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Rebel Without a Cause

From crises including two World Wars and the Great Depression, the United States emerged in the 1950s as an unprecedented global power, intent on peace, and energized by remarkable prosperity. But new threats to domestic tranquility quickly arose in the immediate postwar period. Racial tensions ran high, Communist plots against the government were being routed out, and perhaps most shockingly the youth turned against society, violently so. Headlines abounded declaring that the youth were now a dangerous social problem. Nicholas Ray's "Rebel Without A Cause" took an unconventional look at juvenile delinquency, one that located the problem in what had once been the peaceful suburbs. This project examines the immediate reception of this enduring depiction of teenage alienation, using sources that situate the film in its historical context.

Formatted Document

Crowther, Bosley. “The Screen: Delinquency; ' Rebel Without Cause' Has Debut at Astor.” New York Times, Oct 27, 1955, 28.

In his review of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Bosley Crowther is both drawn to and repulsed by the film’s controversial content. Crowther explains the logic of the film, that James Dean’s Jim Stark is the product of family dysfunction, chiefly the role-reversal of his parents. He repeatedly mentions the film’s intense and suspenseful nature and the terrifying depiction of a warped younger generation. The famous “chickie run” scene, which features Dean and his leather-jacketed rival racing towards a cliff, is called one of the film’s most chilling moments, and it’s most authentic since such races have been featured in the same periodical before. While Crowther commends the film for episodes of emotional truth and accuracy he concludes by condemning the work as somewhat socially irresponsible. Like Blackboard Jungle (1955), he considers the film excessively violent, featuring brutal scenes that may influence younger viewers, and offend older ones. Crowther also rejects Ray’s unnecessarily critical treatment of parental figures, the police, and other authorities. The Stark parents are so obviously problematic that they detract from the realism that the picture otherwise achieves. Overall the film is not reviewed as bad, being punctuated by strong performances by the entire cast.

This review demonstrates that film’s like Rebel were viewed as a cause of the juvenile delinquency epidemic, even as today it is considered as an explanation of the condition of the modern teenager. Crowther’s shock at specific sequences in the film show the requirements of decency at the time, and how Rebel challenged those norms. Even after editing the film according to Production Code standards, Rebel was still highly controversial.

James Dean story : a myth-shattering biography of an icon / Ronald Martinetti.

Martinetti, Ronald. . James Dean story : a myth-shattering biography of an icon / Ronald Martinetti. 1559722703 : series Secaucus, N.J. : Carol Pub. Group, 1995.
Call#: Van Pelt Library--4 East--Temporary Location Annenberg PN2289.D33 M37 1995

The introduction to the The James Dean Story features multiple perspectives on the brief but celebrated career of James Dean. Killed in an automobile accident in 1955, the already popular actor became an icon, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse. The piece demonstrates the ambivalence towards Dean at the time of his death. Dean’s off screen persona as not just rebellious, but often rude and difficult even to his fellow actors, directors, and fans. In the wake of his death, his talent was often dismissed as a carbon copy of other Method Actors of the time, most notably Marlon Brando. Other conservatives credited his popular, moody performances with cultivating a generation of overly-sensitive youth that were obsessed with their own victimhood. But Dean was also fiercely loved mostly by the teenagers who saw themselves in him. According to Martinetti, the craze his death incited rivaled that of earlier sex symbol Valentino. Martinetti then describes the enduring legacy of the handsome and creative Dean, who has managed to serve as an enduring symbol of rebellion, alienation, and desire decades after his death.

James Dean was a breakout star who died at the beginning of a promising career. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) was the first film to be released after his untimely death. The character of Jim Stark is similar to the Dean’s offscreen legacy, that of an introspective, alienated youth, and part of the film’s appeal to youth was in its consistency with their slain hero. Martinetti shows that while not universally revered, Dean’s star power contributed to the immense popularity of the film.

JSTOR: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 236, (1944 ), pp. 215-216

Lukas, Edwin. “Adolescents in Wartime,” review of Rebel without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath by Robert M. Lindner, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November, 1944.

