July 2005

Rebel Without a Cause

• Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Corey Allen, Dennis Hopper, Williams Hopper
• Directed by: Nicholas Ray
• Theatrical release: 1955
• DVD release: 2005
• Video: Widescreen (CinemaScope: 2.35:1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• Released by: Warner Home Video

Every time I go to Europe, I remember that James Dean never saw Europe, but yet I see his face everywhere. There’s James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe -- windows of the Champs Elysees, discos in the south of Spain, restaurants in Sweden, T-shirts in Moscow. My life was confused and disoriented for years by his passing. My sense of destiny destroyed -- the great films he would have directed, the great performances he would have given, the great humanitarian he would have become, and yet, he’s the greatest actor and star I have ever known.
-- Dennis Hopper

It may be hard to imagine today, but there was a time when Hollywood didn’t betray its dim view of the teenage market by rushing to woo them with thinly veiled tales of libidinous love and out-of-control mayhem. When Rebel Without a Cause was released 50 years ago, youth movies fell into three categories: films that kids’ parents would be happy for them to see (Oklahoma, A Man Called Peter); cautionary films (The Wild One, Blackboard Jungle); or drive-in fodder (Delinquent Daughters, Dementia). Most kids would be grounded for going to something in the last category, and wouldn’t be caught dead going to anything in the first. As for the cautionary tales, the stars were either too old, like Brando who was almost 30 and very much a man by the time of The Wild One, or they were too far-fetched and frightening, like Vic Morrow who scares the hell out of everyone in The Blackboard Jungle, right to the point of paralysis.

Rebel Without a Cause came from Warner Bros., a major studio that had made its share of family fare and was even responsible for the cartoons shown before the main features. Nicholas Ray was becoming a respected director following his hit of the year before, Johnny Guitar. Natalie Wood was already well known, having landed her first starring role at age nine, in Miracle on 34th Street. The father of James Dean’s character, Jim Stark, was played by Jim Backus, renowned voice of the lovable cartoon character Mr. Magoo. Most comforting to the parents of America, Rebel Without a Cause abandoned the mean streets of urban America for the fresh-faced suburbs of Southern California.

But 1955 turned out to be a pivotal year in the social development of the US. While a dozen dates can be assigned as the birth of rock’n’roll, March 19, 1955, is probably the best. It was when thousands of Americans first heard the thundering chords of Bill Haley’s "Rock Around the Clock," in the opening of Blackboard Jungle. After decades of its later association with the TV show Happy Days, the song may now sound quaint; in 1955 it was a banshee cry of youth rebellion. Bill Haley and the Comets opened the doors to a host of rockers -- Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Johnny Burnette, Elvis Presley -- who scared parents, starting a trend that continues today (Lamb of God or Trick Daddy, anyone?).

1955 was also the year of Rosa Parks’ courageous civil disobedience in violation of the laws enforcing segregated seating on the city buses of Montgomery, Alabama, which led to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. As the country divided itself over this issue, many wondered if we were actually facing a threat far worse -- the chance that the world would be destroyed by the USSR and the US, as they headed into a competitive buildup of nuclear weapons in numbers sufficient to kill every person on earth ten times over. Just ten years after defeating Hitler, the world faced a very real prospect of ongoing war, with total annihilation being the only possible outcome.

The 1955 Oscar-nominated movies reflected these times. There was light fluff -- Love is a Many Splendored Thing and Guys and Dolls, in which Brando, the wild one himself, sings and dances. But there were also more dark and disturbing films than ever before. I’ll Cry Tomorrow and The Man with the Golden Arm dealt head-on with drug addictions; Bad Day at Black Rock is an ugly morality play about a town that goes silent to stop a murder investigation; and East of Eden, also starring James Dean, is a story of a dysfunctional family gnawing at each others’ weaknesses until nothing is left but the bones of a relationship. Richard Brooks’ Blackboard Jungle preceded Rebel Without a Cause by seven months, and in many ways is the better film. Its rock’n’roll soundtrack fueling scenes of tough gangs tearing down schools, Blackboard Jungle was grittier and carried a more violent, startling tone. Why isn’t it considered the classic of estranged youth? Two words: James Dean.

