rebel without a cause

We are watching Rebel Without A Cause right now. The old movie with James Dean and Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and the guys who played Chief on Get Smart and Paul Drake on Perry Mason.

It is a fascinating movie on several levels.

For one thing, it was a good movie. It is still watchable today.

For another, it is a great study of a young man being torn apart by loyalty and his own desire to be his own man.

His father is a hen-pecked man who just wants to get along with people and for people to like him. His mother is a well-meaning shrew who wants to control both his dad and him. Her greatest desire is for her husband to show her that he is in control. And her mother is terrible: a judgmental, spiteful woman that you would like to see hit on the head with a brick.

Unfortunately, her daughter takes more after her than is good.

The girl, Natalie Wood, only wants her father to love her. However, he is afraid of her since he became a beautiful young woman, and refuses to touch her. He also does not want anyone else to touch her. A bad situation for a father to be in.

On top of it all, there is several metric tons of 1950’s teen angst around. Every kid shown is full of problems of some kind. There are absolutely no normal kids shown. To see this movie one would think that the kids of the 1950’s were basket cases: all unruly and hoodlums.

Good movie. But like a lot of movies, not very realistic. Not that it matters a lot. It is still a good movie.

Three teens, all from dysfunctional families. One is the child of absent rich parents, raised by a maid. The second is from distant parents. The third is from parents that try to be friends.

As they are going through an old house, they are talking about children. “Nobody talks to them, they just tell them.” Each of them comes from a family in which they are treated as possessions.

Of course, it ends tragically. These movies always do.

But I still like it.