REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

US, 1955, 111 minutes, Colour.
James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, William Hopper, Dennis Hopper.
Directed by Nicholas Ray.

Rebel Without a Cause is considered a classic of rebellion of the 1950s. In fact, it offered premonitions of the 1960s, the family disruption and rebellion that was to come. However, in the year of Blackboard Jungle, it indicated that all was not well beneath the surface of the typical American family. Yet this is the period which Back to the Future returns to as the example of good 50s living, in the Eisenhower era.

The film was James Dean's second major film role. He began as the rebel in Elia Kazan's East of Eden, based on John Steinbeck's story. His third film was to be Giant. Here he takes his sullen poses, mooches and slouches, embodies the rebellious attitude of some young people of the period. Natalie Wood was emerging from her childhood roles into adult roles. Sal Mineo, significantly called Plato, has a platonic love for the central characters. Jim Backus, usually a comedian and the voice of Mr Magoo, gives a strong performance as the father of the family. Dennis Hopper appears in a supporting role.

Several films have been made about James Dean and he has been impersonated by a number of actors, especially James Franco in an Emmy award-winning biography James Dean.

Nicholas Ray had directed a number of striking films in the late 40s and early 50s including They Live By Night, Knock On Any Door. He was to make a number of more colourful films in the late 1950s including Wind Across the Everglades and move into big-budget films with King of Kings and Fifty-Five? Days at Peking.

1. Why is this considered a 1950s classic? Does the film have relevance today? Are the incidents parallelled in today's family relationships? What was the impact of the film in its time? Today?

2. How important is James Dean for the success of the film? His skill in showing an anguished adolescent? His style? James Dean as a symbol of anguished adolescence in the fifties? Does this communicate itself today?

3. How successful is the screenplay? Its arrangement of scenes to highlight anguished youth, rebellion, parental incomprehension? The speed of the dialogue and the incisiveness of the words?

4. How well has the director encompassed all the facets of his film-making; screenplay, characterization, dialogue?

5. How important is the widescreen and colour? Would the film have been better in black and white7 The impact not only of James Dean, but of Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo?

6. The meaning of the title? Its implications about youth? The inevitability of rebellion? Youth's need for a cause and its idealism? The results when rebellious youth have no cause? When they get no cause from the parent generation?

7. How much insight into adolescent youth does the film give? Does it take sides unfairly? Does it show the reality of the gulfs between adolescents and parents? The rightness and wrongness of adolescents' behaviour? The insight that the parents should have? Their failure to respond? Their fears? Hypocrisies?

8. How rounded a character is Jim? The manifestations of violence, why? His capacity for friendship? Audience sympathy for him? The importance of the knife fight? The importance of the 'chicken' sequence and its impact on Jim? How important, dramatically, are his confrontations with his parents? Their effect on him and his effect on them? Which scenes illustrate this best? Jim's wanting to go to the police? His parents' fear? The confrontation with Buzz's gang? The importance of the relationship with Judy for Jim? With Plato? What bound the three of them together? How was this illustrated in the 'house' sequence? The games? The communication of feeling? Was the shooting violence credible for the film? Plato's death? What did Jim learn through his experiences? What future would he have? How did he fit into his background of home, school, class, wealth, middle class background, American ideals in the fifties? What heritage did this generation hand to their children?

9. How well observed were the parents? Their obtuseness, blindness, fears, irresponsibility? What judgement did the film make on them?

10. How attractive was Judy as a heroine? How real as a girl? Her emotional response to her mother and father? The repercussions on her behaviour? Her dependence on Jim? The relationship with Buzz? The tragic effects of her emotional tangles?

11. How well portrayed were Judy's parents? Especially her father? The realities of affection and its lack?

12. How interesting was the character of Plato? The typically ignored youth? Seeking attention? Feeling at home with his friends? The irascibility and instability? The shooting? The
fact that he seemed pre-destined to be a loser?

13. How well observed was Buzz and his gang, The rivalry? The fight? The bravado? The foolhardiness of the 'chicken' race?

14. How well did the film portray life and death issues within the suburbs? Was it an important social film? An important piece of Americana?

15. What were the highlights of the film? Comment on how the
'chicken' race and its tragic ending was filmed, the sequences
within the house?

16. Does the film deserve to be called a classic?