Rent Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

A great loss to cinema - Rebel Without a Cause review by VS

I believe that this was the first of James Dean's 3 major roles in Hollywood films before his very untimely death. It was certainly interesting to watch his performance, but the film has dated rather badly. The parents are stock characters straight out of central casting as is Dean's friend rendered unstable by a neglectful mother. Of course, parents who can't manage to communicate with their teenage children remains a hardy perennial in films. The difference is that we have become used to more nuances and complexities. So I'd recommend this film to either a student of cinema (and "method" acting) or to someone of my age groups who is looking back to her own teens.

Over rated - Rebel Without a Cause review by OL

Whilst it may of been shocking at the time. It now sees a bit dated. Basically a bunch of teenage delinquents with James Dean trying to stay out of trouble.

Teenage Melodrama. - Rebel Without a Cause review by Steve

Legendary drama about the zeitgeist controversy of teenage delinquency is inevitably dated but still works better than any other fifties film on that subject and as a vehicle for its iconic star James Dean who was dead by the time of the film's release.

 Jim Stark (Dean) is new in town but has a history of petty juvenile crime and he soon attracts interest from the real disturbed, switchblade gang of young offenders who go to his school. Valley girl Judy (Natalie Wood) gets a thrill from hanging out with these slum kids but with Jim and damaged, shunned (probably gay) outsider Plato (Sal Mineo) forms a sort of improvised family that none of them can find at home. Dean now feels a touch old for his role, but Wood (17) and Mineo (16) look touchingly authentic.

 The film is quite uneven on the subject of antisocial youth. Their disaffection originating in their relationships with their fathers feels facile. But the sense of a new teenage generation having to find their own rules and ethics to make sense of their nascent freedom is quite believable and powerful. It is a fascinating period piece which Ray shoots like a sci-fi genre film; the small town trying to get through the long night of crisis in a threatening universe as evoked in the school visit and conclusion in the planetarium.

 The colour is just gorgeous and the clothes the young cast wear creates a lot of the image we remember of the film. The use of the cinemascope is a sensual joy. But it's the performance of James Dean that dominates and we still believe in his troubled alienated character trying to understand the rules of his confusing and changing world.