Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

A high school student (James Dean) is the new kid on the block and has trouble fitting in at his new school and is picked up by the police for being drunk. It doesn't help that his home life is fraught with tension between his father (Jim Backus), mother (Ann Doran) and grandmother (Virginia Brissac). The 1950s were a time of change especially for its youth. It was reflected in their frustration at the cocktail sipping suburban lifestyle of their parents, in everything from the possibility of atom bombs being dropped on them (perpetuated by the adults' Communist paranoia) to their music (the emergence of rock 'n roll). Though there had been films about juvenile delinquents and wayward youth, Nicholas Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE was the first film to fully realize this schism between generations. It remains a potent piece of cinema with little of its power diminished. The film concentrates on Dean's character which unfortunately leaves Natalie Wood's and Sal Mineo's characters not fully developed. Wood's possible Oedipal fixation on her father (and his discomfort suggests he may be fighting something too) and Mineo's suggested sexual attraction to Dean are hinted at rather than advanced. And as has been mentioned countless times, it's near impossible to view the film today without the tragic deaths of its three leads coloring much of the film. One of the seminal films of the 1950s. With Jim Backus (amazingly good), Dennis Hopper, Nick Adams, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Rochelle Hudson, Edward Platt and a lovely overlooked performance by Marietta Canty in her final film as Mineo's guardian.