Quite possibly the greatest movie of all ’’rebel without a cause’’ is regarded as one of the best movies ever made, like ’’cool hand luke’’ it has had a cultural impact, not only as far as movie as concerned but society. what made the movie such a hit was the fact that you had this giant rebel icon known as james dean, whom every young girl wanted to go out. an all star cast such as natalie wood, whose career would continue to skyrocket with such great films as ’’splendor in the grass’’.
However, the film’s storyline is what impacted viewers, much of which were young men and women who could relate to the main character. dean plays jim stark, born to a rich father, stark don’t seem to fit in with anybody, his neighboorhood, his classmates, he movesto a new town where he must try to fit with society. He encounters on his first day judy (wood), a pretty girl whose around with the wrong crowd, a rebellious gang bent on no good.
As jim gets lost finding his class he meets a kind young man named plato (sal mineo who also died young) who helps him find his way. However near the end of the afternoon jim has a confrontation with judy’sboyfriend named buzz (played by corey allen) what results is a fatal accident.
However besides this stark must deal with his overbearing father who does not understand his own and thinks he can soothe him by buying him literally. It seems that stark cannot fit into anywhere in society, he is a rebel, an outsider looking in on a world, that doesn’t quite understand him and it will be a battle for him to find his way and find meaning in his life. that’s the cult phenomen right there, everyone especially teenagers feel at one time or another like jim stark, a rebel, an outsider looking in, not really acceptedinto any form of society whether it’s school or his own parents.
Stark is the classic example of the rebel. of course jim stark’s character is totally identical to James Dean himself, who lived life by the edge. Just like Jim Stark, Dean didn’t getalong with his father, in fact his father didn’t want Dean to go into acting. Imagine if James Dean followed his father’s stupid advice? Incredible, this idol would never have been born. He had a strange relationship with his mother. He played the Stark character like his own because it was his story.
The acting by Dean’s costars is equally as good Jim Backus as Frank Stark plays Jim’s dad. Backus is best known for playing Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island. Backus brings a lot of ’’Mr. Howell’’ into this character. His rich ideals and manner are completely blind to the trails and turbulations his son is going through leading to the famous ’’Your tearing me apart’’ line by James Dean, one of the most memorable lines in movie history.
Natalie Wood is excellent as Judy, the popular and pretty girl at school who realizes near the end of the film that she is a lost soul like Stark. Sal Mineo is great as Plato the rich kid with the somewhat pessimistic look on society. Plato when hemeets Stark, start a very quaint relationship, although part of it lies in the fact that Plato is completely fascinated by Stark. DVD details Ah it’s been over 50 years since the movie has been released but only until a couple of years ago, a dvd was released, however it’s worth the wait as dvd comes with many great extras and historical pieces of rare footage.
First is the rare trailer for the movie, however as an added bonus we get trailers for James Dean’s other flick including Giant (with Rock Hudson) and East of Eden (his last film). 3 Documentaries on the film including one called ’’Rediscovering a Rebel’’ which reveals interesting details about the movie. For instance the movie was actually at first f ilmed in black and white as seen in the screen test forDean and Wood. The executives at Warner Bros. decided to go color as color was now becoming the standard in films.
Also you get ultra rare screen tests with Dean and Wood acting out their roles. However , we also get what’s best described as a propangand interview for the stars themselves from Warner Bros. We get a long and rare interview with star Natalie Wood as she catches some rest and explains the film itself. We also get a rare interview with Dean himself. Then we get an inside look into Warner Bros. other features at the time including East of Eden (Dean’s last film).
The documentaries are excellent as they provide rare footage coupled with many facts about the movie almost no one knows about. For instance the Jim Stark character modeled after James Dean was actually supposed to be a kind of nerd. When James Dean tried for roles he often sported a pair of reading glass. He later changed his image to appear more suave and cool.
It obviously worked. One part of the documentary has Dean sporting a public service message for safe driving which is a sad twist of fate since Dean died in a car crash. As you can see this is a must have DVD complementing one of the greatest movies of all time. People talk about ’’Casablanca’’ and all this other classics, but in my opinions, ’’Rebel Without A Cause’’ overshadows them as it’s a movie which reach a million or so teens in it’s day and still has the power to do that today with it’s messages of alienation, the outsider and not fitting in, while trying to find oneself’s true identity. Get the DVD and relive this true classic.