Rebel Without A Cause

Rebel Without a Cause Dir. Nicholas Ray

Feat. James Dean (James Stark), Natalie Wood (Judy), Sal Mineo (Plato)

Warner Bros, 1955.

As we continue along our journey watching older films we recognized Nicholas Ray’s 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. This movie had an overarching themes; reversed stereotypical gender roles. For example, James Starks father was more of a “housewife” than his mother was. Some would say that this led James to have to revert to showing his “masculinity.” He did this by participating in some good ole’ knife fights and “chickie” games.

James is all sorts of messed up in the head. He is oftenly battling inner anger, and betrayal; mostly because his mother is always picking on his father. Once James met his love (Natalie) and new friend (Plato) all of the tension he had built up started to show. After his parents would not let him go to the police, when he was involved in a crime that resulted in the death of a fellow teenager, he rebelled. Once he left the police station him, Natalie, and Plato went on the run. They ended up in a house that was supposedly owned by a friend of theirs. It turned out to be a crime, because they broke in and stayed there. They used it as a hideout from another gang. It turned deadly when Plato used his adopted mothers gun and shot another kid. In the end, Plato was shot by the police after he came out of the observatory.

The observatory wasn’t the only thing he came out of. Throughout the film, Plato dealt with a feeling of inner homosexuality, but he never showed it. This was another theme of a movie that included a few characters with some interpersonal conflicts. This movie was not bad, but I would probably divert my viewing to something else. One thing I can say is that if high school nowadays was like how it was back then, or at least if MBA was like it, I would not be happy nor would I feel safe.