This is a review of Robert Lindner’s psychoanalysis of a juvenile delinquent, entitled Rebel Without a Cause. Edwin Lukas highlights the revelatory and pioneering nature of the work before him, from Lindner’s method, the rarely employed technique of “hypno-analysis,” to his Freudian analysis of his subject, “Harold.” Rebel Without a Cause is especially groundbreaking, according to Lukas, because it seeks to connect the delinquent behavior of youths, like Harold, with their mental turmoil. As others focused on the manifestations of delinquency, Lindner had successfully found its causes: in the dysfunction of Harold’s family, his homosexual inclinations, and in the impoverished environment in which he came of age. Furthermore, Harold’s ability to eventually understand why he engages in criminal and violent behaviors was seen as a sign that juvenile delinquents could be reached, and perhaps saved from themselves and society. The reviewer finds optimism in Harold’s progress, although the book does not state that Harold is “cured” of his anti-social behaviors. Lukas hopes the book will serve as an example to the callous court system which does not emphasize rehabilitation, and demonstrating the new primacy of its content, Lukas concludes that “this book is a necessity for sociologists, psychiatrists, criminologists, and others concerned with criminals.” (216)

While Robert Lindner and his most famous work offered little more than the title to the film of the same name, this review demonstrates the seriousness with which the problem of juvenile delinquency was considered. The praise and endorsement Edwin Lukas offers to Lindner on the basis of his finding a cause, rather than examining the symptoms of delinquency, are indicative of a shift in the study of problem youth as well as in attitudes towards the burgeoning field of psychology.

JSTOR: Cinema Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1, (1990 ), pp. 20-41

Noriega, Chon. "Something's Missing Here!": Homosexuality and Film Reviews during the Production Code Era, 1934-1962. Cinema Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1. (Autumn, 1990), pp. 20-41

Chon Noriega’s piece chronicles the depiction and reception of homosexuality in Hollywood using film reviews from major periodicals as source material. As the Production Code demanded that "Sex perversion or any inference of it is forbidden," the period of the 1930s and 1940s was characterized by films that had few if any allusions to the existence of homosexuality. Instead, as films were adapted from materials that featured homosexuality as a part of the narrative, the issue was substituted for other social problems. Noriega looks at the three such films in which homosexuality is recast, as the evils of gossip, alcoholism, and anti-semitism, respectively. Reviews at the time rarely mentioned the exchange, or if they did, praised the substitution as making the film better. From this “conspiracy of silence” came acknowledgment of homosexual themes and characters in the 1950s. As long as homosexual characters faced a character arc that was sufficiently tragic, and thus didactic, films were acceptable and homosexuality was no longer explicitly criticized in the reviews. Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing to the 1960s the dominant perception of homosexuality was no longer that it was criminal, but that it was a psychiatric disease that individuals could be pitied for being afflicted with, but could be cured of.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955) is often cited as one of the first films to depict a homosexual teenager, Plato, played by Sal Mineo. However, the film initially had more daring content. Upon submission to Joseph Breen’s office, the film was found to have latent homosexual themes that had to be re-edited. The article illuminates the attitudes towards homosexuality at the time of Rebel’s release and the perceived necessity of the changes.

JSTOR: Film Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1, (1974 ), pp. 32-38

Peter Biskind argues that director Nicholas Ray’s films are not as subversive as is commonly assumed by fans of the director and even film scholars. During the 1950s, family values reigned: the preservation of the family, with each parent in his or her gender-appropriate role was seen as the solution to emerging societal problems including homosexuality and juvenile delinquency. Biskind contends that Ray’s films never radically depart from these conservative notions. In his reading of Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the centrality of the family is consistently reaffirmed. The source of protagonist Jim Stark’s alienation is attributed to his problematic family life, where in his mother is dominant and over-bearing and his father is atypically passive. The conclusion of the film rights this deviance. The Stark patriarch learns from his son’s conduct how to be a man by 1950s standards, and his wife is finally quieted. Ray’s faith in the conventional family also explains why Sal Mineo’s Plato must die. Plato is orphaned by his parent’s neglect, and has no proper place in the pseudo-family formed by the romance between James Dean and Natalie Wood. He is the true outsider. As Dean and Wood are healed by their relationship, and can eventually reintegrate into the mainstream, Mineo meets a tragic end. To Biskind, the film occupies a political and moral middle ground, situating itself within the comfortable middleclass mainstream and failing to critique the family as a potentially problematic institution. Biskind does not view the film’s stance as a flaw, but rather a product of its time and the demands of the Hollywood machine in which it was created.

