in \u201850s movies, though it would become a teen movie cliche in years to come. That borderline-nihilism moves from micro to macro when Jim\u2019s class goes on a field trip to the Griffith Observatory, where a planetarium puts their problems into perspective; the earth and its activities are \u201cof little consequence,\u201d the teens are told, and \u201cin all the immensity of our universe and the galaxies beyond, the earth will not be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His offhand delivery of a line like that makes it clear that the contemporaneous comparisons of Dean to his most obvious acting ancestor, Marlon Brando, weren\u2019t mere hype. It\u2019s a performance of fierce naturalism, matched beat by beat by his effortless cool – few figures onscreen have looked as magnificent with a cigarette between their lips, and the big sigh he takes after the tough guys slice his tires is more deflating than any action they\u2019ve taken, or could conjure up. (\u201cNobody acts sincere,\u201d Judy notes, in what seems both a textual reference and a shot at several of the lesser supporting players.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Dean\u2019s off-the-cuff performance is, it could be argued, working against the picture. The overwrought nature of Stewart Stern and Irving Shulman\u2019s screenplay is often at odds with Dean\u2019s naturalistic instincts and playing; he\u2019s acting up a storm, but the elements circling him are a little bit corny, and a little bit melodramatic. Rebel<\/em> is presented in CinemaScope and WarnerColor, but Dean is giving a boxed-in, black-and-white performance; try imagining On the Waterfront<\/em> in widescreen color and you get an idea of the incongruity at play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet its moments of silliness are almost always matched with authenticity, frequently in whiplash-inducing proximity; Buzz\u2019s goofy death, for example, is followed by a stunning three-point arrangement of the misfits, anchored by the tender gesture of Jim reaching out his hand to Judy. (And it does culminate with a dark-skinned kid shot by the cops – some things never change!) Rebel Without a Cause <\/em>is, for much of its running time, of its moment, but it captures that moment with a grace and vulnerability that must\u2019ve been astonishing for its original audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Rebel Without a Cause” is streaming on HBO Max<\/a> and available on 4K from Warner Bros. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/rebel2-1024x540.jpg\")
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With such concerns weighing (perhaps disproportionately) on their minds, a devil-may-care attitude pervades. Taunted by the slightly<\/em> menacing teens of the school where he\u2019s already an outcast, Jim is taunted into participating in a \u201cchicky run,\u201d a death-risking drag race, and when he asks the reasonable question, \u201cWhy do we do this,\u201d the reply is similarly simple: \u201cYou gotta do something, now don\u2019t you?\u201d The carpe diem<\/em> of it all isn\u2019t merely for matters of life and death, however; later, when Jim kisses Judy on the forehead, and she asks why he did, he replies, simply, \u201cFelt like it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n