There are some films that stand the test of time, that are as relevant today as they were the day they were released, immortal classics like TRON, Enter the Dragon, Battle Royale. Then there are films which must be understood in the context of their time like The Wizard, Remo Williams, Shaft. As much as this film is praised as one of the most culturally significant films in American pop culture history, Rebel Without a Cause falls into the latter category.

Rebel Without a Cause was the final film screened last night for Screen on the Green, an outdoor film festival presented by HBO on the National Mall. The weather started to cool down by the time the film started which was quite nice until it rained us out. Fortunately, we only missed the last ten or so minutes of the film so I feel that I saw enough of it to give a review. There will be spoilers so if you haven’t seen it and plan on seeing it, I guess skip to the end.

James Dean play Jim, a spoiled little shit with nothing better to do with his life than complain and act like a total ass. He’s way too fucking emo for his own good. His chief complaint? His father isn’t a man. Oh sure, he buys Jim many things, but he doesn’t act like a man. And what does it mean to act like a man in 1955? You smack your wife when she talks back to you. That’s right. Sometimes you gotta smack a ho! Later in the film, Jim looks with disdain at his father because he’s bringing his mother some food on a tray and drops it. Apparently, in the 50′s if your wife was sick you kinda just let her get sick and left her to fend for her damn self.

I found it very difficult to relate to Jim. I wanted to Rider Punch him so bad in the face. Maybe that was the point. I also found it difficult to believe he was in high school, but maybe all sixteen year-olds looked like they were 25 in the 50′s.

Jim falls for Judy, played by Natalie Wood, who happens to be sorta dating the high school bully, Buzz, who’s the leader of the pack. So of course, when you’re the new kid in school and have eyes for the bully’s girl, you’re the new target. On the first day of school, the class takes a field trip to the planetarium. The hell kinda school takes a field trip the first day? Anyway, Jim makes a moo cow noise in the middle of the professor’s presentation and Buzz decides that he needs to be taught a lesson. Cause, you know, bullies love space and can’t stand it when someone interrupts Carl Sagan. Outside the planetarium, Buzz and the gang surround Jim’s car. Buzz takes out a switchblade and slashes the front tire as Judy on the hood and kind of giggles. That would be a deal breaker for me, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Jim doesn’t want any trouble so he goes to change the tire. In fact, Jim is about to walk away until Buzz calls him “chicken.” Apparently, “chicken” is the strongest insult to a sixteen year-old in the 1950′s. Today, you’d probably have to say something about fucking someone’s mother in their cornhole with a rusty screwdriver while she begged for more, but no, “chicken” was good enough back then. Buzz whips out a switchblade and tells one of his boys to toss Jim a blade and they go at it. A cop passes by and sees the fight and instead of arresting the two jack asses, he calls for the professor to come watch. Well, they didn’t have MMA back then so I guess a local knife fight was the best they could get.

Jim beats Buzz. So Buzz challenges him to a “chickie” run later that evening. A chickie run is when two dumb fuck drive cars towards a cliff. The first person to jump out of the car is chicken, or has a greater sense of self-preservation than the fucker who jumps later. There’s a scene where Jim confronts his father about bringing his mother food and wearing an apron, but I’ve already chastised Jim enough for acting like an asshole. Jim heads over to the local cliff, meets up with Buzz, and the two of them go to inspect the cars. Buzz, in a moment of macho bromance, admits that he likes Jim. Jim asks, “So why do this?” Buzz says, “You gotta do something.” True, you do have to do something. Driving off a cliff isn’t the first thing on my list of somethings to do, but hey, it’s the 50′s. Jim and Buzz hop in their cars and line up to race. Judy gives them the signal and they gun it. Jim is the first to jump. Buzz never makes it out the door because his jacket gets caught on the door handle. He plunges to his death. The gang heads out and Jim gives Judy and Plato a lift home. Haven’t mentioned Plato yet. More on him in a bit.

Jim drops Judy off and she moons after him. Let’s get this straight, you acted like an ass to Jim all day, your boyfriend just drove off a cliff, and now you’re magically in love with Jim? Judy has some serious issues. I’d tell Judy to go fuck right off, but hey, this is the 50′s. Jim gets home and has a big confrontation with his parents. Jim wants to go to the cops, but his parents don’t want him to ruin his life. Very strange values in the 50′s. Jim rebels by doing the right thing and goes off to the police station. The cops are too busy with other criminals so Jim leaves and heads home to find Judy waiting for him. They kind of fawn over each other for a bit and this is about the time it started to rain on us. The movie stopped and we ran off the mall and headed to the Metro.

There are plot details that I found to be ponderous, at best. Jim, I totally disliked. Judy, I wanted to tell off. The opening scene in the police station where the police chief takes the time to chat with the kids is completely a product of its time and would never ever happen these days. But there are some interesting aspects of Rebel Without a Cause that I found compelling and relevant. Plato is a young boy who has been abandoned by his parents. His father walked out on the family and his mother is away on vacation leaving only the house keeper to look after him. He meets Jim in the police station in the first scene and meets up with him again at school. Plato has very strong feelings for Jim. The dialog has him looking up to Jim as a “father figure,” but it’s clear that Plato is completely in love with Jim. Jim, for his part, recognizes the infatuation and tacitly accepts Plato. Outcasts got to stick together.

Judy’s relationship with her father is also quite interesting. It’s clear that she has deep affection for her father and she wants to express it physically, hugging him, kissing him on the mouth. Her father is clearly uncomfortable with his daughter’s budding sexuality and keeps pushing her away. You get the sense that in some way, he’s attracted to her in a not-so father/daughter way and is doing his best to stifle those feelings.

Despite my somewhat sarcastic review, I did enjoy watching the movie on the Mall. There are portions which I found completely anachronistic in a modern context. I couldn’t stand the lead. But it was really entertaining and acted well. And as stupid as I though the “chickie” run was, that scene is filmed beautifully. Ultimately, Rebel Without a Cause doesn’t work for me. I’ve never been a big fan of the rich bored teens from the suburbs angst genre anyway and as good as I think the movie is, it’s probably not something I’d recommend.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 10:28 am and is filed under Jam Scale Reviews, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.