“Your tearing me apart!”
I’ve heard this quote many times but never could quite understand it until seeing the 1955 film “Rebel Without a Cause”, directed my Nicholas Ray and written by Stewart Stern and Irving Shulman. James Dean’s tragically ironic role due to his unfortunate death a month before premiering, portrays a disgruntled young man at war with himself due to his father’s “unmanly” behavior.
His character Jim Stark is a troubled teenager among many whose record for getting into trouble is extensive. He encounters a young man named Plato who, with an unstable quality, follows Jim through his journey throughout the movie. He also meets a young woman by the name of Judy who ,despite his pretty face, has a desperate crave for male attention and fulfills it by attaching herself to the lead dog in the situation present, which in the beginning is Buzz. Judy’s thirst for excitement concedes her in egging on Buzz to “deal with” Jim. When an ambush and knife fight is not enough to quench Buzz’s thirst, he challenges Jim to a game of chicken on the edge of a cliff. Buzz unfortunately doesn’t make it as a tragic twist of fate causes his jacket to get hung in the car as it plummets towards the jagged rocks below. Panicked the teens scatter and nobody knows what to do except Buzz’s so called friend, Goon, who without hesitation jumps at the chance to become alpha male. Jim, Plato, and Judy are driven to hide in what turns out to be Plato’s old mansion and are led to believe they are safe until Goon and the boys arrive to “clean up some unfinished business”. Plato finally snaps and in self defense wounds a boy and flees to the planetarium where he is not so cheerfully greeted by a fleet of police cars and armed policemen. Jim and Judy sneak in a try to calmly lead him out, but even though Jim has removed the clip from the gun the police impulsively shoot. Plato doesn’t make it but good does come from his death as Jim’s father finally steps up as a man.
The three main characters all display serious daddy issues. In Jim’s case, his father just can’t seem to man up and stand up to his somewhat controlling wife who chooses to move instead of facing problems no matter the toll it takes on her family. Judy’s father doesn’t quite know how to treat his “young woman” now that she become a teenager and is giving her the cold shoulder which to her seems like abandonment. As for Plato his parents are just completely out of the picture, choosing to distance themselves as much as possible from him. All are living in seriously unstable environments and all are desperately seeking stability.
On surface level this movie is just another teen movie, but when examined a bit closer it shows how no matter the circumstances you’re placed in if you’re really willing you can make a family and life of your own, even if that family are just your friends. This movie came slightly before its time in the sense that it portrays actual problems that we face but it most definatly was meant to come. Admittedly now day we might not play chicken on cliff edges or keep guns underneath our pillows. But we still have the same restless spirit as they did then and that is what makes it real. Not the events or the action, but the emotions and feelings and desires. That is what makes it real.
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