Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American coming-of-age melodrama film, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, and Nick Adams. It is also the film debut of Dennis Hopper, albeit in a minor role. It was filmed in the then recently introduced CinemaScope format. Focusing on emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers, the film offers both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments.
The film was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental styles, and explore the differences and conflicts between generations, namely the Interbellum Generation and the Silent Generation. The title was adopted from psychologist Robert M. Lindner's 1944 book, Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath, although the film itself does not make any other references to Lindner's book. Warner Bros. released the film on October 27, 1955, nearly a month after Dean's death in a car crash on September 30, 1955.
Over the years, the film has achieved landmark status for the performance of Dean, fresh from his Oscar-nominated role in East of Eden, in his most celebrated role. This was the only film of Dean's in which he received top billing. In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".
Plot
In Los Angeles during the mid-1950s, teenager Jim Stark is arrested and taken to the juvenile division of a police station for public intoxication. At the station he crosses paths with John "Plato" Crawford, who was brought in for killing a litter of puppies, and Judy, who was brought in for curfew violation. The three separately reveal their innermost frustrations to the officers; all three of them suffer from problems at home. Jim feels anguished by his constantly bickering parents, Frank and Carol, but even more so by his timid father's failure to stand up to Carol; the issues are further complicated by Frank's interfering mother. His frustrations are made manifest to officer Ray Fremick when Jim is released to their custody.Judy is convinced that her father ignores her because she is no longer a little girl, so she dresses up in racy clothes to get attention, which only causes her father to call her a "dirty tramp", while Plato's father abandoned his family when he was a toddler, and his mother is often away from home, leaving Plato in the care of his housekeeper.
On the way to his first day at Dawson High, Jim again meets Judy and offers her a ride. Seemingly unimpressed by Jim, she declines and is instead picked up by her "friends", a gang of delinquents led by Buzz Gunderson who Judy is also dating. Jim is shunned by the rest of the student body but is befriended by Plato, who comes to idolize Jim.
After a field trip to Griffith Observatory, Buzz provokes and challenges Jim to a knife fight; Jim bests Buzz by knocking his switchblade out of his hand, then throws his own blade away. To preserve his status as gang leader, Buzz suggests stealing some cars to have a "Chickie Run" at a seaside cliff. At home, Jim ambiguously asks his father about defending one's honor in a dangerous situation, but Frank advises him against confrontation of any kind. That night, during the chickie run, Buzz plunges to his death when the strap on his jacket sleeve becomes entangled with his door-latch lever, preventing him from exiting the car. As police approach, the gang flees, leaving Judy behind, but Jim persuades her to leave with him and Plato.
Image:Ann Doran, James Dean and Jim Backus in Rebel Without a Cause trailer.jpg|right|thumb|Jim confronts his father while his mother watches.
Jim later confides to his parents his involvement in the crash and considers turning himself in. When Carol declares they are moving again, Jim pleads with Frank to stand up for him. When Frank refuses, Jim attacks him in frustration, then storms off to the police station to confess, only to be turned away by the desk sergeant. Jim drives back home, finding Judy waiting for him. She apologizes for her prior treatment of him due to peer pressure, and the two begin to fall in love. Agreeing to never return to their respective homes, Jim suggests they visit an old deserted mansion Plato told him about.
Meanwhile, Plato is intercepted by three members of Buzz's gang, who are convinced that Jim betrayed them to the police. They steal Plato's address book and pursue Jim; Plato retrieves his mother's gun and leaves to warn Jim and Judy, finding them at the mansion. The three new friends act out a fantasy as a family. Plato then falls asleep, and Jim and Judy leave to explore the mansion, where they share their first kiss. Buzz's gang find and wake up Plato, who, frightened and distraught, shoots and wounds one of the gang. When Jim returns, he attempts to restrain Plato, who flees, accusing Jim of abandoning him.
Plato runs to the observatory and barricades himself inside as more police converge including Fremick who, along with Frank and Carol, has been searching for Jim. Jim and Judy follow Plato into the observatory, where Jim persuades Plato to trade the gun for his red jacket; Jim quietly removes the ammunition before returning it, and then convinces Plato to come outside. When the police notice that Plato still has the gun, they shoot Plato dead as he charges them, unaware that Jim had removed the bullets. Frank comforts his grieving son, vowing to be a better father. Now reconciled with his parents, Jim introduces them to Judy.
Cast
Production
Background
Warner Brothers had bought the rights to Lindner's 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 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 Brando test. The screen test is included on a 2006 special edition DVD of the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire.Irving Shulman, who adapted Nicholas Ray's initial film story into the screenplay, had considered changing the name of James Dean's character to Herman Deville, according to Jurgen Muller's Movies of the '50s. He originally had written a number of scenes that were shot and later cut from the final version of the film. According to an AFI interview with Stewart Stern, with whom Shulman worked on the screenplay, one of the scenes was thought to be too emotionally provocative to be included in the final print of the film. It portrayed the character of Jim Stark inebriated to the point of belligerence screaming at a car in the parking lot "It's a little jeep jeep! Little jeep, jeep!" The scene was considered unproductive to the story's progression by head editor William H. Ziegler and ultimately was cut. In 2006, members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center petitioned to have the scene printed and archived for historical preservation.
Nicholas Ray conducted extensive research months before filming commenced, including weeks spent travelling the country with screenwriter Stewart Stern in which they interviewed hundreds of police officers, judges, youth leaders, juvenile authorities, and welfare agency managers to gather material for the film. Ray stated his intention for the film was to "do a movie about the kids next door" as opposed to delinquent-themed films of the time set in a "slum condition", adding that Rebel was to be about "middle-class kids, kids like my own, not kids from the wrong side of the tracks."
Casting
Nicholas Ray had considered Debbie Reynolds, Margaret O'Brien, Kathryn Grant and Pat Crowley for the role of Judy, before selecting Natalie Wood. According to a biography of Natalie Wood, she almost did not get the role because Nicholas Ray thought that she did not fit the role of the wild teen character. While on a night out with friends, she was in 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?!"Sal Mineo would later note in a 1972 interview that the character of Plato Crawford was intended to have been gay. Speaking to Boze Hadleigh, he said, "akes sense : he was, in a way, the first gay teenager in films. You watch it now, you know he had the hots for James Dean. You watch it now, and everyone knows about Jimmy, so it's like he had the hots for Natalie and me. Ergo, I had to be bumped off, out of the way."
Filming
The film was in production from March 28 to May 26, 1955. When production began, Warner Bros. considered it a B-movie project, and Ray used black-and-white film stock. When Jack L. Warner realized James Dean was a rising star and a hot property, filming was switched to color stock, and many scenes had to be reshot in color. It was shot in the widescreen CinemaScope format, which had been introduced two years previously. With its densely expressive images, the film has been called a "landmark... a quantum leap forward in the artistic and technical evolution of a format."Exterior scenes at the abandoned mansion to which the characters retreat were filmed at the William O. Jenkins House, previously used in the film Sunset Boulevard. It was demolished just two years after filming.
Dawson High School, the school in the film, was actually Santa Monica High School, located in Santa Monica, California.