Back to the Golden Years: Rebel without a Cause - Portrait Magazine, February 2010 Issue

Back to the Golden Years: Rebel Without a Cause
Written By Patricia Ruiz (Age 16, From Puerto Rico)

Discover the greatest films of yesteryear in this brand new Portrait column. Each month Patricia will introduce you to a different film from Hollywood's Golden Years. They may be old but they're still some of the best films ever made.

Movie of the Month:
Rebel Without a Cause:

The movie poster

Rebels gather round as the famous James Dean as Jim Stark opens up this film in the police department. He was walking around the streets blatantly drunk.

The 1955 film features the story of a new-coming rebellious young man with a troubled past as he finds new friends and enemies. In the police department he meets the beautiful and vulnerable Judy (Natalie Wood, West Side Story) and the disturbed John “Plato” Crawford (Sal Mineo, Giant).

Plato, Jim and Judy
As Jim enters Dawson High School he tries to please his classmates, but then starting a fight with the local bully Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen, director of Cosby Show, Star Trek…). Buzz tells him they should settle everything in a “chickie run”. Jim plays it cool and pretends he knows what that means but asks Plato, his new friend, what it means which was basically a clandestine car race. The “chickie run” finishes in a terrible ending leaving Jim guilty, Judy heartbroken and the thugs on the search for Jim.

Fun Facts:

Plato, Jim and Judy
-The Simpsons episode “Lisa’s Date with Density shares plot similarities with the movie. And in another episode, Homer Simpson watches a similar movies where a character yells :”He’s a rebel I tell ya! A rebel without a cause…just like the boy in that popular movie we saw.”
-The character of Fry in Futurama wears the exact clothing James Dean wore in the movie for the duration of the tv show.
-According to a biography of Natalie Wood she almost didn’t get the role as Judy because director Nicholas Ray thought she didn’t fit the role of a wild teen. Later, she had an accident after going out with her friends. In the hospital she overheard the doctor saying she was a “juvenile delinquent” and she told Ray: “Did you hear what he called me Nick?! …Now do I get the part?” and she did.
-Paula Abdul did a music video for the song “Rush, Rush” where she featured Keanu Reeves as Jim Starks and Abdul as Judy.
-The film had its opening on October 27 of 1955, almost a month after James Dean’s fatal death.