Rebel Without a Cause

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Rebel Without a Cause

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Produced by David Weisbart
Written by Nicholas Ray (story)
Irving Shulman (adaptation)
Stewart Stern (screenplay)
Starring James Dean
Natalie Wood
Sal Mineo
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Cinematography Ernest Haller
Editing by William Ziegler
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) 27 October 1955
Running time 111 mins.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,500,000 (est)

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teenager played by James Dean, who comes to a town, meets a girl, disobeys his parents, and defies the local high school bullies. It was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental style, and exploit the differences between generations. The title is adopted from psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner's 1944 book, Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath. The film itself, however, does not reference Lindner's book in any other way. In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the preserved films of the United States Library of Congress's National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."


Contents

[edit] Plot

Jim Stark is in police custody.

The protagonist is 17-year-old James Stark, shortly after he and his parents move to Los Angeles, where he enrolls at Dawson High School. The film begins with Stark brought into police station for public drunkenness. His mother, father and grandmother come to retrieve him, and the film's dilemma is introduced. Jim's parents are often fighting. Often the father is the one who tries to advocate for Jim; however, Jim's mother always succeeds during the arguments. Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and by his father's lack of moral strength, causing feelings of unrest and displacement. This shows later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father "what do you do when you have to be a man?".

Jim confronts his father while his mother watches.

While trying to conform with fellow students at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully named Buzz Gunderson. While he tries to deal with Buzz (Corey Allen), he becomes friends with a 15-year-old boy, John, nick-named Plato (Sal Mineo), who was also at the police station the night of the opening scene for shooting puppies. Plato idolizes Jim, his real father having abandoned his family. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for meaning in life and dealing with parents who "don't understand."

Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark, who originally acts unimpressed by Jim, saying in an ironic tone "I'm bet you're a real yoyo". She belongs to the high school gang of Buzz Gunderson. The thugs challenge Jim to a "Chicken Race" with Buzz, racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a "chicken" (coward). The "game" ends in tragedy for Buzz: he is the first to "chicken", when a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes caught on the car door and he is unable to jump before it goes over the cliff.

A romantic moment between Judy and Jim.

Jim tries to tell his parents what happened but becomes frustrated by their failure to understand him and storms out of the house. When Jim is seen trying to go to the police by some of Buzz's friends, they decide to hunt him down, and harass Plato and Jim's family to try to find him. Judy and Plato join him in the garden of an abandoned villa, where they act out a "fantasy family", with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. The thugs soon discover them, and Plato brandishes a gun, shooting at one of the boys, Jim, and a police officer, in a clearly unstable state.

Plato hides in the Griffith Observatory which is soon besieged by the police. Jim and Judy follow him inside, and Jim convinces Plato to lend him the gun, from which he silently removes the ammunition magazine (though he neglects the round in the chamber). When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes unstable again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is shot fatally by a police officer acting in defense of himself and the bystanders, despite Jim's yelling to police that he removed the bullets. Plato was wearing Jim's jacket at the time, and as a result, Jim's parents (brought to the scene by police) think at first that Jim was shot. Mr. Stark then runs to comfort Jim, who is distraught by Plato's death. Mr. Stark promises to be a stronger father, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

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.

  • According to a biography on her, Natalie Wood almost did not get the role of Judy because Nicholas Ray thought that she didn't seem fit for the role of the wild teen character. While on a night out with friends, she got into a car accident. Upon hearing this, Ray rushed to the hospital. While in delirium, Wood overheard the doctor murmuring and calling her a "goddamn juvenile delinquent"; she soon yelled to Ray, "Did you hear what he called me Nick?! He called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent! Now do I get the part?!"

The real-life location that Dawson High School was filmed on is Santa Monica High School, located in Santa Monica, California.

The film was in production from 28 March to 25 May 1955.

