"Rebel Without A Cause" - Film Review

James Dean is Rebel Without A Cause. Most people can’t remember many of the specifics about the film but if you mention the title, odds are that they’re going to have at least cursory knowledge that Dean starred in it.

That’s probably not a coincidence; Dean is the best and most memorable part of the film. There are some clichéd and questionable things going on in the film and yet it mostly doesn’t matter because Dean is so good. Dean’s character troubled teen Jim Stark is described as “sincere” by a number of characters throughout the film and it’s an apt way to describe Dean’s performance. He’s not a traditional actor; sometimes he appears to be ad-libbing and he nervously mumbles a number of lines. But there’s an utterly intense, raw power to Dean’s performance that it makes up for weaker elements in the film.

The moments everyone remembers still pack the punch. When Dean yells, “You’re tearing me apart,” he sells the hell out of the moment and the ending has a kinetic fervor that makes it deeply affecting.

The acting is largely very good. Natalie Wood is given some amorphous material but she finds the sadness underneath her character Judy. Sal Mineo’s Plato is one of best tragic figures in all of film; he’s a kid whose hero-worshipping of Jim borders on infatuation and when he feels abandon he overreacts and brings about his own demise.   

However, much of the narrative is forced and stretches at the seams. Characters act in illogical and contradictory ways depending on what the story is asking of them. The first half of the film and the second half of the film feel like they’re two separate entities, and the tragic midway break is largely overlooked despite a character dying (pretty gruesomely in fact – even more troubling is Judy quickly getting over the guy’s death since they were technically dating). 

The film is also thematically inconsistent; oh sure there’s something in there about teen angst but the film seems so uncertain as to what it wants to say about the subject. 

There’s some intriguing subtext underneath it all if you look carefully. Plato is clearly gay and in love with Jim which makes his interactions and death all the more complicated. Judy’s father has either sexually assaulted her or come very close to it, and she’s not entirely adverse to the idea. The film doesn’t play up these aspects but they tinge everything we’re watching, making the youthful malaise something even more inexplicably painful and dark. 

This was the last film Dean starred in before his death in a car crash in 1955. Dean had only starred in three films, but he reached an iconic status after the release of Rebel, and it’s not difficult to see why. Dean has a quality about him that makes you stop and take notice; there’s a gravitation to his screen presence. 

Rebel Without A Cause is a problematic film, but parts of it taken by themselves have an energy that carries them and makes them still rather intriguing, sad and occasionally powerful.   

Grade: B