Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Directed by Nicholas Ray. Starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo.

What makes an icon? Is it an iconic performance? A short-lived life with a tragic ending? A way of talking, walking; a presence?

Rebel Without a Cause presents an icon: James Dean. It was released in the same year Dean died and the film became a cult hit due to its association with this iconic individual.

This film fits into a genre that was new to Hollywood in the 50s: the teenpic. As film audiences waned due to a variety of reasons (including the migration to the suburbs, and TV chief among them), movies were increasingly targeted to a specific audience. Teenagers were a new demographic, with plenty of money to spend at the movies... enough to deserve films specifically made with them in mind.

On top of that, Rebel Without a Cause had its finger on the pulse of the time, tackling the key issue of a rise in juvenile delinquency. This movie, while not the only one to do so, was probably the first to so thoroughly personify the growing restlessness in the new generation of youth.

Furthermore, it manages to capture what it's like being a teenager, which is something that certainly has not or will not change, and enables the film to ring true today. Everyone is angry, and they don't know why. They want to prove themselves, but they don't know to whom. They're stuck straddling childhood and adulthood, living in both and neither world simultaneously.

Dean is impressive, showing off the newly developed Method Acting in which an actor was able to be more expressive by channeling personal experience and emotions through their character. The "chicken run," in which Dean and another character drive their cars toward the edge of a cliff, waiting to see who will be a coward and jump out first, tragically echoes Dean's death.

The film is GORGEOUS, especially after a semester of black & white. It features the then-newly developed CinemaScope widescreen and Warnercolor vivid color film. Facing increasing competition from TV, the film industry began to put a great deal of effort into technologies that would set movies apart from their in-the-living-room enemy. Color, widescreen aspect rations, and even 3-D were created around this time.

Though I understand some extent to which Rebel Without a Cause is a classic film, this was my first viewing of it. It's difficult to grasp everything -- Dean's performance, the emotional characters, the romance, the technology -- so I look forward to seeing it again in this future. All I know is that I was missing out on a great film, so if you haven't yet seen this classic movie, I strongly recommend you do so.