Cinema
Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray · 1955
Synopsis
Los Angeles. Jim Stark, a new high-school student whose family has already moved because of him, is arrested drunk one evening. At the juvenile station, he meets Judy, arrested for breaking curfew, and Plato, a younger boy who has killed puppies. At school, he meets Judy again, who goes around with Buzz's gang. After a school trip to the planetarium of the Griffith Observatory, Buzz challenges him to a knife fight, then proposes a race with two cars driven towards a cliff: the first to jump out has lost.
Context
Shooting began in black and white; a few days later, Jack Warner, who saw his leading actor becoming a star, had it restarted in colour and CinemaScope. James Dean died on 30 September 1955, aged twenty-four, less than a month before the release; of his three major roles, only one had been released in cinemas by then, and the last was released only in 1956. A bust of the actor, by Kenneth Kendall, was installed in 1988 at the Griffith Observatory, where part of the film is set.
Who it is for
A film of one hour fifty-one minutes, shot in widescreen and in colour; the three main performers were twenty-four, sixteen and sixteen years old and play high-school students.
Prizes and reception
Three Oscar nominations without a win, a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for Natalie Wood, and added in 1990 to the National Film Registry.
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