Review of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) by Tony U — 07 Sep 2008

James Dean was an amazing angsty actor and was probably the first teenaged angst hero. The three primary characters, Dean, Woods, and Mineo all tragically passed away in real life early making them almost like cult figures and makes this movie eerily feel as if you are watching ghosts in dialogue.

The dialogue is superb and the characters perfectly cast. This was my favorite James Dean movie. Nothing is more powerful than teen problem movies and the theme hasn't changed over time: minor problems are blown way out of proportion and the ignorance of youth always leads to fascinating perils as seen in this movie.

I will have to rewatch this movie again because I just noticed that Dennis Hopper was in it.

It's hard not to laugh at the seen where Dean's parents tell him that, "in ten years, you'll look back a laugh at your problems" and how Dean reacted as to that common sense proposition as if he had just received the death penalty.

It's funny how as teenagers, we all thought we really had problems. Movies like Rebel Without A Cause have similarities for the problems people have at different ages: The equivalent of Rebel Without a Cause for a 40 year old man having a mid-life crisis is Falling Down; or, for an older person are movies like "Grumpy Old Men"; or for adolescents: "Stand by me.".

All shed light at how at a certain moment in time, life is destined to be traumatically complicated.