The piece presents a complex and unconventional reading of what is often considered a truly “rebellious” film, contextualizing the response in the political atmosphere of the 1950s. It provides a historical perspective that complicates the typical reception of the film and its enduring popularity.

JSTOR: History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 3, (1997 ), pp. 251-270

Cohen, Ronald. “The Delinquents: Censorship and Youth Culture in Recent U. S. History.” History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 3. (1997)

Ronald Cohen examines the particular causes of heightened censorship during the post-World War II period, focusing especially on the fifties. Society became hyper-aware of the problem of juvenile delinquency in the fifties as newspapers and magazines frequently featured descriptions of this rising and troubling trend. Censorship was a means of social control, to quell the passions of a younger generation that had already proven itself unruly. The particularly strong desire to control the youth of the fifties can be attributed in part to the development of youth culture distinct from that of adults during the period. Cohen examines the Comic sCode, which banned or limited depictions of violence, alleged sexual perversion (homosexuality), sexism, and other affronts to traditional, family values. Similarly problematic but less effectively censored was rock’n’roll music, which was considered to be dangerous because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, ability to incite racial mixing, and overly exciting rhythms. Movies and television did not escape this treatment, although the Production Code became outdated, activists and advocates insisted that the medium remain moral and not serve as a subversive example to the youth. Films, most notably Blackboard Jungle (1955) combined a rock’n’roll soundtrack with violent imagery, earning box office popularity among the teen set and the ire of proponents of family values.

Cohen’s article illuminates the audience for films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and of the supposedly dangerous mass culture of the 1950s: white, suburban, middle class teenagers with an increasing amount of disposable income in a prosperous time. The film mirrors its audience in setting, casting, and in content.

Making of Rebel without a cause / Douglas L. Rathgeb ; foreword by Stewart Stern.

Rathgeb, Douglas L., 1945- . Making of Rebel without a cause / Douglas L. Rathgeb ; foreword by Stewart Stern. 0786419768 (alk. paper) series Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2004.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1997.R365 R38 2004

In the chapter entitled “Box Office,” Rathgeb describes the immediate box office success that Rebel Without a Cause (1955) experienced. The credit for this success was attributed to the rabid support of James Dean’s teenage, female fans, the resoundingly positive reviews the film received, and the relevance of its subject matter. In the midst of this success, the film was still being re-edited to accommodate censors in different national and international venues. The objectionable material included the switch-blade fight, which was re-cut to feature less violence and more crowd reactions, as well as the length of Buzz’s fall from the cliff and associated sounds. British censors especially felt that the film might be exporting juvenile delinquency to their shores, and labeled the film “adults-only.” Some cities in the American south banned the film completely due to its graphic content. More than a box-office success, the film also produced a faithful fan base, drawing a remarkably high number of fan letters. The fan letters, from teenagers, parents, and delinquency professionals repeated a similar theme: that the film was an accurate portrayal of the youth’s problems that offered those who were suffering solace.

This chapter demonstrates that Rebel Without a Cause was a critical and commercial success, citing a variety of newspapers reviews and box office figures from the time. Further emphasizing the positive reception of the film is Rathgeb’s inclusion of the content of the fan letters. Clearly, Rebel was an immediate source of identification for teenagers who demanded posthumous awards for the actor, or addressed him as if he were still alive. Finally, the warm domestic reception of this juvenile delinquency picture is in contrast to the British one, giving an international perspective on the social problem.

Rebel Without a Cause Movie Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Film Rebel Without a Cause

Landry, Robert. “Rebel Without a Cause.” Variety, Wed., Oct. 26, 1955.

