Rebel Without a Cause

source: Rebel Without a Cause

Trailer—Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause

Why is this movie considered to be one of the best movies of all time?! Is it bad? No, it is pretty good. But excellent?! I can understand all the euphoria in its own time because premiere were just a month after the death of the rising star James Dean. That death made a cult out of this film. But being legendary does not make it a masterpiece. This movie is OK and nothing more than OK. 6/10

I first saw this as a teen in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently with my teen son. The film portrayed the decay of confused teens n the differences and conflicts between teens n parents. The film deals with the three main teens : 1)Jim - who is fed with his parents' bickering n his father's timid attitude. 2)Judy - who feels her father ignores n calls her names due to her clothes n lipstick. 3)Plato - a lonely kid whose father abandoned him when he was a toddler and his mother is always away. All three of em James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood gave lovely performances. James Dean with his red jacket, blue jeans n white tshirt is the epitome of cool aft McQueen. We also have Dennis Hopper in a tiny role as a blue eyed goon who gets pushed aside.

I'm going to go out on the unpopular limb here and say that the reason Rebel Without a Cause is such an iconic movie is because of the tragic death of James Dean just before the film was released. It's not that great of a movie. The story seems thrown together, the characters are difficult to relate to and the young actors, especially James Dean, are overly dramatic and chew the scenery at every opportunity. That's right, I'm a bad boy 'cause I don't really like this classic film.