Rebel Without A Cause (Movie Review)

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Stars:  James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo

Jim (James Dean), Judy (Natalie Wood), and Plato (Sal Mineo) are three middle class teenagers who have everything they could ever need;  except for the attention of their parents.  Jim, who's father has been emasculated by his mother and grandmother, has taken to violently lashing out at any perceived insult to his "honor", and drinking heavily.  Judy is perhaps too eager for attention from daddy, as she feels heartbroken when he refuses to kiss her on the lips.  She hangs out with the bad kids at school (How bad are they?  Dennis Hopper bad.).  Plato's dad left him long ago, and his mother essentially leaves him with a nanny.  Plato has decided to take his frustration out on some puppies.  By shooting them.

This might sound like the set-up for three different episodes of Degrassi High, but what makes this movie work so well is the incredible performances, the whip smart script, and the fantastic direction by Nicholas Ray.   Ernest Haller, Oscar winning Cinematographer of Gone With The Wind, uses color with shocking effect on the cars, jackets, switchblades;  and perfectly balances his work with Ray's frenzied framing.  As the camera sharply tilts while Jim argues with his mother on the staircase, you can feel his world shifting around him.  There is nowhere safe for him, or any of these characters.  Even the ground beneath their feet is unreliable.

The appearance of Dennis Hopper in a supporting role is appropriate, since this is Blue Velvet 1955.  This isn't about some tenement slum and big city gangsters;  this is about the danger simmering beneath the freshly mowed lawns of suburbia.  The blemish in paradise, that everyone would rather just sweep under the rug, and out of sight.  The signs of impending doom are everywhere, not least of which when the kids go on a field trip to the planetarium to witness the end of the solar system.

Sexual energy is seething out of every frame of this film.  Director Ray was bisexual (James Dean is commonly believed to have been, as well), and crafts the friendship between the three leads into an unspoken, unconsummated love triangle, while simultaneously paralleling it with their own fractured home lives.  Even in an attempt to create a new family, none of them can escape the shadow of their past.

It's a simple tale of teenage rebellion, an allegory for the era and an olive branch extended to the youth culture of the time.  There are many lines, movements, and shots which are layered with several meanings; some overt and some delightfully subversive.  This is the kind of movie that film criticism and analysis was made for.

Don't let any of this make you think that the film is stodgy or boring.  There are some tight little action/suspense scenes, and unless you have zero tolerance for old cinema, it hardly feels dated at all.  Don't watch it because it's a "classic";  watch it because it speaks to the outcast in all of us.

FREDERICK OPINES: MASTERPIECE

Rebel Without a Cause (Two-Disc Special Edition)