The 1955 film, Rebel Without a Cause, follows the life of a teenager who is dissatisfied with his family situation and society at large, and so he chooses to rebel for no particular reason. The drama is full of desire, delinquency, and a hint of romance; it also explores the complex problems the youth of the 50’s harbored. Desire is a common theme depicted by almost every character and is present throughout the movie. The Stark family’s continuous relocating from town to town is their antidote for Jim’s antics, their actions make it blatantly obvious their desire for a better situation. Rather than face their issues head on, the dysfunctional family chooses to sweep their issues under the rug and hope the new environment will prompt positive changes. Plato, the friendless misfit, has a strong desire for a family. He sought out Jim and Judy for replacement parents because his own abandoned him. Later in the movie, Plato quickly reverts to violence when he is …show more content…
under the impression his make-shift parents, Jim and Judy, abandoned him. He ends up taking the life of a police officer and another teenager before his own life is taken due to his extreme measures. Judy simply desires her father’s love. A parent’s love is supposed to be unconditional but Judy’s father is finding it difficult to cope with the reality that his 16 year old daughter is growing up and becoming a woman, because of this he is unable to correctly parent her. Jim has a strong desire for Judy and vice versa. They both need a loving companion to shows them understanding and affection that they’ve been lacking. Lucky, they both happen to share similar internal problems, their flawed personal relations with their parents make for a stronger connection. In addition, the duo both have a burning desire for acceptance and admiration among their peers. If they can’t reign supreme at home, they wish to achieve that status socially. These three troubled teens are a danger to themselves and to those around them. To compensate for their inner struggles they will do just about anything to attain their desires, which leads to teenage deviance. Ironically enough, the opening scene takes place in a police station with all three delinquents present, for one reason or another. Jim partakes in underage drinking to numb the pain his parents have caused him. He thinks engaging in risky festivities will make him desirable. Judy has been picked up for wandering the streets in the dead of night, simply trying to escape her harsh-worded father. She embraces the becoming of a woman to maintain popularity, which causes her father to resent her, she can’t take the disappointment so she is forced to act out. And Plato has been pulled into questioning for shooting puppies with a stolen gun. His unfortunate situation has cause him to become mentally disturbed, resulting in abnormal and obscene behavior. Most films during the 50’s we’re giddy, happy-go-lucky flicks with storybook endings.
“Rebel Without a Cause” brought a new and much needed approach to film, its contents and characters are fresh, perplex, raw and realistic. Jim, Judy, and Plato have all sorts of problems they have to contend with. These teenagers are upper middle class, they do not deal with issues such as money that are frequent among the majority. Their affairs are deeply rooted and have become problematic towards their psyche. Parents have a great impact on their children, they are supposed to lead their offspring by example. The parents in this movie have not executed their roles properly, they do not consider how times have changed and are not as they once were when they were children. They have done a poor job raising their children and as a result Jim, Judy, and Plato are all plagued with emotional trauma. All three are misunderstood by the people they care most about, this has left them in search of stability, acceptance, and
love. This film sympathizes with the youth’s problems and hints at the issues American teens will face in the future. “Rebel” is a film of new age, it addressed relevant issues within the 50’s society that no one else cared to examine. It doesn’t have a happy ending, but a realistic one. The writer don’t try and lie to the audience, they give them an honest ending even if it is tragic.
This film tries to show that these young people are under influents of American movies and culture. They don’t really obey their parents, because they’re blaming their parents for anything that happened during the world wars. But at the same time the movie doesn’t try to blame everything on them. It wants to show that with pushing the young kid too far, nothing is going to get fix.
Because of Mr. Jackson 's rebellious attitude, the movie parallels the 1960’s and the nonconformist ideology popular during that time.
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.
A simple movie about a boy not fitting into society? There is so much more. “Rebel Without A Cause” directed by Nicholas Ray has a far deeper meaning to the plot than what most people understand after first watching it. The key to understanding this meaning is by paying attention to each component of the film. While components such as sound further the movie, the plot would not nearly be as developed without the camera placement, along with the character placement; It gives a deep insight to the audience about a specific character’s inner feelings, usually hinting at who is in control of the situation at hand.
The movie The Breakfast Club is a perfect example of peer relationships in the adolescent society. It shows the viewer some of the main stereotypes of students in high school you have a jock, a nerd, the weirdo, a rebel, and a prep. Over the course of a Saturday detention the different types of peers learn a lot about one another by hearing what each one has done to get into Saturday detention as well as why they chose to do it.
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.
Rebel without a Cause is a powerful performance that demonstrates the struggles of an all-American, middle-class family. James Dean, Natalie Wood, and San Mineo are remarkable actors that play significant roles of adolescent characters in the film. This tale is based on teenagers that have troubled lives due to the ignorance of their parents. The main message the film portrays is that children’s behaviour is influences by their parents and their parenting skills. There are several themes in this film, however the predominant theme is that conflict within the family can encourage disaffected youth.
