One of my favorite films growing up was the classic, “Rebel Without a Cause”. James Dean was awesome, but there was always something wonderfully haunting about Natalie Wood. She was made for this film. As a matter of fact, she was made for any film she was in.

The story goes like this:

Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is a film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teeager played by James Dean, who comes to a new town, meets a girl, defies his parents, and faces the local high school bullies. It sought to portray the existing decay of youth in middle America, critique parental style, and expose the rift between two generations. The title is taken from psychiatrist Robert Lindner’s 1944 book, Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath but has no other relationship to the book.

In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the preserved films of the United States Library of Congress’s National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The main plot centers on Jim Stark (James Dean), a 17-year-old. Stark and his parents move to Los Angeles,, where he enrolls at Dawson High School.

The film begins with Stark brought into the police station for public drunkennesss. His mother, father and grandmother come to get him, and the film’s central dilemma is introduced. Jim’s parents are frequently quarreling, both in front of him and behind his back. Often the father is the one who tries to stand up for Jim; however, Jim’s mother, a naturally pushy woman, easily overpowers him and always wins out; Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and by his father’s lack of backbone, leading to feelings of unrest and displacement, this shows later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father “what do you do when you have to be a man?”.

While trying to fit in at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully and tough guy named Buzz Gunderson. While he tries to deal with Buzz (Corey Allen), he becomes friends with a 15-year-old boy, John, nick-named Plato (Sal Mineo), 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 a place in life and dealing with parents who “don’t understand.”

Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark, who originally acts unimpressed by Jim, saying in an ironic tone “I’m sure you’re a real yoyo”. She belongs to the high school gang of Buzz Gunderson. The thugs challenge Jim to a “Chicken Race” with Buzz, racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a “chicken.” The “game” ends in tragedy for Buzz; he is the first to “chicken”, but a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes caught on the car door and he is unable to jump before it goes over the cliff.

Jim tries to tell his parents what happened but becomes frustrated by their utter 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 Plato join him in the garden of an abandoned villa, where they act out a “fantasy family”, with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. The thugs soon discover them, and Plato pulls a gun, firing at one of the boys, Jim, and a police officer, in a clearly unstable state.

Plato hides in the Griffith Observatory which is soon sieged 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 (though he neglects the round in the chamber). When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes unstable again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is fatally shot by a police officer acting in defense of himself and the bystanders, despite Jim’s yelling to police that he 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, and promises to be a stronger father figure, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents.

Rebel Without a Cause – trailer