Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by
Nicholas RayNicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments. Over the years, the film has achieved landmark status for the acting of cultural icon
James DeanJames Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
, fresh from his
Academy Award nominatedPerformance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
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 CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
's
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
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 generationsThe generational gap is and was a term popularized in Western countries during the 1960s referring to differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between children and parents....
. The title was adopted from psychiatrist
Robert M. LindnerRobert M. Lindner was an American author and psychiatrist, best known as the author of the 1944 book Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis Of A Criminal Psychopath, from which the title of Nicholas Ray's 1955 film was adopted. In his book, he described a psychopath as someone who is "incapable...
'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.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
released the film on October 27, 1955, less than one month after Dean's fatal car crash.
Plot
Shortly after moving to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
with his parents, 17-year-old Jim Stark (
James DeanJames Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
) enrolls at Dawson High School. Jim is brought into the police station for
public drunkennessPublic intoxication, also known as "drunk and disorderly", is a summary offense in many countries rated to public cases or displays of 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 BackusJames Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
) 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 AllenCorey Allen was an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor. He began his career as an actor but eventually became a television director. He may be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause...
). While he tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a 15-year-old boy, John, nicknamed
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
(
Sal MineoSalvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
), 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 WoodNatalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
), 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-yoThe yo-yo in its simplest form is an object consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a length of twine looped around the axle, similar to a slender spool...
." She is apparently the property of Buzz.
Jim goes on a
field tripA field trip or excursion, known as school trip in the UK and school tour in Ireland, is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment...
to the
Griffith ObservatoryGriffith Observatory is in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest...
. 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
switchbladeA switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
up to his neck. Both Jim and Buzz receive slight injuries while fighting. The thugs challenge Jim to a "
Chickie RunThe game of chicken, also known as the hawk-dove or snowdrift game, is an influential model of conflict for two players in game theory...
" 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.
Cast
- James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
as Jim Stark
- Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
as Judy
- Sal Mineo
Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
as John "Plato" Crawford
- Jim Backus
James Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
as Frank Stark
- Ann Doran
Ann Lee Doran was an American character actress.-Early life and career:Born in Amarillo, Texas, Doran began acting at the age of four. She appeared in hundreds of silent films under assumed names to keep her father's family from finding out about her work...
as Mrs. Stark
- Corey Allen
Corey Allen was an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor. He began his career as an actor but eventually became a television director. He may be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause...
as Buzz Gunderson
- William Hopper
William Hopper, born DeWolf Hopper, Jr. was an American actor. He is best-remembered for playing Paul Drake on television's Perry Mason.-Early life:...
as Judy's father
- Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
as Judy's mother
- Edward Platt
Edward Cuthbert Platt was an American actor best known for his portrayal of "The Chief" in the 1965-70 NBC/CBS television series Get Smart...
as Ray Fremick
- Nick Adams as Chick
- Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
as Goon
- Virginia Brissac
Virginia Brissac was an American stage and film actress. With her stern features, she often played schoolteachers and other authority figures....
as Grandma Stark
- Jack Grinnage as Moose
- Beverly Long as Helen
- Steffi Sidney
Steffi Sidney was an American actress who later became a publicist and producer. She was best known for her role as "Mil" in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. Her father was Hollywood columnist and movie producer Sidney Skolsky .-External links:...
as Mil
- Jack Simmons as Cookie
- John Righetti as The Big Rig
Production
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 BrandoMarlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
did a five-minute
screen testA screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
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
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
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 SchoolSanta Monica High School, informally known as SAMOHI, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1884, it is one of the oldest high schools in the state....
, located in
Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
.
Irving ShulmanIrving Shulman was an American author and screenwriter whose works were adapted into movies. His books included The Amboy Dukes, Cry Tough and The Square Trap, all of which were adapted into movies....
, 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 WarnerJack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
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
MercuryThe Mercury Eight was the first Post War Mercury design, and the first named Mercury model . It has an 8 tube radio as an option. The engine was a Flathead V8 that produced slightly more power than the then also newly-designed 1949 Ford. A new overdrive system was optional, and was activated by a...
Coupe James Dean drove in the movie is part of the permanent collection at the
National Automobile MuseumThe National Automobile Museum, located just south of the Truckee River in Reno, Nevada, displays historic automobiles from the late 19th century and from throughout the 20th. Most of the vehicles displayed are from the collection of the late casino owner William F...
in
Reno, NevadaReno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
.
Reception
The film received accolades for its story and for the performance of James Dean and the young stars who appeared, among them
Natalie WoodNatalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
,
Sal MineoSalvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
, Nick Adams,
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
and
Corey AllenCorey Allen was an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor. He began his career as an actor but eventually became a television director. He may be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause...
.
Awards and accolades
Wins
- 1990 National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
Nominations
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
– Sal Mineo
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
– Natalie Wood
- Best Writing, Motion Picture Story
The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1957, when it was eliminated in favor of the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, which had been introduced in 1940.-1920s:...
– Nicholas RayNicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
- BAFTA Award for Best Film
This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
- BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor – James Dean
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
#59
Empire magazineEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
recognition
- Ranked 477th on list of the 500 greatest movies of all time in 2008.
Television and Film
- In The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
episode, "Big Girls Don't Cry", Christopher MoltisantiChristopher "Chris" Moltisanti, played by Michael Imperioli, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was Tony Soprano's protégé and a Capo in the Soprano crime family.-Biography:...
's acting instructor assigns Chris and several classmates—whom she terms "rebels without causes"— to enact the scene wherein Plato dies and Jim cries over his friend's body. The scene (which evoked in Christopher feelings about his alcoholic mother, Joanne Blundetto Moltisanti, and deceased father, Richard (Dickie) Moltisanti) touched Christopher so deeply that it inspired him to cry (and to later punch the student who played Jim's father in the scene) and his emotionally true acting impressed Christopher's teacher and classmates.
- In Terence Malick's film Badlands
Badlands is a 1973 American crime drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Warren Oates and Ramon Bieri are also featured. Malick has a small speaking part although he does not receive an acting credit...
(1973), various characters note that the lead character reminds them of James Dean. The lead characters in Badlands—Kit and Holly (Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek)—mildly echo those of Jim Stark and Judy (Dean and Woods). A Mercury Eight also appears in the film.
In the show
FuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, the outfit of
Philip J. FryPhilip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
is based on Jim's outfit.
External links