Dean is still an icon for many people of high school and college age because his scorching screen presence gets at the soul of the experience of having to go through separation and individuation. When, as Jim Stark, he screams "You’re tearing me apart!," it’s not that he seems like a real teen, but because he’s losing control, screaming what’s inside of him -- something many real teens are afraid to do. Stark’s ability to be a tough guy with a street rod, cool enough to get a hot girlfriend on the first day of school yet noble enough to stand up for a downtrodden schoolmate, gives every youth something to aspire to.

Part of what made the character so rich was that the audience already knew a lot about James Dean. They were aware that he liked fast cars, beautiful women, and loved being the bad boy. Only 24, he had already achieved mythic status. Certainly his acting was part of it. Adding to the myth was the fact that he was already dead when Rebel Without a Cause was released. Nothing settles celebrity on an actor quite like a violent death in a mangled Porsche Spyder.

Dean starred in only three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, the last two released after his death. No one knows whether he could have sustained the level of intensity he brought to those three roles, but consider a couple of facts from the production of Rebel Without a Cause. During the scene in the police station, in which Jim Stark famously loses his cool, Dean broke a knuckle slamming his fist on the desk. And when Stark has a knife fight with Buzz (Corey Allen), those are real knives. Director Nicholas Ray had spent some time with gangs, and even hired an ex-gang member (Frank Mazzola, who plays Crunch) to teach Dean and Allen how to fight with switchblades. They wore armor under their clothing, but that still left a lot of exposed skin vulnerable to attack. None of these issues bothered Dean. He thought he was invulnerable. Sadly, he was wrong.

Another part of the mystique of Rebel Without a Cause comes from the ultimate fates of its other leads. I’m not talking about the adults, who went on to such rewards as playing Paul Drake on Perry Mason (William Hopper), or Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island (Jim Backus). It was the students who ended tragically. Natalie Wood drowned trying to board a yacht from a rubber dinghy. Sal Mineo was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old drug addict looking for money. And, of course, there was Dean and his sports car, living fast, dying young.

There has been a trend recently to downplay the quality of Rebel Without a Cause, to say that its staying power owes too much to the tragedies associated with it. But you only have to watch the performances, the photography, and the direction to see that it is a classic film. The Academy agreed, nominating Mineo, Wood, and Ray (for his script). Dean probably would have received a nod as well, but he was already up for East of Eden, which made him the first person in history to be posthumously nominated for Best Actor. In addition, the American Film Institute lists Rebel Without a Cause as one of the Top 100 American Films.

Warner Home Video has, as usual, spent some money and time giving the film a valuable set of extras. The commentary track is by Douglas L. Rathgeb, author of The Making of Rebel Without a Cause, a scholarly 250-page book covering the history of the film, from its genesis as a cocktail-party discussion to its continuing impact today. Warner offers Rebel in one- and two-DVD packages. If you pay the extra $5 to get the second disc, you get a new documentary, Rebel Without a Cause: Defiant Innocents, that does a good job; and the old documentary, James Dean Remembered, which has been around for years on laserdiscs and cable TV. Deleted scenes, screen tests, and a few old TV shows round out the offerings. A sadly ironic addition is a public-service announcement in which Dean and Gig Young encourage American youth to drive safely. "I used to fly around quite a bit, took a lot of unnecessary chances on the highway," Dean says to Young. "Now when I drive on the highway, I’m extra cautious."

Who knows what might have happened had Dean actually been extra cautious? He might have developed into a Paul Newman, or he might have devolved into something like his idol, Marlon Brando. One thing we do know: James Dean used to say, "Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today." A fitting epitaph for both the man and his best-known film.

...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com

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