| Rebel Without a Cause | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Nicholas Ray |
| Produced by | David Weisbart |
| Screenplay by | Stewart Stern Irving Shulman (adaptation) |
| Story by | Nicholas Ray |
| Starring | James Dean Natalie Wood Sal Mineo |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Editing by | William Ziegler |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 27, 1955 |
| Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million |
| Box office | $4.6 million (domestic) |
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments.[1][2] Over the years, the film has achieved landmark status for the acting of cultural icon James Dean, fresh from his Academy Award nominated role in East of Eden and who died before the film's release, his most celebrated role. In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the preserved films of the United States Library of Congress's National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The story of a rebellious teenager who arrives at a new high school, meets a girl, disobeys his parents, and defies the local school bullies was a groundbreaking attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental style, and explore the differences and conflicts between generations. The title was adopted from psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner's 1944 book, Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath. The film itself, however, does not reference Lindner's book in any way.
Warner Bros. released the film on October 27, 1955, less than one month after Dean's fatal car crash.
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Shortly after moving to Los Angeles with his parents, 17-year-old Jim Stark (James Dean) enrolls at Dawson High School. Jim is brought into the police station for public drunkenness. When his mother, father and grandmother arrive at the police station to retrieve him, conflicts in Jim's family situation are introduced. His parents are often fighting; his father (Jim Backus) often tries to defend Jim, but Jim's mother always wins the arguments. Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and his father's lack of moral strength, causing feelings of unrest and displacement. This shows up later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father, "What do you do when you have to be a man?"
While trying to conform with fellow students at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully named Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen). While he tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a 15-year-old boy, John, nicknamed Plato (Sal Mineo), who was also at the police station the night of the opening scene for shooting puppies. Plato idolizes Jim, his real father having abandoned his family. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for meaning in life and dealing with parents who "don't understand." Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark. She originally seems unimpressed by Jim, saying in a sarcastic tone, "I bet you're a real yo-yo." She is apparently the property of Buzz.
Jim goes on a field trip to the Griffith Observatory. There he sees a dramatic presentation of the violent death of the universe. After the show, he watches while the thugs slash a tire of his car; then Buzz challenges him to a knife fight, while the gang taunts Jim as a "chicken" (coward). Jim reluctantly takes part in the fight and wins, subduing Buzz by holding his switchblade up to his neck. Both Jim and Buzz receive slight injuries while fighting. The thugs challenge Jim to a "Chickie Run" with Buzz, racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The first one who jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a "chicken". The "game" ends in tragedy for Buzz when a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes looped over a handle on the car door, preventing him from jumping out before the car goes over the cliff.
Jim tries to tell his parents what happened, but becomes frustrated by their failure to understand him and storms out of the house. When Jim is seen trying to go to the police by some of Buzz's friends, they decide to hunt him down, and harass Plato and Jim's family to try to find him. Judy and Jim go to an abandoned mansion; Plato finds them there (he was the one who told Jim about the house). There they act out a "fantasy family," with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. The thugs soon discover them, and Plato brandishes his mother's gun, shooting at one of the boys, and at Jim, and a police officer, in a clearly unstable state.
Plato hides in the Observatory, which is soon besieged by the police. Jim and Judy follow him inside, and Jim convinces Plato to lend him the gun, from which he silently removes the ammunition magazine. When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes agitated again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is fatally shot by a police officer as Jim yells to the police, too late, that he had already removed the bullets. Plato was wearing Jim's jacket at the time, and as a result, Jim's parents (brought to the scene by police) think at first that Jim was shot. Mr. Stark then runs to comfort Jim, who is distraught by Plato's death. Mr. Stark promises to be a stronger father, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents.
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Warner Brothers had bought the rights to the 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 1940s 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.
According to a Natalie Wood biography, she almost did not get the role of Judy because Nicholas Ray thought that she didn't seem fit for the role of the wild teen character. While on a night out with friends, she got into 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?!"
Dawson High School, the school in the film, was actually Santa Monica High School, located in Santa Monica, California.
Irving Shulman, who adapted Nicholas Ray's story for the screen, had considered changing the name of James Dean's character to Herman Deville, according to Jurgen Miller's "Movies of the '50s". He had also originally 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 ended up on the cutting room floor. In 2006, members of the Lincoln Film Society petitioned to have the scene printed and archived for historical preservation.
The film was in production from March 28 to May 25, 1955. When production began, Warner Bros. considered it a B-movie project, and Ray used black and white film stock. When Jack 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.
The 1949 Mercury Coupe James Dean drove in the movie is part of the permanent collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
The film received accolades for its story and for the performance of James Dean and the young stars who appeared, among them Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Nick Adams, Dennis Hopper and Corey Allen.
Wins
Nominations
American Film Institute recognition
Empire magazine recognition
In the show Futurama, the outfit of Philip J. Fry is based on Jim's outfit.
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