Rebel Without a Cause Postwar cinema is characterized by a new accent realism, be it working class stories, it also can be defined by the pursuit of psychological realism. For many in Hollywood this meant a new direction in acting. A generation of method actors now, rather than just acting, had to learn how to be the character learn the emotions or thought process of a character (Lucia, Grundmann, & Simon 2016 pg. 394) Sexuality as a public social science and subject of mass culture infused the 1950s, unlike any previous decade and the movies eventually that came after initially came after started the slow re-evaluation in American morals. Indeed, it was the 1950s that first witnessed the erosion of the once firm production code. After many …show more content…
As in Bombers B-52 and so many of her films to follow, narrative complications involving Wood’s character arise from both the exposure and the repression of erotic dynamics within the family – all with multiple self-reflexive and allegorical implications. The film is also among the first to target a newly acknowledged and profitable teen audience – in part through the casting of James Dean and Sal Mineo, both Method actors who brought a highly publicized and popularized “new” realism to screen performance (Lucia, Grundmann, & Simon 2016 pg. …show more content…
This was the scene after the race. Jim comes home, he lies down on the couch upside down with his mother hears him and run downstairs. Ray used the point of view shot for audience see the image as his mother does. The camera rotates around until he sees his mother's right side up. I believe this screen shot was purposely done to explain how his mother feel about Jim. Because she is always disappointed by him and he seems can’t ever do right in her eye. Ray sent the message very cleverly through cinematography and staging. When his mother comes down Jim explains what happened during the race and that Buzz is dead. He asks his parent’s advice about what to do. They are on the staircase in living room. The mother is on the upper level of stair case which make us feel like she has the most power and the father sits on the bottom of the stairs looks powerless and pitiful, Jim is desperately looking for answers and their guidance in the middle of
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
Rebel Without a Cause calls attention to society’s obsession over hyper masculinity, fears of overly dominant women, homosexuality, and juvenile “delinquency” during the 1950s. Popularity of suburban life arose – along with the necessity to fit in. Accompanying the pressures of gender roles were also the rise of alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and rage. Moreover, the film explores the conflicts that lied within teenagers because of the social standards that were forced upon them.
also be seen in other films such as 'Save the last dance' as the white
In the movie Rebel Without a Cause, the characters portray many characteristics of a teenager living in the Atomic Age post World War II as well as modern day society; with little guidance it appears the youth of America feels lost and alone. This movie was released in 1955 and was recorded in California. This was the last film that James Dean ever starred in; which was a devastating blow to such a blossoming young man’s career and superstardom.
1950’s culture revolved around predetermined roles in society that caused numerous issues, both within an individual and within the society. The stringent society caused teenagers and parents to act a certain way, and if they did not, they were viewed with suspicion. Conforming to the society was challenging for many, and if one did not conform, he or she would be face mental issues or societal issues. In Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray depicted the culture of the 1950’s by showing the type of dating, juvenile delinquency, and parenting that took place during those times and showed its effect on not only that decade, but how it would shape the future years.
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
In The Pathos of Failure, Thomas Elsaesser explains the emergence of a new ideology within American filmmaking, which reflects a “fading confidence in being able to tell a story” (280) and the dissolution of psychologically relatable, goal-oriented characters. He elaborates that these unmotivated characters impede the “the affirmative-consequential model of narrative [which] is gradually being replaced by another, whose precise shape is yet to crystallize” (281). Christian Keathley outlined this shape in more detail in Trapped in the Affection Image, where he argued that shifting cultural attitudes resulted in skepticism of the usefulness of action (Keathley). In Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, this crisis of action is a key element of the main characters’ failure, because it stifles the execution of classical narrative and stylistic genre conventions.
Realism in film is significance in actual and present things, and how things actually come out. now, it is afar the capacity of this part to converse the extent of realism, we support are description upon things such as sanity, experiences, believes, manner and extra communal things such as olden times, political affairs, and finances. No matter how we identify authenticity, realism in film can be judged by administrating what we observe in own world and the world of others. Realism is also a way of conducting subject matter that follows everyday life. Practical characters are anticipated to do things that are conventional to our prospect of real people.
Rebel Without a Cause is an unconventional story with a conventional, classical approach to storytelling. The film follows the seven traits of Classical Hollywood Cinema and is adapted to the hybridization of film noir, which was primarily a style of B movies, and teen drama films, which was newly emerging in the 50s.
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
Of all the 1980’s films, that can be described as “Eighties Teen Movies” (Thorburn, 1998) or “High School Movies” (Messner, 1998), those written and (with the exception of “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind of Wonderful”(1987)) directed by John Hughes were often seen to define the genre, even leading to the tag “John Hughes rites de passage movies” as a genre definition used in 1990s popular culture (such as in “Wayne’s World 2” (1994 dir. Stephen Surjik)). This term refers to the half dozen films made between 1984 and 1987; chronologically, “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” (1986), “Pretty In Pink” (1986) and “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (1987) (the latter two being directed by Howard Deutch). For the purpose of this study, “Weird Science” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” shall be excluded; “Weird Science” since, unlike the other films, it is grounded in science fiction rather than reality and “Some Kind of Wonderful” as its characters are fractionally older and have lost the “innocence” key to the previous movies: as Bernstein states “the youthful naivete was missing and the diamond earring motif [a significant gift within the film] was no substitute” (Bernstein, 1997, p.89). Bernstein suggests that the decadent 1980s were like the 1950s, “an AIDS-free adventure playground with the promise of prosperity around every corner … our last age of innocence” (Bernstein, 1997, p.1). The films were very much a product of the time in terms of their production (“suddenly adolescent spending power dictated that Hollywood direct all its energies to fleshing out the fantasies of our friend, Mr. Dumb Horny 14 Year Old” Bernstein, 1997, p.4), their repetition (with the growth of video cassette recorders, cable and satellite with time to fill, and also the likes of MTV promoting the film’s soundtracks) and their ideologies.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
Early Hollywood cinema and the average American citizen of the time looked at the taboo topic of homosexuality from the same point of view. This viewpoint conveyed was that homosexuality was immoral; therefore it was made illegal to partake in any homosexual acts. Moreover, before the decade of the 1960s, in the laws of sodomy, there was a law that prohibited sexual contact between people of the same sex. Therefore homosexuality was seen as a crime punishable by law. An example of this would be………………………….
Wyatt, Justin. “The Stigma of X: Adult Cinema and the Institution of the MPAA Ratings System.” Controlling Hollywood: Censorship and Regulation in the Studio Era. Ed. Matthew Bernstein. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1999. (238-264).
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.