Rebel Without a Cause [DigiBook] [Blu-ray]

Overview

A troubled high-school boy is baited into a game of chicken by a bully, leading to tragedy. Featuring a brooding, legend-making performance by James Dean, this classic drama brilliantly captures the feeling of 1950s teenage alienation. Once a symbol to a generation, its emotional resonance is still powerful today.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/05/2013
UPC:	0883929274161
Original Release:	1955
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:51:00
Sales rank:	4,195

Special Features

Commentary by Douglas L. Rathgeb, author of The Making Of Rebel Without A Cause; Rebel Without A Cause: defiant innocents documentary; Vintage documentary James Dean remembered; New featurette: Dennis Hopper: memories from the Warner lot; Additional scenes (without sound); Theatrical trailer; And much more!

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Dean	Jim Stark
Natalie Wood	Judy
Sal Mineo	Plato
Jim Backus	Padre di Jim
Ann Doran	Madre di Jim
Rochelle Hudson	Madre di Judy
William Hopper	Padre di Judy,Goon
Corey Allen	Buzz
Edward Platt	Ray
Steffi Sidney	Mil
Marietta Canty	Maid
Nick Adams	Moose
Virginia Brissac	Jim's Grandma
Jack Simmons	Cookie
Jack Grinnage	Chick
Beverly Long	Helen
Frank Mazzola	Crunch
Tom Bernard	Harry
Clifford Morris	Cliff
Ian Wolfe	Lecturer
Robert Foulk	Gene
Jimmy Baird	Beau,Beau
Dick Wessel	Guide
Nelson Leigh	Sergeant
Dorothy Abbott	Nurse
Louise Lane	Woman Officer
House Peters	Officer
Gus Schilling	Attendant
Bruce Noonan	Monitor
Almira Sessions	Old Lady Teacher
Peter Miller	Hoodlum
Paul Bryar	Desk Sergeant
Paul Birch	Police Chief
Robert B. Williams	Moose's Father Ed
David McMahon	Crunch's Father
Harold Bostwick	Undetermined Role
John Close	Police Officer
Chuck Hamilton	Police Desk Sergeant
House Peters Jr.	Officer
Nicholas Ray	Man in last shot
Leonard Rosenman	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicholas Ray

Stewart Stern

Irving Shulman

Nicholas Ray	Director,Screenwriter
Stewart Stern	Screenwriter
David Weisbart	Producer
Irving Shulman	Screenwriter
Carey Loftin	Stunts
Carl Mahakian	Sound Effects
Stan Jones	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A clenched fist of teenage alienation and cultural disillusion, Rebel Without a Cause questioned the complacent state of 1950s American society with the subtlety of a blow to the jaw. A truly landmark film, Rebel went where almost no Hollywood film had dared, exposing the anger and discontent beneath the prosperity and confidence of post-war America, picking at family values that dictated that happiness was best found in the nuclear family's well-appointed suburban home. The alienated kids in Rebel were part and parcel of these homes -- angry, wounded animals who rejected the very comforts that were supposed to make America superior to the rest of the world. If the notion that comfortable, middle-class white kids could harbor such feelings of anger and nameless yearning wasn't discomforting enough, even more so was the notion that their parents were ill-equipped to understand or help them. From Plato's neglectful mother and father to Jim's ineffectual parents to Judy's pathologically repressed father, all of the film's parents are seen as people whose conformity to the values of 1950s society masks their own discontent and -- in the case of Judy's father and Plato's parents -- underlying deviance. Thus, the teenagers are not so much the problem themselves as heirs to the problems created by the older and supposedly wiser generation. As the film was defined by the burning performances of its teenage leads, it is sadly ironic that their flames were extinguished before their time, so that Rebel has become as much eulogy as angry declaration. Sal Mineo, sad and touching as the lost boy infatuated with Dean's Jim Stark, was murdered near his Hollywood home, while Natalie Wood, who brought female sexual yearning to the screen in ways that had never before been seen, drowned in a mysterious boating accident. And, of course, Dean, at his most iconic in blue jeans and red jacket, died in a car accident before the film was even released. That Rebel Without a Cause remains a classic is in no small part due to Dean's raw, soulful performance, made more timeless by his mortality. Although the problems of the film's teenagers may seem trifling when compared to those of their modern-day counterparts, Rebel's anger still throbs with conviction, a brooding reminder that, beneath complacency, there is chaos trying to break free.