Juvenile Delinquency in the Movie "Rebel Without a Cause"
Movie review follow the question. Response paper to the credits notes.
Rebel Without a Cause
Produced and distributed by Warner Bros.; release date: October 27, 1955 (USA); running time: 111 minutes; producer: David Weisbert; director: Nicholas Ray; script: Stewart Stern; cinematographer: Ernest Haller; editor: William H. Ziegler; art director: Malcolm C. Bert; set decoration: William Wallace; costumes: Moss Mabry; sound: Stanley Jones; music: Leonard Rosenman. Cast: James Dean (Jim Stark), Natalie Wood (Judy), Sal Mineo (John ‘Plato’ Crawford), Jim Backus (Frank Stark), Ann Doran (Mrs. Carol Stark), Corey Allen (Buzz Gunderson), William Hopper (Judy’s Father), Rochelle Hudson (Judy’s Mother), Dennis Hopper (Goon), Edward Platt (Ray Fremick), Steffi Sidney (Mil), Marietta Canty (Crawford Family Maid), Virginia Brissac (Mrs. Stark, Jim’s Grandmother), Beverly Long (Helen), Ian Wolfe (Dr. Minton), Frank Mazzola (Crunch), Robert Foulk (Gene), Jack Simmons (Cookie), Tom Bernard (Harry), Nick Adams (Chick), Jack Grinnage (Moose), Clifford Morris (Cliff).
(Please select one of these topics for your essay.)
1) The "social problem film" of studio-era Hollywood is one that specifies a familiar social problem, identifies a set of factors out of which the problem is supposed to arise, and suggests a means by which the problem might be solved or ameliorated. If we take Rebel Without A Cause as a social problem film about juvenile delinquency, to what extent does it conform to this schema?
2) The title of the film points to a central ambiguity in what exactly is motivating James Dean’s Jim Stark. Is he so troubled because he wants to escape adult society, or because he wants to join it?
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Introduction
Toxic parenting has been documented as a factor that influences children to seek love and conform elsewhere. Rebel without a cause, which is based on Dr. Robert M. Lindner's 1944 clinical study of a disturbed and incarcerated youth, highlights the effects of toxic parenting by focusing on the troubled lives of Jim, Judy, and Stark. The film traces Jim's desire to become a respectable man, despite lacking suitable role models in his life. Jim also feels like his parents are "tearing him apart" because of constantly relocating rather than addressing the root cause of the problems they are experiencing. The way Jim Stark handles his parents' frequent relocation and his father's inability to exercise control may suggest that he wants to join the adult society. However, by conceiving the idea of family in a utopian fantasy space with Judy and Plato, it is evident that Jim Stark is troubled and wants to escape adult society.
Relocation and chaos
Jim Stark wants to escape adult society because he resents the assumption that relocating would solve all the problems his family is facing. In the opening scene, Jim is in Los Angeles, where he just relocated with his parents. They relocated because Jim was in trouble in the last town they lived in, and his parents thought they were protecting him. However, rather than solving problems, Jim sees relocation as a way that adults use to avoid "addressing the real problem." Like Judy and Plato, J...
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