Robert Landry’s review of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) praises the performances of the actors while criticizing the film’s unrealistic treatment of the social problem of juvenile delinquency. Landry considers Rebel favorably against other films released at the time that dealt with similar subject matter, namely Blackboard Jungle (1955), and The Wild One (1951). He acknowledges that while all these films are populated by characters that engage in similar activities, fighting, racing, and other criminal behavior, Rebel is unique, and especially shocking because of the characters’ socioeconomic status. Unlike the youths of Blackboard, James Dean’s Jim Stark and his associates are suburban, middle class teenagers from what would traditionally be considered good homes which makes the film more interesting, but also less credible in Landry’s estimation. The film was released not long after the accident that took Dean’s life, and Landry acknowledges Dean as a talented young man who had an uncanny ability to portray those that were troubled. Both Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood earn kudos for their work, as the lonely and confused counterparts to Dean’s misery, and all manage to evoke some sympathy from the audience. Most problematic for Landry is the film’s reliance on family dysfunction as the source of the youth problem and what he considers to be a sensationalistic depiction of the youth’s violence, even though he was read reports of similar incidence in many newspapers.

Landry’s generally positive review of Rebel Without a Cause demonstrates that the film was not immediately viewed as a classic. Instead, Landry considers it as a good film, but one that exploits the craze surrounding delinquency, as several other films before it have already addressed. Landry does recognize Rebel’s nuanced version of delinquency, that of a moody suburban teen victimized by his family instead of by socioeconomic circumstance.

Rebels or Psychopaths? - TIME

Having published “Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath” a decade earlier, Robert Lindner served as one of the nation’s preeminent scholars on juvenile delinquency, a trend that baffled and terrified the nation. Interviewed by Time in 1954, he recounted a laundry list of gory crimes committed by the teenaged, what he termed “a devil's rosary of crimes ranging from rape to murder, and all stamped with an unbelievable degree of sadism." One of the causes of this spike in violence was the advent of a mass youth culture, according to Lindner. While others tried to combat the problem by taking away comic books, turning off the television, separating teenagers from their friends, and spending more time with their children, Lindner notes that these methods are largely futile. More than that, what was required of the older generation was an understanding of their child’s warped psychiatric condition which caused them to act out. The new mass culture, had the effect of weakening one’s conscience, creativity, and sense of self, and replacing it with a cold, and potentially violent member of the mob. As conformity with the mob caused the loss of personal identity, it created a wave of rebels without causes and without restraint. The only answer offered is in Lindner’s advocacy for psychological therapy.

Articles on juvenile delinquency pervaded publications in the 1950s, and Lindner’s interview with Time reflects the extreme crisis of the situation the media aid in creating. Lindner predicted that the conscienceless perpetrators of juvenile crime were part of an epidemic that would become worse before it got better, if it did. While supplying colorful and dramatic descriptions of crime and history, he offers remarkably few solutions or examples of positive progress. The piece is prime example of the hysteria and paranoia that permeated the time.

Teenagers and teenpics : the juvenilization of American movies in the 1950s / Thomas Doherty.

Doherty, Thomas Patrick. . Teenagers and teenpics : the juvenilization of American movies in the 1950s / Thomas Doherty. Rev. and expanded ed. 1566399459 (cl. : alk. paper) series Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2002.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 D53 2002

In the chapter entitled “Dangerous Youth,” Doherty explores the origins, popularity, and content of the genre of juvenile delinquency films. According to Doherty, these films of the fifties served both as reflections and creators of youth culture. For example, leather jackets, drag-racing, rock’n’roll music, and the other markers of delinquency were already subcultural signifiers prior to the release of Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Blackboard Jungle (1955), and The Wild One (1953) and dozens of similarly crafted films. But these films did bring these elements to national prominence, especially among the older generation who had been ignorant of these activities but cognizant of a rising teen crime wave. Controversy surrounded these movies, especially since their often violent and sexual content was seen as motivating the youth to new heights of delinquency. Doherty divides the j.d. films into two broad categories, the “softie” and the “hard-nosed.” The softie, embodied by enduring classics like Rebel Without a Cause, represents an attempt to located the source of juvenile delinquency, to understand the alienated, and then to rehabilitate him so that he may rejoin society as a productive member. The hard-nosed take a less sympathetic stance, and instead of humanizing the delinquent they created unredeemable, grotesque villains who terrorized the urban slum. Doherty finds that the genre juvenile delinquency films had diverse meanings and served a variety of functions: as informative PSAs, as lurid entertainment for the youth, as subversive media that threatened to further fuel the frenzy, and finally, as one of the most beloved group of wrongdoers in cinema history.

The article addresses Rebel’s cultural impact and its unique social positioning of the delinquent amidst a genre full of ethnic, urban, and impoverished protagonists.