Rebel Without a Cause

Rating: 4 Stars

Plot & Characters:
Both plot and characters started out very Old Hollywood and took a pleasant turn for the more introspective and modern. I initially placed it in the category of 1940s melodrama (ie. Streetcar Named Desire) but the second half of the movie solidly set it apart from that era. It addressed topics that were somewhat taboo at the time, but more importantly, the acting was just less….static? It was human and reactionary – the actors weren’t limited only to tearful whispering and dramatic shouting. They  mumbled, brooded, shared grins, had casual movements and generally introduced a human element I wasn’t aware existed in films of this era (ie. when Jim puts his hands in his pockets and leans over the hood of his car when talking to Judy, and later she joins him. I dunno….I just can’t imagine this blocking in an earlier film). Granted, some deliveries were still Old Hollywood but you can undoubtedly see the progression from earlier films
Jim Stark played by James Dean (the actual ‘rebel without a cause’) was very good. He was not the stereotypical 1950s tough guy, greaser rebel that the movie’s image seems to propagate. He was rather an emotionally stunted teenager with a claustrophobic home life, and by the end of the movie had proven himself a downright good human being. A pleasant, unexpected surprise. There was this mopey tension in everything he did, as though he continually didn’t know whether to violently punch something or fall down in mental exhaustion. Perhaps most importantly, he made me like him. It would have been very easy to dismiss him as an idiotic rich kid who cannot handle first world problems but….I didn’t. And this is on top of the fact that he does stupid things to protect his ‘honor’ for which I would have most likely despised any another character. Dunno what it is, but he ended up being pitiful and likeable. Well done, sir.
The other two main characters, Judy and Plato, were both tentatively good. Of the two, Plato was slightly better as he captured the sense of mental vulnerability very well. But other than that, nothing spectacular.
The best way to describe the plot itself is solid. It didn’t call too much attention to itself, wasn’t over-complicated, and allowed the character dramas to take center stage. And there were a few gems in the dialogue that were incredibly well-written.
Cinematography: Meh. Nothing incredible to speak of. It was neither incredibly imaginative nor detracting. That being said, I really liked the overhead shots of the abandoned house, as well as the tracking shots during the fight scene in the same house.
Production Design: I like the red jacket/jeans combo. I see why it became iconic. Or perhaps I like it because it is iconic…..? Also, James Dean is among the oldest looking high schoolers in cinema history. He has wrinkles in some lights.
Theme: If I had read the synopsis of this movie prior to seeing it I probably would have hated it. It deals with topic that I naturally shy away from – the pointless and destructive antics of teenagers who are at odds with their parents, their peers, and themselves. But there was a certain depth to this helplessness – it wasn’t simply about teenagers being teenager-y. It delved into what happens when people don’t communicate and as a result cannot provide guidance to those who need it.