Emily Fox

Blue Group
Cinematic Analysis #3 Rebel Without a Cause
Part A:
Rebel Without a Cause dramatizes the idea that a lack of supportive family leads to teens looking
to unstable peers for role models.
The film centers on three high school students who have family problems. It opens in the police
station, where Jim Stark has been sent for public drunkenness. He complains to the police officer that his
family is a matriarchy and says his dad should take more charge. Another girl, Judy, has run away from
home. In the other room, an officer tells a boy named Plato that he should visit a psychiatrist.
Jim is new in town. At school, Plato has an immediate liking for Jim and they become friends.
Jim likes Judy, but her boyfriend, Buzz, and their friends decide to bully Jim. Buzz and Jim fight with
switchblades and agree to have a drag race later that night. When Jim asks his dad for advice, he cant
give Jim a straight answer. Frustrated, Jim goes to the drag race, where Buzz dies in an accident. Judy and
Jim both go home to problems with their family. Jims parents want to move away to escape the problems,
but Jim wants to face them and go to the police. The teenagers who were watching the drag race stop him
from going. Judy and Jim meet and go to a deserted mansion. The gang of kids leave a live chicken on
Jims doorstep to signal that they are out to get Jim. Plato learns this. He grabs his gun, and goes off to
find them at the mansion. Jim, Judy, and Plato have a minute where they feel like a family.
Judy and Jim go to another room when Plato falls asleep. Jim puts a coat over Plato. The gang of
kids finds Plato asleep and attack him. He shoots one of the kids and almost shoots Jim, saying that Jim
left him alone. Plato runs away to inside the planetarium, the police on his tail.
The police are waiting outside the planetarium, staking out Plato. Judy and Jim are hiding in the
bushes and run into the planetarium. Jim finds Plato and first empties the bullets out of his gun. He tells
Plato that the people outside are his friends and just want to help him. When Plato sees that its the police,
he runs out. The police dont know that the gun is unloaded and shoot Plato.

Emily Fox
Blue Group
After Plato dies, Jims father gives his coat to Jim in comfort, just as Jim did to Plato. In the
movie, this was symbolic of fatherhood. After Jim introduces Judy to his parents, the audience is left with
the picture of the happy family.
Part B:
Rebel Without a Cause was made in 1955 and set during the same time in Los Angeles. The social
aspects of the 1950s such as gender roles and teenage rebellion are exposed in the film.
The film reflects a conformist attitude toward gender roles, and a sense of uniformity was very
present throughout the 50s. In the scenes with Judys family, the mother is always shown serving the
dinner. One of the main problems for Jim is that his mother, Carol Stark has power over his father, Frank
Stark. When hes in the police station, he says to the police officer, if he [the father] had guts to knock
Mom cold once, then maybe she'd be happy and then she'd stop picking on him, because they make mush
out of him. In one scene, Frank is even depicted wearing a frilly apron, cooking food for Carol. The
1950s audience was supposed to find this unacceptable for a father. In the 1950s, Women were
considered domestic caregivers, with sole responsibility for the home and child rearing, while men
brought home the bacon (Holt, csustan.edu). Jims father doing the opposite of the gender roles was
supposed to demonstrate that Frank isnt capable of being a good father, much less a man. It was a very
conformist attitude towards gender roles. The problem for Jim is that his parents dont fit the gender roles.
In the film, the teenagers are shown lost, misunderstood by their parents, and rebellious towards
society. With no real film, music or entertainment geared towards teenagers in the late 40s early
50s, Teenagers felt left out, ignored, and disenfranchised. Seeking comfort in their peers, new rock n roll
music, and overall rebelling against the rules was their way of seeking independence (Passaniti,
thegreatnuclearsociety.wordpress.com). The teenage characters are also shown doing illegal activities
such as smoking, drinking, fighting with switchblades, drag racing, and killing people. Juvenile
delinquency, at that time, was on the rise and was played up by the media (history-of-rock.com) This

Emily Fox
Blue Group
quote also makes sense with the movie, as it was about juvenile delinquency and was one of the mediums
for playing it up.
The 1950s film Rebel Without a Cause demonstrated social norms such as the rise in juvenile
delinquency, teenage rebellion, and that women were expected to be housewives.
Part C:
Rebel Without a Cause had a huge effect on American culture. For teens in America, the movie
glorified James Dean, being young, and rebellion.
James Dean, who plays Jim Stark, used method acting to develop the character of Jim Stark, and
coincidentally, he died in a car crash a month before the movie was released. He became a legend after
the movie teenagers wanted to be just like him. He was an idol for many teens for his rebellion and
suave. Beneath the moral and political conformity of the 1950s, the alienation of American youth was
brewing and Rebel encouraged the expression of this alienation (Levy, emanuellevy.com). Teens
began to copy his style as well as his rebellious attitude. In emulation of his [James Deans] movies,
jeans, T-shirts, leather jackets, hairstyles and fast cars all became the popular trends of the day (Kovar,
goodfight.org).
The film also suggests tolerance for gay people. There are subtle cues that Plato is gay and has
feelings for Jim. This also could be why Plato says his family is as good as dead. One of the best, and
perhaps least known, is the role it [the film] played in changing societys attitudes towards gays (Howell,
thestar.com).
The movie switched the perspective from adults with problem kids to kids with problem parents.
Popular family TV shows, for example Lassie and I Love Lucy, didnt include teens as major characters.
In one scene, Judy kisses her father and her father slaps her. She runs off, and after shes gone, the father
says to the mother, I don't know what to do. All of a sudden, she's, she's a problem. The scene is

Emily Fox
Blue Group
showing the irony that the parents think that Judy is the problem. Rebel' is the first film that presented
teenage culture through their eyes rather than through the eyes of adults (Fujiwara, boston.com).
Rebel Without a Cause changed the way teens dressed and thought, was a subtle milestone for
gay rights, and was one of the first movies that was from the perspective of teenagers.\

Emily Fox
Blue Group
Works Cited
Fujiwara, Chris. "Untitled post." Boston Globe. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Good Fight Ministries. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Holt, Jennifer. "The Ideal Woman." California State University: n. pag. Print.
Passaniti, John. "Curing Juvenile Delinquency in the 1950s." The Great Nuclear
Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
"The Teenagers." History of Rock n' Roll. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
thestar.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.