Review of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) by Cameron J — 21 Jun 2012

I don't wish to make light the loss of James Dean, but it's been almost 57 years and he would have been 81, going on dead anyways, so someone just has to go ahead and come out and express the irony in the fact that this film involves a young man who finds his promising future threatened right when it was beginning to pick up; and not to mention that he loves to play it dangerous with cars. You could probably walk into the theater and watch the film facing the audience, because everyone's eyes would be so wide that you could see the reflection of screen, and you know it would be a full house, because, come on, let's not kid ourselves, you're seriously not going to want to see a film starring an up-and-comer who had just died? No wonder "The Greatest Story Ever Told" made for a good film, because with "Giant", George Stevens gained some experience in making films pertaining to someone being resurrected within about three days. Yes, I'm aware that it would have been more fitting to mention "King of Kings", seeing that it too was a film by Nicholas Ray, but he really didn't do it all that well, so he clearly didn't take too much from his experience at making films about people being resurrected within a short period of time. Wait a second, this film came out almost immediately after and has themes that are relevant to the death of Dean, yet was the only one of the three films that Dean ever did - all of which were done the year he died - that didn't earn him an Oscar nomination, and features a director who went on to do a film about Jesus, much like fellow "Deanrector" George Stevens, with Elia Kazan doing a Dean film with "Eden" in the title and Dean playing someone whose last name, Trask, is a rearrangement of the letters in Stark, the last name of this Dean character, whose first name starts with a "J", the same letter that starts the name Jett, the first name of Dean's character in "Giant", and the name, you guessed it, [b]Jesus[/b]. I'm sorry, but forget Occam's razor, because there are too many coincidences for the simplest answer to be correct, so I guess I'll be writing my religious cult conspiracy book, "Rebel [u]With[/u] a Cause?", which countless people will dismiss as bogus... writers of "Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain". Still, until then, all we have to remember Dean by are such excellent performances as the one that helps in making this film so enjoyable, yet not to where its flaws go drowned out.

The film is ever so rarely, if ever boring in any way, as it is so relentlessly atmospheric, though most certainly not in the right way. Nicholas Ray manages to capture the film's thematic tones of awkwardness alright, so much so that, after a while - nay - quite quickly, the film feels more along the lines of surrealistic, a theme that's hardly within range of this film's intended tones, seeing as how these are '50s teens and not the tripped out '60s teens. The film's more atmospheric moments of pure, intense tone that can be likened to dreamy sounds like a recipe for some good old fashion boredome, when really, once you get down to it, you're not necessarily knocked out "by" the film, but knocked out "of" the film, as its themes and tones just don't gel when atmosphere gets to be overbearing. That's forgivable if the atmosphere overbears here and there, yet the aforementioned overbearing atmosphere is hardly rare, dying out in quite a few spots, though standing as just prevalent enough to taint the film with unevenness, as well as the less atmospheric points with unevenness, as the film's spending so much time on dreamy meditation, only to swiftly jump into calm is not at all a terribly organic-feeling process. The thing that I've noticed from the little bit that I've seen of Nicholas Ray's work is that he knows atmosphere, though not exactly how to use it properly, thus leaving his projects to often suffer and himself to stand as just not all that great of a director. Still, with all of my complaints about Ray's spotty execution of Stewart Stern's and Irving Shulman's script, it's that very script that also stands as spotty, plagued not only by occasions of pretty cheesy dialogue, but also a general and surprising limiting of jolt in the story, thus leaving the film to pick only ever so often and run the risk of falling flat, being further pulled down by the aforementioned flaws. Still, this film "rebels" (Get it?) through its faults by the end, for although it hits its spotty moments, some of which are tropes found in other films of its type and era, on the whole, this is among those classic films that went ahead of their time, maybe not to where it stands as truly remarkable as a film by its own right, yet still to where it impressed, both by its own and today's standards, particularly when it comes to, well, subtlety.

Now, again, the film is faulty in its subtlety, often being overbearing in its themes to the point of actually betraying them, yet more often than not, Nick Ray, even with his not being all that great of a director, has his sharp moments in which he is genuinely and very much effectively subtle in his tackling of the film's themes, which are hardly tamed. Now, being that this is a 1950s film with a faulty script, the portrayal of these themes aren't terribly raw and real, yet they surprisingly hit more than they miss. The film tackles teenaged angst and need for acceptance, as well as generation gaps and other issues that further distance the unpredictable youth from comfortable society, subject matters that are dangerous to play with, even now, especially to someone like me, who hates kids, especially teenagers for their angst. The film's themes and messages could have rung false and rendered both the story and characters uncompelling, if not unlikable, or at least to me, yet what this film does that is so impressive is that it, for the most part, gets things down tight by structuring a generally believable and accurate environment and analysis on the people within it, with writing and directing that may not be perfect, yet really glows when it does hit, whether it be in its nailing of the dramatic depth within certain situations or simply in its accurate and, by extension, ultimately impacting portrayal of pressing and even rather timeless issues. Nick Ray's direction and the screenplay does hit more than it misses, thus rendering the film rewarding, yet where those two aspects that make this film as good as it is still have points in which they miss, what is consistently sharp, and ever so surprisingly so, is the also fairly then-advanced acting, whether it be in the adult characters' performers' buyable portrayal of emotional concern, or the teenaged characters' performers' very accurtate, layered and, at times, even intensely emotional portrayal of the teenaged angst that really gets under my skin, as well as the humanity that I must admit is somewhere in kids. Most every character in the film is memorably distinctive, yet the biggest standout is, of course, once again, the late, great (Are those enough commas?) Mr. James Dean, who further shows us just how far he could have gone, because the boy sure knew how to play eccentrics, and his Jim Stark character is nothing if not that, with ticks and certainly unique traits that Dean nails as well as he ever did. However, Dean wastes little time before showing you that there's much more to this young eccentric, authentically nailing Stark's angst and anguish with sensational emotional range and atmospheric depth, being sometimes haunting in his translation of Stark's unbearable desire to belong and willingness to do most anything for recognition and acceptance, yet Dean is careful to make sure that Stark's secrets don't spill out all at once, keeping a shroud of mystery that, when unraveled, leaves you engrossed as you witness the layered and complex workings of a very emotionally confused spirit who I would typically find hardly interesting, being that it's a good while before he goes through something that the average angsty teen punk doesn't go through, yet found compelling throughout, as Dean is just so good, like he was in most every piece on his tragically brief career.

Overall, the film is often overbearing in its unrelenting atmosphere, which is commonly contradictory to the should-be tone of the film, thus leaving it tonally uneven in a lot of spots, sometimes to where it intensifies the disengaging factor spawned from a script tainted by limited pick-up and even the occasional piece of poor dialogue, yet where this film could have collapsed as simply average, it accels past the standards of its time in quite a few key areas, tackling pressing themes in a very compellingly accurate, subtle and somewhat intensely realist fashion, which goes intensified by across-the-board then-advanced and still strong acting, particularly that of a charismatically eccentric, compellingly layered and emotionally inspired James Dean, who stands among the most key factors that help in making "Rebel Without a Cause" a spotty, yet generally ahead-of-its time, compelling study on both the distinctive angst and lasting humanity within youth.

3/5 - Good.