In James Dean’s short acting career, he showed us what it was like for such a young actor to put raw emotion on the screen. Every tear he shed, every smile he made and every punch he threw, you felt as if he wasn’t acting, but rather carrying the role of a liaison for the young people of his generation. Rebel Without a Cause was the perfect movie to portray teenage frustration in such an angry fashion that it’s almost impossible to articulate. Having James Dean play the role of Jim Stark, a young teenager who is frustrated with his family dynamics, was a match made in heaven. Jim longs to live in a normal family and not have to move away every time he gets in trouble. He longs for the traditional household that is portrayed in the media at the time, such as Father Knows Best.When I watch the film, however, I can’t help but feel the internal struggle in Jimmy is a result of the frustration he has towards his father.
The film opens up with an intoxicated Jim Stark being escorted to the local police station, where he is in custody awaiting his parents arrival. When they arrive, Jim’s father tries to defend Jimmy, but he is quickly put in his place by his wife. Arguing continues and Jimmy shouts in agony “You’re tearing me apart!” He is surrounded by constant bickering 24/7, none of which ends in any type of conflict resolution. He then goes to his new high school, where he meets an uncanny friend name Plato. At a field trip, they watch an astronomy video that details how the universe will end, which may serve as a metaphor for Jim’s universe is ending, and perhaps the universe of several young people of that time. After winning a knife fight against Buzz, a bully at his school, he is challenged by Buzz to a game of chicken(two people drive a car of a cliff, whoever jumps out first is the chicken). They race the next night, but Buzz was unable to jump out in time and dies in the car wreck. It is the upcoming scene that defines the underlying theme of the film.
When Jim gets home, he confesses to his parents what happened. He wants to go the police and tell them of his involvement, but his parents don’t agree. His mother immediately suggest moving again, to which Jim looks to his father for support. His father puts his head in his hands, wishing everything would stop. Jim becomes infuriated with his father’s lack of manhood, and proceeds to throw him to the ground. He takes off to an abandoned mansion, where he, Plato and Jim’s love interest Judy begin to play “house.” Jim is the father, Judy is the mother and Plato is the child. It is this instance we see these characters in their most vulnerable state. The only rules they abide by are the ones they create. Jim is acting as the father he so desires to have. One who talks to children, not tell them what to do, how to act or how to think. After Plato has a mental breakdown, he starts shooting at police officers with his mom’s gun he stole, resulting in Plato’s death. In the closing scene, Jim introduces Judy to his parent as his friend.
Jim throughout the film feels isolated. He feels he has no place in the world, made evident when he says “I never thought I’d live to see eighteen. Isn’t that dumb? Every day I look in the mirror and say “What? You still here?” The genesis of his feelings may come from a sense of cerebral abandonment from his parents, specifically his father. As mentioned above, Jim’s father never takes a stand as the man of the household. He constantly gets emasculated verbally by his wife and never takes the initative to connect with Jim. Sure, he wants what best for his kid, but hopes everything will work itself out. Jim feels that his father has failed in raising him to be a man, which is why he feels the frustration is having to teach himself how to be one. He approaches this by getting into fights and rebelling against the parents who betrayed him. When Jim says to his father, “What do you do when you have to be a man,” he means it in both a question to his father and himself. How can I be a man when when my own father isn’t?
If there’s anything to be gained from reading this, it’s the initiative parents much take to reach out to their kids. Most kids in rebellion are in that state of mind because they lacked attention when they needed it most. They feel their parents didn’t raise them the right way, or simply gave up on them. From a father to a son, there’s a bond thats established once a boy becomes a man. If you can look into your father’s eye as an adult and recollect the time he put in that made you who you are, you have become a man of great fortune. James Stark shows the internal struggle for kids in abandonment, and shows the consequences that come with it unless something is done.
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