The Anti-Federalists were not in favor of ratifying the new Constitution. Some Anti-Federalists wanted to keep the Articles of Confederation, others wanted to add some things and change some things in the new Constitution before they agreed to ratify it. Some very important Anti-Federalist’s were Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. Anti-Federalists tended to be poorer and in lower classes than the Federalists. These people feared a central government and were afraid that the government proposed by the new Constitution could easily turn into a tyranny. The Federalists argued that the United States needed a strong central government in order to stand a chance against foreign powers, amongst other reasons that were all beneficial
As young adults we crave independence. We get tired of our parents telling us what to do, and always look forward to the day when we no longer have to rely on them. We want our freedom, but we never stop to think what life would be like if we had it. In the 1955 film, Rebel Without a Cause, we see a character named Plato living with that freedom. Not by choice, but by his neglectful parents. He gives us a taste of how life without parental control can be damaging to one’s self being, and the absence of parental love and authority can have us seeking the attention we desire in unethical ways. In this case, it causes insecurities, disturbs his mental state, and makes him delusional.
What does it mean to be a rebel? According to the dictionary we can clearly see a rebel as someone who resists any authority, control, or tradition. Chris McCandless is a primary example of a rebel and also a transcendentalist. He came to hold a certain reverence of nature, seeing it as a very precious thing to be protected. Also, as he traveled, he avoided densely populated areas, and relied primarily upon himself to get what he wanted. Chris scorned modern society, and their beliefs on the techniques to a successful life and what true happiness is. In many ways Chris McCandless can relate to other transcendentalist such as Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson who once said, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Why does the theme teenage rebellion seem to appear so frequently in movies, literature, and music? One may see this theme appear in William Shakespeare’s, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” as well as in Something Rotten the musical and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There are many reasons that this theme emerges in media substantially, such as to teach a moral lesson as well as the actuality that any audience can relate to the theme. Whether it be disagreeing with a parent’s demand or belief, or because of the yearning for independence, striplings have all experienced some sort of yearn for rebellion. When commenting on what one may learn from this theme, many stories of teenage rebellion teach unique, yet important, morals that all focus around
For all its counter cultural reflections, the movie does not portray the youthful movement uncritically, rather it provides an ambiguous ending, implying that excesses, even counter cultural ones, can be harmful and destructive. David Hopper also defines this film as anti-counter cultural. The romance and dream of the American highway is turned menacing and deadly¡XThey looked for America but couldn¡¦t find it anywhere.
Jim Sark rebels because he wants to be known as a man, unlike his father who he views as a feminine figure, or a chicken. When Jim is the new kid he is constantly trying to prove himself, and he wants to be viewed by his peers as a man. He never has time to show people his true self so he rebels in an attempt to be liked, and in an attempt not to be like his father. Jim’s rebellion is triggered when he is called, “Chicken,” which reminds him of his father and how he doesn't want to be. When called “chicken” he cannot back down from a challenge. This is shown when he gets into a knife fight, and then agrees to the chicky race. Judy rebels when frustrated with her home life. She longs for a male figure to love her and give her attention. Her father rejects her so she decides to hang out with a gang and get a boyfriend to get the male attention she wants. Perhaps she is getting back at her dad as well. Plato rebels because his parents abandoned him. He wants friendship and a fatherly figure to look up to that loves him. He expresses his longings with misplaced anger by doing wrongful acts such as shooting
Resistance to change takes place at all ranks of an organization (George & Jones, 1994). It manifests itself as structured politics and power resistance between individuals and groups, differing discernments of the need for change, and so forth (George & Jones, 1994). Resistance to change is also defined as ‘behavior which is intended to defend an individual from the effects of real or imagines change’ (Zander, 1950). Resistance may be considered as overt and covert. Overt resistance is viewed as being out in the open. More willingly than a hidden way, it is a refusal response which is in plain sight, such as noticeable disagreement, quarrelling, deliberating, outright rejection and attack. Covert resistance, on the other hand, is presented
“We fight each other for territory; we kill each other over race, pride, and respect. We fight for what is ours. They think they’re winning by jumping me now, but soon they’re all going down, war has been declared.” Abuse, Pain, Violence, Racism and Hate fill the streets of Long Beach, California. Asians, Blacks, Whites and Hispanics filled Wilson High School; these students from different ethnic backgrounds faced gang problems from day to night. This movie contains five messages: people shouldn’t be judgmental because being open-minded allows people to know others, having compassion for a person can help people change their views in life, being a racist can only create hate, having the power of the human will/goodness to benefit humanity will cause a person to succeed at any cost and becoming educated helps bring out the intelligence of people.