Rebel Without a Cause (1955) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Nicholas Ray

Starring:  James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, Dennis Hopper


James Dean's long movie career seemed assured until his death on September 30, 1955 at age 24.     He completed Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant by then, but only East of Eden was released while he was alive.     His performance in Rebel Without a Cause is more of a guy in his early 20s acting like a teenager than an embodiment of it.     Dean in this film is mannerisms and acting.    In 1955, this was seen as revolutionary, but now it is clearly dated.     The movie has its effective moments, but also long stretches of heavy dialogue and angst.     Too many long stretches.

The movie's goal is to reflect the pain and agony of youth.    Hormones flare and mixed emotions rage.    Teens don't even know the words to describe their feelings.    Yet, one day we wake up and all makes sense again.     Jim Stark (Dean) clearly has not reached that point.     His family moves from place to place, forever looking for a fresh start.     Jim finds trouble or trouble finds him regardless.    As the movie opens, he is brought into the police station for public drunkenness.     It is movie drunk, which means at one moment Jim is so inebriated he can barely stand, then moments later he is seemingly sober and coherent just as the plot needs him to be.   

Jim's household is ruled by his domineering mother (Doran), who pushes his father (Backus) around much to Jim's disgust.     It is suggested that this is the source of his anguish and confusion.     He tells the police officer, "If he had the guts to knock Mom cold once, then maybe she'd be happy and she'd stop picking on him."    The movie reflects the attitudes of the time that a woman should learn her place and a man's job is to put her there.     Anything less is clearly unacceptable.     Don't they know what that does to kids?    

I think Jim's issues stem from something deeper and more disturbing.    The movie only lays out his family as a possible reason.     His father is a sensitive man who only wants to understand his son and help him.     Smacking Jim around wouldn't help the case.     He knows that even if Jim doesn't.    He is the most sympathetic character in the movie.     Jim's scream to his parents, "You're tearing me apart," is a famous point in the movie, but instead of being a meaningful cry for help, it comes off as awkward and self-indulgent. 

Jim's first day at his new high school in Los Angeles is anything but calm.    He makes a new enemy in Buzz (Allen), who flattens his tire with a knife and challenges Jim to a "chicken fight".    The rules?    One guy each drives a car toward a cliff.    The first to jump out is "chicken".    Again, being chicken must have been a really bad thing to be in 1955.     Jim is torn about whether to show up.     But he shows because he must defend his honor.     The fight leads to Buzz' death, which causes only brief consternation to everyone involved, including Buzz' girlfriend Judy (Wood), who in a matter of hours is hooking up with Jim.      

By the end of the movie, the entire Buzz subplot is practically forgotten.    The focus then shifts to Buzz' friends going after Jim, not because they are upset about Buzz, but because they think he will rat them out to the police.     Another major character is the confused, lonely Plato (Mineo), who attaches himself to Jim and is clearly in love with him.     He is the product of absentee parents.    Feeling abandoned and hopeless, he invites a showdown with Buzz' friends and the police with sad results.    

Mineo's and Wood's performances were both Oscar nominated and both were more natural and less prone to histrionics than Dean's.    Rebel Without a Cause is not without its moments of candor and power, but once it threatens to lead somewhere, it derails itself.    The final scenes involving Plato, Judy, and Jim drag and the gunfight showdown is dragged out past any tolerable length.     Dean was an actor with charisma and presence.     But in Rebel, his performance is uneven.    It is part star-turn and part Brando Method.     Maybe it is unfortunate that I saw this movie sixty years after it was released.      It is a product of its time and maybe carried more power back then.    A great film manages to remain identifiable and meaningful to audiences no matter what.     Certain movies maintain their universal appeal even as the years move on.     Rebel Without a Cause is not a great film, just maybe great for its time.