Please read Roger Ebert's Great Movies essay on Rebel Without a Cause. In 2 paragraphs, please discuss the following quote:
"Like its hero, Rebel Without a Cause desperately wants to say something and doesn't know what it is. If it did know, it would lose its fascination. More perhaps than it realized, it is a subversive document of its time."
Also, early in his essay, Ebert claims that "the film has not aged well." Do you agree or disagree? Give me one paragraph that tells me why (with evidence from the film).
Rebel Without a Cause presents a number of truths about the dissolving of the classic American family. The film presents what was considered normal for the time, and, as the film has aged, I think the messages in the film are just as relevant as they were when it was first released. As we learned in class, the entirety of the film can be summed up in one shot, just after Buzz falls to his death during the cliff scene. In this medium close up shot, Jim and Judy are seen in the foreground holding eachother, implying that they will soon become romantically involved. In the background, there is the childlike Plato standing by himself. This shot composition shows the relationship between the characters perfectly with Judy and Jim appearing almost as mother and father figures to Plato, who, by no coincidence, is an orphan. This is the kind of relationship that the film states is dying out. It is further amplified by the intense fight scenes between the main characters and their parents. For example, when Jim argues with his parents on the stairs, the director uses awkward angles and strategic character placement. Dutch angles make the viewer feel uneasy and the character placement is a very basic way of cinematically implying one character’s power over another. Jim’s mother is at the top of the stairs with Jim in the middle and his father at the bottom. This is all done to make the viewer feel on edge and uncomfortable with the situation on screen. The director wants to imply that the way this family is acting is unnatural and he does so through his use of cinematic language. Now, comparing that with the way he very blatantly shows the relationship between the teenage main characters, it is clear that the director is saying that children need strong familial relationships in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I disagree with Ebert, I think the film has aged well in terms of its message. However, I agree with Ebert in that the director did not know how his film would be relevant to audiences today. It is relevant today because the classic American family is no longer a common thing, so, watching the film now, shows what was lost in the eradication of the classical American family. The cinematic language of the film is very simplistic and rudimentary, but, as we saw in Star Wars, simple cinematic language is not bad if it is used effectively. The cinematic techniques may be dated and the story a bit cliche, but that doesn’t change the fact that the film has an important message for its audience. I think that Ebert’s saying, “the film has not aged well,” is just more proof of how important the message of the film truly is to a modern audience.
Really good. Deserves an A.
DeleteI agree with Ebert. While Rebel does get across a vague message of the importance of a father figure in a young man's life, the scattered evidence provided in the film makes it impossible to go any deeper than that. The first noticeable aspect of the film is Plato's relationship with Jim. Plato has never had a father and Jim is the only admirable man in his life. What confuses the possibilities of themes is that at times it seems Plato sees Jim as a father figure while at other times it seems almost as if he's in love with him. Jim doesn't respect his father because he believes he is a coward incapable of making important decisions and unfit to give him advice. The scene in which I noticed this most was when Jim came home went upstairs and bumped into his father as he carried a plate of food with an apron. Jim's father starts picking all of the things up as Jim scans him and it's as if Jim doesn't think his father is a real man at this point. Judy also doesn't appreciate her father as we see early in the film when she tries to kiss him and he goes off. Judy's father is the stereotypical hardass go about your business routine father of the 50s and it seems as though she would rather have a father like Jim's who loves her and isn't afraid to show it and talk to her. Jim and Judy desire different lives which is what brings them together ultimately. This establishes the other main theme of the film which is Plato's fear of abandonment. It's like Jim and Judy +Plato as Jim and Judy are like opposites which makes them fall in love leaving Plato out to dry in the middle.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the lack of a definite theme helps the shape the film becuase that is what the title suggests. Rebel without a cause, a film without a cause. The film as a whole is similar to Jim in that it serves to simply do what seems to be right while the film seeks to show the audience what is right and wrong/teach everyone different lessons.
I see where Ebert is coming from saying the film has not aged well. I believe that is a combination of Nicholas Ray's extinct directing style, and James Dean's tragic death. I think that if James Dean lived longer and had been as big of a star as he was destined to be, the film might be a little bit more like other classics that continue to live on through its actors. I believe the film has aged well in that the vague message it relays is still relevant today along with Jim's troubles.
I agree with this quote and feel that the film is very good at expressing the themes that it wants to, but chooses not to completely. Rebel Without a Cause does not go into depth about much. It showed the problems and revealed its effects on the characters, but did not go into great detail about how it became a problem and there are no offered solutions. Much is left for the audience to figure out and that is what makes it so well loved. The audience can place themselves into the characters’ shoes and relate with them. What’s great about is that since there are no solutions, the audience does not feel like they must do something to feel better, the problems just go anyway. The audience of the fifties wanted happy endings and wanted to feel good, so because there are so many upsetting issues surrounding this film, it had to end happily. That is the reason for the film’s partial insight about the subjects it dealt with, because the audience did not want to see it. Another important thing to know is that the characters themselves cannot directly pinpoint their problems and definitely cannot figure out how to solve them.
ReplyDeleteThis film is an important film of its time for a number of reasons. The film deals with many dark and secretive issues that many would not associate with the fifties, entertainmentwise. I remember being shocked by the material dealt with in this film because I thought the fifties only dealt with happy subjects. This issue was resolved by the abrupt happy ending and that on its own reveals a lot about the time it was made in. There are all of these dark and pressing matters that people dealt with, but instead of finding solution and help, the problems were ignored in the hope that they would just go away and everything would go back to normal. The subversion is also due to the fact that the audience did not wish to see these sort of issues when they went to the movies and Nicholas Ray had to tone this film down to a certain extent, so to get away with showing these matters, he made it would subversive. That way the audience could see more of what they wanted to see.
I believe that the film has aged decently well. There are some issues that are outdated such as the “chickie run” and the costumes, but there is still much that is extremely related to today’s world. There are still children that feel lost and confused like Dean’s character, children that desire parental figures like Plato, and children that do not fully understand growing up like Natalie Wood’s character (turning into a fully developed young woman and kissing your father). This film deals with many issues that the youth still deal with today, but in a different manner. Children steal feel isolated, alone, pressured, etc., etc. The characters dealt with those issues in the film, but in different ways than the youth does today. There are now cyber bullying and school shootings, not playing chicken and stabbing each other with knives. This film, although it has aged and certain aspects are outdated, it is still relatable to the youth and their struggle at such a vulnerable and self-finding age.