The 1949 Mercury Coupe James Dean drove in the movie is part of the permanent collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.[1]

[edit] Awards and honors

Wins

Nominations

American Film Institute recognition

[edit] Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2008)

[edit] Pop culture references

  • The '80s British rock group The Smiths quote a line from the movie for the song "Stretch Out and Wait" from the album Louder Than Bombs: "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". Smiths frontman Morrissey is known to be a huge fan of James Dean.
  • The Beach Boys recorded an a capella song about James Dean, entitled "A Young Man Is Gone" where the last line of lyrics says "and they say that he'll be known forevermore, as the Rebel Without A Cause."
  • Kid Rock's 1999 album, Devil Without a Cause is a play on the title of the film.
  • The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Date with Density" shares many plot similarities. And in "Take My Wife, Sleaze", the Simpsons are watching a similar movie, in which one of the characters exclaims "He's a rebel I tell ya! A rebel without a cause ...just like the boy in that popular movie we saw"
  • Some of the scenes from the Bollywood movie Ghulam starring Aamir Khan are influenced from this movie.
  • The 1991 Paula Abdul music video for the single "Rush, Rush" is an adaptation of the film with Keanu Reeves as the James Dean character, Jim, and Abdul as the Natalie Wood character, Judy.
  • Jim Stark's outfit inspired the costume for Philip J. Fry - a main character on Futurama
  • Hilary Duff sang a song called "Mr. James Dean" that related to him and the movie Rebel Without a Cause.
  • In the Jay-Z song "Allure", the lyrics allude to James Dean. "Even James Dean couldn't escape the allure, dyin' young, leavin' a good looking corpse".
  • The tag line of Stubbs The Zombie is "A rebel without a pulse", a play on the film's title.
  • Country music group Shenandoah 1993 hit song "I Wanna Be Loved Like That" contains the following lyrics- Natalie Wood gave her heart to James Dean/ The high school rebel and the teenage queen/ Standin together in an angry world/ One boy fightin for one girl.
  • In an episode, titled Pre-Hibernation week, of the television show "SpongeBob SquarePants", SpongeBob screams "Your games are tearing me apart!", referencing Jim's "Your words are tearing me apart!" line.
  • Perhaps most well-known is the line from Don McLean's American Pie, "...When the jester sang for the king and queen,

In a coat he borrowed from James Dean," referencing when Bob Dylan (considered the jester or entertainer of the 60's) appeared on the cover of his album Freewheelin' in a red leather jacket like Dean wore in Rebel Without a Cause.

  • In the Garfield book, Garfield at the Movies: Lights, Camera, Hairballs!, It includes a parody of the film entitled "Rebel Without a Clue" which included Odie as James Dean.
  • The popular website FunnyOrDie released a video titled Acting with James Franco where James Franco and his brother Dave Franco try to reenact the jacket scene from this film. Franco had played James Dean in a 2001 biography film.
  • The song Into the Great Wide Open by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is about a rock star whose hit song is called 'Rebel Without a Clue'.
  • Bon Jovi's song These Days from the album of the same name line references James Dean. With the lyric "She came looking for some shelter with a suitcase full of dreams, To a motel room on the boulevard, Guess shes trying to be James Dean"
  • Anberlin's song "Dance, Dance, Christa Paffgen" off the album "Never Take Friendship Personal" references James Dean with the lyric, "She runs around, knows all the streets by name. So mysterious, shadows meet James Dean..."
  • "Choke On This" by Senses Fail reference James Dean with the words, "Remember what you said to me, "You can be my James Dean, I'll be your sweet queen""
  • In the popular House of Night series, Damian realizes that Stark's name sounds so familiar because he chose the name after the character, James Stark.
  • The made-for-TV film Norbert Smith - a Life features a fictional film entitled Rebel Without a Tie. This film references Cause in name only, being presented as a British pre-WW2 crime thriller.
  • The film had its opening on 27 October 1955,almost one month after James Dean's fatal car crash.
  • Rebel Without A Cause ranks 477th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

[2]

  • The Public Enemy song "Rebel Without a Pause" is a play on the film's title.
  • The pop band Jim Stärk is named after the film's main character.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ National Automobile Museum - collections
  2. ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/5.asp

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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