I first saw Rebel Without a Cause in my senior year of high school. It was Media Studies class, which was basically film class and this was the first film of the course the teacher showed us. It really struck a chord with me at the time despite the film being 44 years old at the time. Even if the time period was different, the sort of internal struggles the three main characters went through still resonated with me, especially with the two male characters played by James Dean and Sal Mineo, each in different ways. I watched it several more times as a teen and it remains a favorite of mine today, having owned it on VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray.
Jim Stark (played by James Dean) is a new kid in town and it's not long before he gets into trouble, being picked up by the police for public drunkenness. That same night, two other area teens are picked up and taken to the same police station, Judy (played by Natalie Wood) and John "Plato" Crawford (played by Sal Mineo). Unbeknownst to them at that moment, but their lives would become closely tied over the following 24 hour period. The following morning, Jim has his first day at his new school, where he once again crosses paths with both Judy and Plato. Judy tries to ignore him, preferring the regular hooligans she normally hangs out with, including lead tough Buzz (played by Corey Allen) and a very young Dennis Hopper. Plato on the other hand is immediately taken with Jim when he sees him in the school hallway. Later, on a class field trip to the Griffith Observatory, Jim manages to cross Buzz and his gang, leading to an altercation between the two with switchblades. When Jim gains the upper hand, Buzz suggests they reconvene that night and have themselves a "Chickie Run" on the bluff overlooking the ocean. The game is the two of them drive two stolen cars towards the end of the bluff and the first one to jump out of their car is a chicken. When this event ends tragically, Jim, Judy and Plato find themselves drawn together over the course of the rest of the night as they try to figure out where to go from there.
While Rebel Without a Cause is definitely a product of it's time, with a fair amount of melodramatic and overwrought acting in it's run time (Natalie Wood is probably the worst offender there), the overlying themes of the film still have power in them. I certainly responded to the film when I saw it far removed from it's own time period. There are just certain feelings and experiences during adolescence that are universal and this film captured it nicely. Add in some fantastic direction by Nicholas Ray and a dynamite script by Stewart Stern that certainly pushed the envelope further than one may initially think for a film made in 1955. The film also has three fantastic performances at it's center, with James Dean at his most iconic as the confused and angry Jim, Natalie Wood as the troubled Judy, and Sal Mineo as the very troubled and lonely Plato. Much of the film is focused on the friendship, and perhaps more, that grows between the three characters and more than anything that is what I responded to, especially with both the characters of Jim and Plato.
Now, you're probably thinking, "This is all well and great Nate, but why are you reviewing this for Pride month?" Well, Rebel Without a Cause has a unique place in LGBT film history. The film contains what is widely considered the first gay teen in American cinema with the character of Plato. Of course, this being 1955 the film can't overtly say that lest it not be approved by the Hays Code, which was a precursor to today's ratings system, and ensured that all Hollywood films were suitable for audiences. But it's still there, plain as day in every scene Plato has with Jim. The first time he sees Jim at school, the way he perks up when Jim sits near him at the Planetarium, the way he gushes about Jim to Judy before the Chickie run and on and on. It was all deliberate too on the part of Nicholas Ray and Stewart Stern, with both later confirming that it was always the intention for Plato to be read as gay. James Dean even supported it as he at one point suggested Plato should look at him the way James would look at Natalie. All of those looks I immediately recognized and know I have made myself. So, that was a certain kinship I shared with the character and he's always been one I've really liked. Well, except maybe for some of the darker aspects of his character. For example, the reason he was arrested at the beginning was for shooting a neighbor's puppies. Thankfully, we don't see it but it's still the first indication of Plato's fracturing psyche. But yet, Plato remains one of the more complex characters in the film because even though he did this terrible thing, there is also a sweetness to him and yearning to be accepted that he finally finds with Jim and Judy. Yet, he also lashes out violently when he feels he's been abandoned, no doubt stemming from his neglected home life.
The film is also very much a product of it's time and some of the conclusions it draws about it's characters are perhaps a little too easy. The conclusion that Jim's issues with masculinity and self esteem have to do with his overbearing mother and overly passive father or that Plato's mental issues, as well as his apparent homosexuality stem from absence of any parental figures and is only looked after by a rather powerless nanny seem extremely antiquated from today's perspective. Jim's suggestion that he would like to see his father knock his mother cold just once also makes me grimace. Likewise, the ending is a too cut and dry as everything is wrapped up in a neat little bow when it really shouldn't be and remains the film's biggest flaw to me.
Still, Rebel Without a Cause remains an absolute classic as it presents the definitive image of James Dean in the bright red jacket and white t-shirt, forever frozen in time. It was just a month or so before this film was released that James Dean tragically died in a car accident, leaving behind only three great films. It's interesting that it was this film, rather than East of Eden or Giant that most people seem to remember him from. I also can't help but wonder every time I see the film, or any of his for that matter, if he had lived where would his career have gone? What other films would he have done? It's an impossible question to answer of course. The film itself also broke new ground and transcended its intent to be a teen oriented B-movie on both the strength of it's acting, writing and directing to become a true classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment