Rebel Without a Cause

• Directed by Nicholas Ray
• October 27, 1955

A rebellious young man with a troubled past finds friends and enemies after his family moves to a new town.

I watch most classics because they are, well, classics. Something about them has allowed these films to endure in the mind of the viewing audience and I wish to know exactly why. Sometimes I go into them blind while at others I go in with a great deal of knowledge. Enter Rebel Without a Cause…

I know this might be cinema blasphemy but after viewing Rebel Without a Cause I can only call it ‘okay’. That is not to say I cannot see why people like it, but it is just not for me. There is plenty that makes it stand out from other films of the time and perhaps that is why it is still discussed. But for me the issue possibly is that so much of this movie has been imitated in film and television in the intervening decades that I felt I had watched much of it before. To be clear I am not calling it bad. It just did not click with me. Visually Rebel Without a Cause is stunning. It was just the story that left me wanting and again I think that has to do with this film being copied so often since.

Jim (James Dean) for his part is dealing with his father Frank (Jim Backus) who is not much of a man. And I don’t mean all testosterone or whatever. He’s just a spineless guy who lets himself be beaten down by his wife Carol (Ann Doran). And he’s far too coddling of his son and on some level Jim seems to get it. This is in sharp contrast to Jim’s mother and grandmother (Virginia Brissac) who are cold and more interested in how Jim reflects on the family than in love. There appears to be some attempt at connection on the part of Frank to his son but it’s a combination of being different people and the interference of the people in his life that hinders. They can’t quite seem to make it happen leaving Jim all the more lost in the world.

Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood). She loves her parents and wants to be close to them, but they keep pushing her away in ways they may not even really see. They are busy or just not interested when she just wishes to share and connect. The pair bond.

I know James Dean is a cinematic icon so I say this with some trepidation, but he engages in some real overacting here. Not Nicolas Cage level overacting but I can certainly see some similarities. Exhibit A would be the scene Dean utters the iconic “You’re tearing me apart!” It is a famous quote in a famous scene and when you watch it in context of the movie it’s a bit over acting. There are others but that is the first and most obvious one. 

James Dean’s moments of overacting aside he puts in a fine performance as a conflicted youth. Natalie Wood is great as a lost teenager trying to sort life out. The talent of the entire cast, including the briefly seen Dennis Hopper, is a definite strength. Maybe not famous names now but talented commodities then.

Sal Mineo as Plato does a good job, but I think the character itself was handled a little poorly. What happened to him came off more as a way to end the story than it did as an actual conclusion of events of the story. His death is what caps off this whole movie yet here he gets maybe two moments worth of character buildup. Aside from absentee parents I’m not sure what makes him the way he is. I’m not talking crap on this movie. There is much more good than bad, but that is a serious weak point for me. If anything I would’ve bought Jim dying over Plato. He is the first troubled youth we meet.

I was surprised at how dialogue heavy this movie is. I had not expected it. There is way more talking here than I anticipated. Admittedly I didn’t expect this to be some kind of action film but on the same token I didn’t expect as many scenes of characters sitting around and discussing things as was present. For some reason I thought there was much more drag racing than what was present.

As visuals and general cinematography go this is art. They used the CinemaScope process and filmed in the widescreen format which created something you could watch without sound and I love movies like that. Not that I want to mute a movie and watch it all the way through but visually stunning is important to me. Cinematographer Ernest Haller and director Nicholas Ray made something beautiful.

As a story I can’t say I was wowed, but as an overall presentation I was impressed by Rebel Without a Cause. It is an okay story that’s a visual feast.