Film Critic: Rebel Without A Cause

In the 1955 film "Rebel Without A Cause" characters Jim Stark, played by James Dean, Judy, played by Natalie Wood, and Plato all have led lives in homes considered fatherless. In today's society most homes that are considered fatherless have children that are more likely to get involved in crime,drugs, and alcohol. The screenwriters of this film include: Irving Shulman, Steward Stern, and Nicholas Ray as director, Ray and his other screenwriters did a fantastic job at portraying the effect of a tragedy that in our time now is more than likely not going to happen. All of the film's main characters had troubles with their father figures, which caused them to make stupid decisions that led them all to get into trouble.

Jim Stark, a typical teenage male, always seemed to get into trouble so his mother would always do the "brave" thing and move from place to place to try to keep Jim out of trouble. Jim as the new guy ran into the crowd of guys that were obviously the popular guys which also included the leading guys girl, Judy. Jim didn't ever like his mother always being in control and his father sitting around watching on the sidelines, so Jim did the practical thing and every time an oppurtuinity would come along, he would do something bold and try to become the man of the house, but everytime his mother would make them move and he never got to really make that point. Jim got into a quarral with Buzz, played by Corey Allen, and they played a game of chicken. The cars were both started at the same time and shockingly Buzz got his jacket sleeve hung on the door and went over the edge of the cliff, making Jim the winner. All of the other kids watching were scared and decided to go home and not mention anything about this.

Judy, Buzz's girlfriend, was drawn to Jim from the beginning of the movie and now after Buzz's death gets her chance to show Jim how she feels. Judy always seemed to get rejected by her father and never got to show anybody her true feelings. Judy knew her rank in the world and if she was with the next greatest guy, then she could maintain her status in the world. The viewers senses somewhat of an effect of betrayal as they see Judy getting pushed away from showing her only father affection, because the reader knows in that time period girls weren't the same as they are now and usually their father is the only guy they ever want to kiss or more or less think is number one in their lives.

Plato is a small guy who is in and out of the juvenile offices, because of his behavior like shooting puppies. Plato too has an issue with having somebody as a father figure and after Jim showed kindness to Plato, Plato picked Jim to act somewhat as a father figure to him, since his own father had abandoned him.

Jim knew that after the one night of playing chicken that he should let somebody know of the events that had occured that night, so he decided to talk to his dad about it, well of course he ignored everything Jim had to say, this caused Jim to want to contact the authorities. Coincidentely Buzz's friends found out and chased Jim down to prevent him from talking to the cops so nobody would get into trouble. Jim was with Plato and Judy at an old mansion at the time they came after him. Out of pure fear Plato goes into a crazy-like rampage and kills a member of the gang. Judy and Jim tried to get Plato to stop and to come out, but he saw the lights and again got frightened and ran at the officers with a weapon and he was shot and killed.

This film represents an odd occurence in life that wouldn't happen in society today because of the several other conflicts that exist. The overall effect that this film has on the reader would most definitely have to be betrayal because of how all three of the main characters led lives that didn't involve a father. This film didn't seem very realistic just because I couldn't see it occuring in today's society, it's to dramatic. I think that the screenwritiers should have went into more depth about the character Plato, throughout the film you don't really know how he got to be the way he was and you pretty much had to take an estimated guess at how his life was before and how it is now. I enjoyed watching the film, but it could have been directed better and maybe more realistic to today.